Top 6 books for female dancers
These books span sports science, clinical endocrinology, nutrition, and lived experience and offer excellent insights to help female dancers recognise the signs, fuel their bodies effectively, and protect and look after their health long term.
The books cover the menstrual cycle, hormonal fluctuations, bone health, navigating performance and training pressures, body image, mental health and much more.
1. ROAR by Dr. Stacy Sims
Dr Stacy Sims is a well known name in REDs and in female exercise physiology, she revolutionised sports science with her mantra 'women are not small men'. In ROAR, she showcases how working with your natural physiology helps performance. She offers practical advice for matching nutrition and training to female hormonal cycles, framing proper fueling not as a restriction, but as a non-negotiable foundation for strength, power, and long-term health. This is a great resource for female dancers, parents and teachers.
2. Up to Speed by Christine Yu
Yu explores the gender data gap in sports science, explaining historical bias in sports science and showing how male physiology has been the default as researchers have ignored women for years because our periods and our hormones were considered 'too complicated' to study. She unpicks the age-old myth that a missing period is part of being an athlete or dancer. It’s an eye opening read which gives a great overview of the wider sports science landscape, the complexities in research studies and the critical importance of women being involved in research.
Check out Emma’s review here.
3. No Period. Now What? by Nicola J. Rinaldi, PhD
A highly regarded guide to understanding how low energy availability shuts down reproductive and metabolic systems. Nicola shines a light on Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (HA) - the loss of a period due to underfueling, high stress, or overtraining - and explains in detail the impact this can have on a dancer. It's an excellent resource to understand the importance the power of the menstrual cycle.
4. Life in Motion by Misty Copeland
Misty Copeland shares her inspiring journey from a late-blooming prodigy living in a motel room to becoming the first African American female principal dancer in the 75-year history of the American Ballet Theatre in 2015. Misty shares how she navigated intense body scrutiny, racial barriers, and a career-threatening stress fracture. It's a story of resilience, breaking traditional ballet body stereotypes, and overcoming adversity that offers great inspiration for trusting your own path.
5. Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman
While not specifically on dancers, elite runner Lauren Fleshman the biases towards male bodies and as such the failures towards young women athletes during puberty and adulthood. Through her lived experience and research, she honestly recounts and explains body changes, performance pressures, and navigating toxic environments which promote thinness.
6. How the Pill Changes Everything by Dr. Sarah E. Hill
Especially valuable for those on contraception or considering it, this is an insightful book which dives into the evolutionary psychology and physiological impacts of hormonal contraceptives. Dr. Hill explains how the synthetic hormones in birth control affect the brain, stress response, and natural hormonal baselines, and applies this to female athletes and REDs.