Stephanie Easley
Elena Easley in Kansas City- From the moment Elena Easley first watched Taylor Swift cheer on her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, she was hooked on football
- Recently, Elena was playing football at school during recess when a boy in her class came up to her and told her that, because she is a girl, she can't play the sport
- So, she and her mom decided to post about it on TikTok, where it's gone viral
From the moment Elena Easley first watched Taylor Swift cheer on her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, she was hooked. During the season, the 8-year-old and her mom, Stephanie, who live in Minnesota, would sit on their couch every single week to watch the Chiefs play.
"Even though we have two brothers and a husband, it was the girls who watched football every week, and we started liking football — especially her," Stephanie, 33, tells PEOPLE exclusively.
Stephanie Easley
Elena EasleyRecently, Elena was playing football at school during recess when a boy in her class came up to her and told her that, because she is a girl, she can't play the sport. Although this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, this time the boy took it further: He told her that she couldn’t grow up to play football and that she should stop playing.
Despite being upset in the moment, Elena responded to her classmate. "You're wrong because girls do play football, and there are two girls playing right now," she recalls telling him. Later, when she got home from school and Stephanie asked her how her day was, Elena shared what had happened during recess.
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Stephanie Easley
Elena Easley and family at Arrowhead Stadium"She told me about recess, and in our house, we feel our feelings," Stephanie says. "Then I asked her, 'What are we going to do about it now?' And she told me she wanted to make a video to see if there are other girls who play football out there. So, she decided she wanted to make a TikTok."
"We thought we were already done with our feelings. We had dried our tears. But when she made the video, her feelings kind of came out again," her mom adds. "Afterward, we checked, ...
