‘Unfinished’ is the printed autobiography of one of England’s greatest ever football players. Except this was no ordinary autobiography. Because it stopped. At the exact age teenage girls all over the UK give up sport due to online hate. Design played a pivotal role in visually representing the darkness of online hate cutting the story short.

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‘Unfinished’ was launched on International Women’s Day in order to maximize the conversation around women’s sport and women’s safety.

As the UK’s leading mobile network, and a brand that provides connectivity to young people, EE has a unique responsibility to help kids and teenagers navigate the online world. EE is also the lead sponsor of both the England Mens and Womens football teams. ‘Unfinished’ is the latest iteration in EE’s mission to combat online hate using the power of sport.

Ellen White is a pioneer of women’s football in England. She is the all-time record goalscorer and has represented her country 113 times. She retired in August 2022 and an autobiography from her was highly anticipated by fans and media outlets across the nation.

Our brief was to continue EE’s mission to make the online world a safer space. Following campaigns on homophobic hate and sexist hate, this brief was focussed on spotlighting how online hate is causing young women to drop out of sport.

44% of UK teenage girls personally experience sport-related hate online. Causing 121 young women to stop playing sport across the country. Every single day. For £35,000, 121 books were printed to represent each girl whose sporting story stops short.

The first objective was to raise awareness and make people realise that this is happening. But there was also a bigger second objective: create a swell of support and secure media coverage, even uproar, so that UK Government policy makers and online regulators were forced to acknowledge it. And, more importantly, do something about it. Only then would the campaign be a true success.

Rather than a traditional campaign, we knew we had to do something that caught the nation’s attention. And therefore, the policy makers’ attention.

When sports stars retire, it’s not uncommon for them to release their autobiography. A chance for them to tell the story of their life and career in their own words. Retired England legend, Ellen White, is England Women’s greatest ever goalscorer. And has worked closely with EE in previous campaigns against online hate. Thousands, if not millions, of people in the UK look up to her. So we released her autobiography.

Except this was no ordinary autobiography. Because it stopped. At the exact age teenage girls all over the UK give up sport due to online hate.

This story didn't end in glory. Instead, Ellen’s bright career is consumed by darkness. Delivering our shocking statistics and message in the most impactful way.

The book was designed to resemble an ordinary sports autobiography when viewed from the front. Book size, paper weight and binding techniques were all chosen with that in mind.

But it all quickly changes inside. As Ellen’s life story continues, and she enters into her teenage years, the pages become harder to read and slowly fade to black. Online hate is visually represented by darkness and cuts the story short. At the exact age girls in the UK drop out of sport. Using special print techniques to make them disappear, Ellen’s greatest career achievements are then thrown into darkness.

Black on black inks extinguish her trophies. Debossed stud marks wipe out her goals. And foiled inks disappear her glory. The end result is a book that begins pure and white and ends in darkness. Encapsulated in the side profile of the pages which show the graduation from white to black.

Although the book was unfinished, it didn’t go unnoticed. It featured in Forbes, The Daily Mail, The Mirror, BBC, Sky Sports News and a whole host of sporting blogs and titles.

By successfully amassing local and national news coverage, we were able to make the nation aware of the horrible effect online hate has on the sporting stories of teenage girls in the UK.

The campaign received 492 million impressions in just 10 days. We increased traffic to EE’s online safety educational platform by +122% in only a week. And gained 178 million unique web visits that month.

But most importantly, we made it back into political discourse with the UK Government acknowledging the issue. And publically committing to legally requiring social media companies to protect their users from the scourge of online abuse. That’s how a humble book was able to change the game.