England defender Jess Carter says that she “started to break” under the pressure of professional football.
“When I went pro I realised if you’re not winning trophies, then you’re out,” she said in a mini-documentary with e.l.f.
“If you’re not confident in who you are, that much pressure will break you.
“I started to break.
“It got to a point where I think I just stopped giving a damn. I needed to reframe everything.”
She added that her love for football saw her through as she committed to being her “best self”.
“I was just going to go, play, do me, and either it’ll be enough for them or it won’t, and that was the switch,” she said.
“This past year I’ve been allowed to just be me.”
Jess Carter: I loved football from the very beginning
Carter signed for Gotham FC in the NWSL in July 2024, and was part of the side that won the inaugural 2025 CONCACAF W Champions Cup earlier this year.
She had previously spent six years with Chelsea, winning five Women’s Super League titles, and had begun her senior career with Birmingham City.
She has been part of the Lionesses squad for the two Euros triumphs, in 2022 and 2025, and also helped the team to the Women’s World Cup final in 2023.
During this summer’s Euros, Carter spoke publicly about receiving racist abuse on social media, which led her to decide to leave the platforms. Two men have since been arrested on suspicion of making “malicious communications”.
And she says that she now relishes being the visible role model for others that she never had as a little girl herself.
“I didn’t have anyone before that looked like me that I could look up to so now I can be that for other little girls,” she explained.
She also reminisced about how she started playing football, explaining that she had played alongside boys until she was stopped from doing so around the age of 11.
“I loved football from the very beginning, but girls had to stop playing on the boys’ team around the ages of 11 to 12. So I had a coach and he created a girls’ team so that I could continue playing. He basically turned a bunch of princesses into bulldozers, is what I like to say to everyone.
“That team was really the beginning of everything for me.”
