The spot begins with a voiceover of a rejection letter: “You have the wrong body for ballet.” Ballerina Misty Copeland defiantly leaps in the air, ending with the Under Armour tag: “I will what I want.”
“I think every woman has her version of that rejection letter,” says Copeland. Though she did not receive that exact epistle, she believes it encapsulates the feedback she has received in her career. “Like many women, I was told that I wasn’t good enough and that I couldn’t succeed, but I willed myself to where I am now. I think that’s a message that resonates with all women. Success isn’t handed to us: we earn it.”
