LSU gymnastics star Olivia Dunne has rapidly become the queen of college sports when it comes to valuation of one’s personal brand, and she’s not going to apologize for creating incredible value around herself.
Posting on TikTok last week, Dunne reminded her millions of followers about a New York Times article from a year ago that boiled Dunne’s popularity down to a phrase she found insulting: sex sells.
“Get with the times,” read Dunne’s caption on the image of the full headline – “New Endorsements for College Athletes Resurface an Old Concern: Sex Sells.”
Dunne recalled on the Full Send Podcast how she was notified that the Times wanted to interview her for an article on NIL rights.
“It was complete BS,” she said. “I mean, they called me on the phone in November and they told me that they were going to write about my accomplishments and stuff and I was like, ‘OK, for sure. That’s awesome. The New York Times. That’s huge.”
“The interviewer called me and he was asking me very odd questions,” she continued. “It was worded quite weird. He was like, ‘So, how does it feel to be a small petite blonde gymnast doing so well with NIL.’ I was just like, ‘Why does it matter that I’m petite and blonde.’ You can just ask me about NIL without you having to use these weird ways of saying it.”
Dunne said they asked to photograph her in the uniform she wears as an LSU gymnast.
“When the article came out, it was a giant picture of me just standing there in a leotard and the headline was ‘Sex Sells,’” she said. “So, you’re going to come into the gym. You’re going to ask me to pose in our team-issued attire and then put a headline, ‘Sex Sells.’”
Since that article’s publication in November 2022, Dunne has become the most highly-valued woman in terms of NIL in all of college sports, and has twice appeared in Sports Illustrated, once gracing the cover.