While the majority of teen boys still play a team sport in high school, new -research has been released that shows nearly 60 per cent of girls aged 15 to 17 do little or no exercise. 
In response, the government has invested $10 million in its new #girlsmakeyourmove campaign aimed at -getting adolescent girls "off the lounge".
The general assumption driving this campaign seems to be that girls are simply too busy texting and worrying about appearing sweaty to go outside and be active.
While the campaign is doing some much-needed work in the area of increasing female participation in sports, it hasn't addressed the underlying reasons why so many girls opt out of the game.
And that may well be -because these reasons can't simply be addressed with a hashtag and a few inspiring images of girls of all shapes, sizes, races and ability levels being active.
Despite knowing that the vast majority of teen girls -experience body image anxiety, what do we expect them to wear while running, jumping and swimming? Lycra - the natural enemy of anyone not wanting to have their every lump and bump scrutinised.
Even netball, the sport of choice for most Aussie girls, has replaced loose blouses and pleated skirts with body--hugging Lycra. Surely this is enough to put even the -enthusiastic Sharon Strzelecki off her game.
Similarly, few schools allow girls to wear board shorts for swimming. Again, this means they must join their peers in Lycra bathers. What an unsettling school day this can make for - math in the morning, an impromptu swimsuit competition after recess.
It's all very well to say to girls "it's not about perfection", but they hear the way we -scrutinise women's bodies - not just when they are on the catwalk, but when they are on the playing field.
Girls weren't so busy -texting that they missed the media close ups of Olympian Leisel Jones in her swimmers and the national discussion over whether she was in fact too fat to swim.
The other issue? As girls who are serious about their sport get older they start to -realise there is no future for them in their sport as we don't pay our female sports people anywhere near what we pay males.
For a teen boy talented at footy it may be worth putting hours into training and having a crack at going professional. He could go on to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars and end up with a sweet sponsorship deal to boot.
For a teen girl who loves touch footy? She'd better also put hours into study, because she will need a fulltime job to support her career should she follow that path. And she may never get to see -herself on TV.
So maybe she's not lazy, or too addicted to selfies to be bothered playing.   Maybe she's just not up for yet -another -exercise in body -judgment or for having her -talents -undervalued.
Dannielle Miller is an author, educator and media commentator