Amplifying Black Women in Sports

The WNBA is gaining popularity and coverage. But even though 80% of the league is Black and winning numerous awards, they only received a third of the media coverage. I learned this after our VP of Social, Kaitee Daley, dropped a SBJ article into our D&I Committee slack channel. The article specifically studied articles mentioning an athlete's name, but I knew the same could be happening with social media coverage. In order to counteract the lack of Black athlete coverage within the mainstream sports media, I made this one of my goals heading into the year 2021 and we crushed it.

As a trusted media source, I knew we needed to show up in an authentic way and really shine the light on these amazing athletes. Therefore, I worked closely alongside our ESPNW lead, Hannah Whitten, to identify and produce numerous custom graphics for the WNBA's best and brightest Black athletes. Together, with the help of the design team, we were able to produce a record number of WNBA custom content. What you see featured are my favorite pieces that I created, which is only a small handful of everything we prepped and produced as a team. 

Additionally, ahead of the WNBA season, I gave a presentation to our 60+ team at ESPN Social highlighting the key ways we could provide better coverage of the WNBA. These implementations sparked significant change within the team as the year went on. We made sure the WNBA was a priority and created a plan to make it happen.

Throughout the year, with this new shift in mindset across our team, we put the same level of thought and preparation into sporting events like the Olympics, Women's Tennis, and so much more. Everyone really bought in and it showed because our efforts went beyond custom graphics. It was immersed in every facet of our social media pages, every day, and our news team made sure to amplify their voices, too. I'm proud of how our team showed up that year and look forward to how they'll continue to grow in the future.