Olympian Ilona Maher’s Message About Body Positivity to 9-Year-Old Fan Goes Viral (Exclusive)

Maher and the Team USA women's rugby team won the bronze at the 2024 Paris Games

Team USA rugby player Ilona Maher has been one of the breakout stars of the 2024 Paris Olympics thanks to her inspiring presence on the pitch and social media.

Among her millions of followers is the Sullivan family of Oceanside, Calif.,

Ashley Sullivan and her daughters cheered on Maher, 27, and Team USA on their bronze medal-winning journey in Paris. Sullivan, 48, played rugby at the Naval Academy, and passed along her passion to her girls — Georgia, 11 and Maggie, 9 — who play on youth teams.

The Sullivans formed a special connection to Maher that preceded the Games.

In the fall of 2022, Georgia, then just 9 years old, had an incident that led her to be critical of her weight.

"I think [Georgia] had to fill out her weight on a field trip permission slip form. I don't know if somebody said something or what, but she said 'I weigh more than all my friends,' " Ashley recalled her daughter tearfully saying. "As a mom, you never want to see your kids go through anything like that,"

Having followed Maher on social media for a while, Ashley encouraged Georgia to watch some of her idol's videos.

Related: USA Rugby Star Ilona Maher Slams Criticism of Her Body: 'BMI Doesn't Tell You What I Can Do'

"I knew she had tons of awesome body positive content and just empowering stuff," Ashley explained. "So I said, 'Let's look at a couple of her videos on Instagram and that might make you feel better.'"

"We watch a few videos and Georgia said, 'I really do feel better. She is awesome,' " Ashley recalled. "Any mom of a tween girl knows that you can tell them things a million times but when their role model is saying it, it lands a little differently."

Afterwards, she encouraged Georgia to write a letter to Maher. In it, Georgia wrote that she weighed 100 lbs, and explained she "didn't become team captain ... by weighing only 60 lbs." Georgia ended the note by writing, "Without you, I would probably be very anxious about my wieght [sic]/looks."

Ashley DM'd Georgia's letter to Maher, and to her surprise received an immediate response from the athlete, who said she would be sending a video and swag package to the family.

In the video message, Maher said she resonated with Georgia's letter because that's what she went through.

"I was always a bigger girl in sixth grade," Maher explained in the video. "I remember I was 130 pounds and I never understood why am I always bigger than everybody? I didn't get that, but now I've realized this is my body and my body is meant to be big and powerful and strong. And I think that's the same with you as well."

"So really recognize that and appreciate it because I'm gonna be honest, Georgia, this is it," Maher continued. "This is the body you got and this is the body you gotta love. Thank you so much for your support. It means so much to me to see and to know that I may be affecting people in a good way."

Ashley decided to save the video and package as a Christmas present for Georgia, who says she was stunned when she heard directly from her idol.

"I got a jersey that she had signed and she had worn in a game," Georgia told PEOPLE while wearing her gift. "And that was so cool to me to think I'm wearing a shirt that she wore while she was playing!"

Related: Ilona Maher Says Adjusting to Viral Fame was 'Hard' — But Working with Sports Psychologist Helped (Exclusive)

"All her videos feel like she's talking straight to you," Georgia added. "But it felt even better this time because she actually was talking straight to me. And she was talking about how she could relate and how everyone has different body types and how, for my specific position, my body type is perfect."

Since then, the Sullivans have been able to meet their idol in person, and in May of 2023, Maher visited the Thunder Rugby Club during an all-girls practice and spoke to the players.

Georgia said Maher continues to inspire her since that life-changing letter.

"I pick up traits that she does sometimes," Georgia explained, "When I'm watching her play, how aggressive she is, that inspires me to be more aggressive and get the ruck faster and make more tackles. She pushes me to do better."

Ashley, who coaches at the Club, is thrilled Maher is bringing increased visibility to the sport.

"Everybody knows she's hilarious and a social media queen and she's a badass on the rugby pitch. But she is truly a good person who is using her platform to uplift, you know, and not tear down and she's got such a unique mix of humor and vulnerability." Ashley said. "I'm so glad that now people are seeing that. The rest of the world is picking up on it and I just think it's awesome. My feed is filled with people saying, 'You guys should follow this person. She's awesome. I've never watched rugby before. And now I'm hooked and my daughter is asking me where I can play.' This is all huge for the sport."

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. And sign up for Going for Gold, our Olympics newsletter, to get the biggest stories from the Games delivered straight to your inbox. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, beginning July 26, on NBC and Peacock.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.