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Women in Football's ground-breaking #WhatIf campaign launched in May 2018 aiming to change the football landscape by helping create new opportunities for girls and women.

In the latest of a special mini-series we take a look at another key pledge made since that official launch at Twitter's London HQ and find out what has happened since.

#WhatIf… the Telegraph ringfenced two paid work experience roles for women this summer as part of its commitment to championing new voices, and hosted two events to diversify the sports media?

Everyone likes having a good rant sometimes, and the past 12 months has certainly given us plenty of reason to do just that.

To be able to share those frustrations by way of the written word takes a special skill, and for two promising journalists, their ability to share so eloquently in this way handed them the opportunity of a lifetime.

Both Ayan Omar and Amarachi Orie were selected for a two-week paid work experience placement with Telegraph Sport after a stringent application process in which they had to showcase their writing talent.

"I wrote about the US women's team and their match against Thailand," explains Ayan, now in her third year at De Montfort University, Leicester.

"It was more a rant, in fact! Megan Rapinoe celebrated a goal with her arms out and the next day Piers Morgan commented then retweeted the cricketer Jonny Bairstow after he celebrated in the same way. It was such a big double standard so I wrote my application piece on that."

Amarachi chose to look at the challenges and obstacles women face when football is still seen as a "man's game" by many.

"I had been writing for my own personal blog, but had never seen an opportunity quite like this," she said.

The style displayed by both women made such an impression that following an informal chat, they were offered an opportunity they never dreamed possible.

For Amarachi and Ayan, pictured below left and right respectively, walking into the busy newsroom of a national newspaper was a new experience, but in Anna Kessel, co-founder and former chair of Women in Football who is now Women's Sports Editor at the Daily Telegraph, they found a great ally.

"Anna was so helpful," said Amarachi. "She gave feedback on the work I was doing and wanted to help out whenever she could.

"It was quite daunting at first as I had never been in the newsroom of a national paper before, and as I am studying for my Masters in Newspaper Journalism, proved such a brilliant experience."

And it was through interviewing Anna for her university magazine that Ayan was encouraged to apply in the first place!

"I never thought I'd get a work experience like this," she said. "Part of me felt nervous going into the newsroom, but then I actually felt quite sophisticated too! They were all so welcoming, so friendly and made us both feel as if our views and ideas mattered."

All too often time constraints can end with work placements not proving as valuable an experience as they could, and should, be.

But in this case, the duo's time was used positively and in a productive manner, learning research techniques, preparing questions, attending press briefings, interviewing - and writing.

"Initially I was researching facts or people, but was encouraged to develop my own ideas, which I did," said Amarachi. "To see an interview that I did with sports lecturer Jessica Pinchbeck in print, with my name there in black and white, was such an incredible feeling. I hadn't had anything like that before, so my Mum went out and bought a few copies for family members - and so did I!"

Ayan's interview with Arsenal star Leah Williamson is one she won't forget either, as she explains. "It was at really short notice and I hadn't really had a chance to prepare for it," she said. "I was really out of my comfort zone but Leah was so nice and helpful and answered all my questions.

"My first byline was a piece about Saudi women boxing, but then after my placement had finished, I sent an idea to Anna and had an article published about Nike's launch of their modest swimwear range. I wrote a comment piece on that as I'm a Muslim woman, and someone who understands the conflict between trying to be modest but also doing what everyone else does, swimming when you are at the beach."

Both Amarachi and Ayan are quite clear on where they want their career path to go and both are thankful to the opportunity that arose out of the Telegraph's #WhatIf pledge.

"I always wanted to work on big paper like the Telegraph or Guardian," said Ayan, who hopes to undertake a Masters in International Journalism next year.

"I'm so grateful for the experience, and also for making contact with some of the girls on the team like Fiona Thomas and Verity Bowman, they were really helpful. And of course, to have Amarachi there was great."

Amarachi added, "It's so important that women work in this industry, and in print journalism too.

"Women see things within sport that men might not see and are able to bring different perspectives to stories and how they develop and are written.

"I'm so glad to have had a taste already of being able to do this thanks to Telegraph and Women in Football because I know this is the career that I want to pursue."

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