Nine-year-old Hayden Stein was born without most of her right arm, and for her, meeting a particular professional soccer player meant everything. She wants to be a professional soccer player herself when she grows up, and seeing someone do exactly that, she says, fills her with hope that she will be able to as well.
The moment came at a game, where Hayden saw number 16, Carson Pickett, a player just like her. In that instant, she says, she saw something of herself out on the field. Role models, as Hayden put it, make you feel like you can do anything, just like them.
The effect on the young player has been striking. Her parents, Jonathan and Christina, say her confidence, both at school and on the soccer field, has gone through the roof, and that she recently scored three times in a single practice. Meeting Carson, they say, was truly life-altering for their daughter.
What makes the encounter all the more remarkable is that, by Carson's own account, it almost never happened. She admits that the person she used to be might not have gone up and spoken to Hayden at all.
For years, Carson had hidden her arm in pictures and avoided even talking about her limb difference. She did not want to be known as the girl with one arm who played soccer, she explained, she just wanted to be known as a girl who played soccer.
That changed after her mother told her she was missing an opportunity, and a sense of purpose, by keeping her difference out of view. By stepping forward and embracing it, Carson became exactly the kind of role model that a nine-year-old like Hayden could look up to and, finally, see herself in.