Remember you are beautiful’: Ilona Maher’s role in shaping Utah’s girls rugby community
By Elle Crossley
Audio Story:
The Glendale Middle School field stirs with the excited sounds of cheering and shouting on a warm, sunny late March afternoon. The spring season is underway for the Majestics Girls Rugby Club, so they’re not letting the nice day slip away. They’re spending it hard at work, running drills on their West Salt Lake City practice grounds.
Majestics head coach Angela Tuiaki started the club six years ago alongside her sister, Jen Sika. The team itself has seen massive improvements since its start, Tuiaki said. But in the past few years, she said she’s noticed significant growth in women’s rugby as a whole with more positive attention on the sport than before.
Tuiaki largely credits that to one specific name: Ilona Maher.
“There's rugby, the word rugby, and then there's Ilona name next to it. That's how people understand it,” Tuiaki said. “If her name is not next to rugby, people will be like, ‘Wait, what's rugby?’ Well, you know, Ilona, and they're like, ‘Oh yes!’”
Maher has put the world’s eyes on women’s rugby after helping lead the USA’s 7s team to win a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Following their success, USA Club Rugby has reported a membership spike for the 2024-2025 season.
And her influence doesn’t end there. From her Olympic success, to her nearly five-million Instagram followers and recent appearance on Dancing with the Stars, Tuiaki said Maher has redefined what is possible for female athletes. She’s made an especially significant impact in shifting expectations about beauty, Tuiaki added.
“Just understanding and knowing that beauty is not one is not one thing and that. And I really think Ilona has brought that,” she said.
With more followers than any other rugby player in the world — man or woman — Maher has chosen to use her platform to champion body-positivity. On her TikTok, she promotes celebrating all body types, emphasizing beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.
“This body is amazing and it does amazing things for me, and there isn’t one body type for female athletes or for women,” Maher said in TikTok from October 2022. “So, today, I want you all to look in the mirror and appreciate what you got, realize what it does for you, and remember you are beautiful.”
Young Utah athletes say these messages have made a tangible difference in their lives. Marley Larkin, the captain of the Majestics, said Maher has helped her feel empowered on the field and beyond.
“She's brought a lot of great respect and confidence for body shapes and body sizes,” Larkin said.
That’s especially true, Larkin said, because in rugby, “every body kind of goes to a different position and you need all these different body sizes, shapes to complete the rugby team.”
This influence extends to other parts of Utah, too. The players of the Layton Christian Academy girls rugby club, just north of the Majestics, said they recognize the impact Maher has made in their community. Eseta Moala, the team’s first receiver, said the rugby star taught her to find confidence in her strength.
“At first, I was embarrassed because of my size. Like, what are they going to think? But she didn't really care about her size,” said Moala, whose sister Luisa also plays for Layton Christian Academy. “She just decided to play, and now she it's her beauty. That's how she stands out.”
The girls’ mother, Victoria Moala, said she noticed a difference in how the positive role model helped boost her daughters’ self-esteem.
“My girls, they're Tongan, and so their bodies are built a little bit different from their peers,” she said.
Both girls struggled with their body image growing up, but Victoria Moala said Maher showed them that they could use their Pacific Islander identities to their advantage.
“Seeing her, what she's accomplished, gives my daughter someone to look up to. Just using their background as Polynesians, to be able to push that forward and represent who their true identity is being Polynesian,” she said. “And then to take advantage, take that onto the field and be proud of themselves.”
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders make up nearly two percent of Utah’s population, according to 2020 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute reports that’s the third highest share in the United States behind Hawaii and Alaska. Tuiaki said the Majestics are an almost all-Polynesian team, and Maher has shown them how rugby can create opportunities for their future.
“They're starting to make that connection, ‘I could be up there. I could bring a platform to actually show the world who I am, too,’” she said. “Ilona showed herself through rugby, getting recognized through rugby, and there's so much more that these girls can actually show the world.”
Some of the girls on the Majestics are getting that recognition. Larkin, for instance, has committed to Dartmouth University for Fall 2025 to continue her education and play D1 rugby. She said she wants to keep the cycle of inspiration going.
“It's not about us, it's about the community. The people around looking even at a bigger scale to see, to have other Poly girls, other Pacific Islander Girls, look at our team and know it's possible,” she said. “‘Oh, I can do it too. They can do it, I can do it as well.’”