Before the “Barbie” movie hit theaters in July, a different Barbie was making waves in the realm of women’s college basketball. Her name is Angel Reese— Bayou Barbie—and she took the world by storm this spring. While Reese and Mattel’s iconic figureheads both have an affinity for the color pink, that’s where their similarities end. This Barbie stands at 6-foot-3 and is known for her shot-blocking, paint-dominating, and assertive presence on the basketball court for Louisiana State University (hence the “Bayou”). For her, the dreamhouse is the bustling stands of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, with enthralled fans echoing her name. Reese clinched a Division I national championship in April, leading to her meteoric rise in recognition.
There’s no doubt that Angel Reese is an absolute force on the basketball court. In her sophomore season at LSU she averaged 23 points and 15.4 rebounds per game while also making her presence felt defensively, averaging 1.6 blocks and 1.8 steals. Her dynamic style of play earned her the honors of Final Four Most Outstanding Player, First Team All-America, First Team All-SEC, SEC All-Defensive Team and SEC Player of the Week on seven separate occasions. Her resume is certainly impressive, but the most interesting and captivating aspect of Angel Reese is the way her personality shines through every time she takes the court.
For example, Bayou Barbie never backs down from an opponent. After handily working their way through the 64-team March Madness bracket, LSU faced a well-oiled Iowa Hawkeyes machine in the championship game. Iowa was led by their homegrown phenom Caitlin Clark, who had been torching opposing teams with three-point bombs for the entire season and became quite the trash-talker in the process. So when these two rightfully confident players matched up against one another in the tournament’s decisive final game, fans witnessed a battle for the ages. LSU stormed out of the gates with an early lead and never looked back, and in the final minute of the game, Reese gestured toward Clark with the classic John Cena “you can’t see me” wave—a move that Clark herself had used in a previous tournament game against Louisville.
In both cases, the women were displaying harmless, competitive taunting that their male counterparts are often praised for. Clark, who originally did the celebration a few days before Reese, was celebrated for it and credited with taking a necessary step for women’s sports. Reese, on the other hand, was met with backlash for the exact same motion when sports commentator Keith Olbermann referred to her as a “f***ing idiot” on social media. The discrepancy in responses began a discourse about the racist media portrayals of athletes since the white Caitlin Clark was dubbed the “Queen of Clap Backs” and the Black Angel Reese was labeled “disrespectful” and “classless.” Moments after convincingly beating Clark’s Hawkeyes, Reese directly addressed these ignorant accusations with a poignant message. With her “National Champions” cap on and a tiara strategically positioned next to her nameplate, Reese declared the following: “I don’t fit in the box that y’all want me to be in. I’m too hood, I’m too ghetto, y’all told me that all year. When other people do it, y’all don’t say nothing. This was for the girls that look like me.” She may not align with the prototypical narrative, but Bayou Barbie is the empowering role model that young female athletes need right now.
It’s safe to say that Reese is making a mark in the world of women’s college basketball and changing the game for female student-athletes, both on and off the court. Besides letting her game do the talking, how has she ascended to this platform of prominence? For starters, she’s benefitted from the NCAA’s June 2021 ruling allowing student-athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). This shift enables collegiate athletes to capitalize on their rising fame by signing endorsement deals or building a personal brand, mirroring professional athletes. For many years, the NCAA capitalized on student-athletes by leveraging them to boost ticket and merchandise sales, strike TV deals, and even feature in video games. Now, leading players like Angel Reese can reclaim their identity and use it to generate income on their terms.
Reese has wasted no time doing just that. With an Instagram following of 2.4 million and counting, Reese boasts a level of clout that very few female collegiate athletes can compete with. Her personal website is the ultimate illustration of her brand at work, with Bayou Barbie hats, shirts, hoodies and phone cases on sale for fans to proudly adorn. Other merch displays “Unapologetically Me” designs to emphasize her admirable outlook or “Double-Double Queen” monikers to solidify her basketball royalty. Additionally, Reese challenges sports fans to reimagine their concept of female athletes by embracing her femininity on the court. With her nails fashionably manicured, lash extensions applied, edges gelled down and lip gloss applied, she breaks the mold that is cast for athletic beauty standards. As football legend Deion Sanders once cleverly said, “You look good, you feel good. You feel good, you play good. You play good, they pay good.”
Reese’s unmistakable identity and high marketability have translated to the highest women’s basketball NIL valuation and fifth highest NIL valuation in all college sports. Some of her partnerships include big-name brands like Amazon, PlayStation, Starry and Raising Cane’s. She’s also graced the cover of SLAM Magazine, was featured in the iconic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and was named a Harper’s Bazaar Icon for 2023. To top it all off, Reese won an ESPY for Best Breakthrough Athlete, a BET award for Sportswoman of the Year and had a court dedicated to her in her hometown of Randallstown, Maryland this summer.
Final Thoughts
These accolades demonstrate Bayou Barbie’s prominence outside of the basketball world. Die-hard fans of the sport know Angel Reese as a basketball household name at this point, but she exceeds that limited realm of stardom and enters the mainstream with these NIL deals. She’s not just famous in the realm of women’s college basketball – she’s famous famous. More importantly, by venturing into this unfamiliar terrain, she has laid a path for young female hoopers to follow and positioned herself as a trailblazer of basketball culture for generations to come. The Women’s March Madness tournament broke attendance and viewership records this season, in no small part thanks to Angel Reese, and she’s not done yet.
With two more years of eligibility and championship aspirations at LSU, Bayou Barbie is well aware of her worth: “I’m happy. I feel like I helped grow women’s basketball this year.”
