I was a cheerleader in junior high and then on the pom squad in high school. Loved it all, especially poms. Was also super academically motivated, went to a top 20 university and still bust my poms dance moves out now and again. Most of my good friends were also on poms and the social aspect was a highlight of high school. Poms was considered less cool than cheer for what it's worth.

The sport has morphed a bit but I think like any sport or activity there are minuses and drawbacks. I have a friend who is a pediatric oncologist whose daughter just got into UVA from an Ohio public school and cheer was her main activity. Kid is super smart, just loves being on the cheer squad.

Doctor incidentally stood next to me on the poms kick line and also played the cello so doesn't have to be either-or I think. Anyway, point is - smart people can cheer.

I was not a cheerleader but this is so school dependent. In my high school the cheerleaders were…. Sorry, very dorky kids for the most part. It was definitely not a serious of high level team. However, we also had a competitive “poms” dance team where some of the serious dancer girls joined and they performed fairly ummm suggestive dance moves in highly skimpy outfits at half time. I know full well they were talented dancers and won awards but it’s just not something I’d be comfortable with my 9th grade daughter doing. So, just agreeing with PPs you need to find out what the situation is at the individual school.

Anonymous wrote:I was. It was fun and I got the chance to socialize with girls outside of my usual friend group. Competition was big so cheerleading where I was was more about prepping for competition than just cheering at games, although that was also fun and good for practice.

Where I went to school cheerleaders were not necessarily queen bee types or promiscuous or anything like what some of the tv shows around then portrayed. It was just another activity we could participate in and it kept me active.

I’ll also add- I was a flyer (the person at the top of stunts being thrown in the air) and there is risk in that. If you have a good team and great coaches this can mitigate risk and I never broke a bone but it can definitely happen

I was. It was fun and I got the chance to socialize with girls outside of my usual friend group. Competition was big so cheerleading where I was was more about prepping for competition than just cheering at games, although that was also fun and good for practice.

Where I went to school cheerleaders were not necessarily queen bee types or promiscuous or anything like what some of the tv shows around then portrayed. It was just another activity we could participate in and it kept me active.

With all the stunts and flips, it is more athletic than back in my days (mid 50s), but if your child is into that, keep them in gymnastics, or dance. They do not have good spotters in cheer and there are more serious injuries from cheer than in other activities. We told our daughters no cheerleaders and our sons no football due to injuries

I was just speaking with a former cheerleader yesterday! She said the sport is absolutely nothing like what she did back in the 90s, in terms of the physicality and risk taking and how much younger the athletes get started, and it’s hard to compare then with now.