WAG YouTube/instagram fame and NCAA

[Gymmommy71]

I just think if a top football or basketball prospect tried some of this stuff while in HS they would be toast w/ the NCAA.

The self life for instafamous kids in activities usually expires after puberty. Once one is no longer a "prodigy", they tend to appeal less to that fan base. I bet as these kids become older teens it will die down (unless they literally make it to the Olympics and get attention because of that).

 

[gymdog]

Of the family you're talking about (can we call them by their name, or is that against the rules?), I doubt the older girl would make NCAA, unless my understanding of the system is flawed. My guilty YouTube pleasure is watching meet videos, so I've seen a couple of hers, and I don't think her technique or form is what the recruiters are mostly looking for. Isn't the focus on execution in NCAA?

She's only 11 or 12. She definitely could. Not all NCAA teams are UCLA and there are also walk ons who may only compete one event or time to time at second tier teams.

If it was my kid personally I would not jeopardize eligibility. But obviously anything could happen (could get majorly better, could get a major mental block, injuries, growth patterns, whatever). That's just my take. She does have a chance like anyone else at her age and skill level.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

I started following this same girl briefly (the one that moved to WOGA) on instagram and immediately I was "friend requested" by the brand that sells those inflatable mats. It's a bit nauseating to me honestly, all the life broadcasting. I feel like it can't help but give these kids an inflated sense of self. I mean, this gymnast specifically is competing for WOGA level 4 (at least she did one meet recently at the level) and scored about what my dd scores as a level 4 (below 35). I just can't imagine broadcasting my dd as this incredible gymnast when she's still in compulsories and has so much time ahead of her. But maybe that's just me. I'm not into self-promotion. Like, at all.

I agree, it just feels gross to me, these parents trying to live through their kids fame? It can't be good for the kids.

 

[gymbeam]

who is the kid that went to WOGA. im sure i will recognize her name but cannot for the life of me rememeber it now.

 

[gymbeam]

never mind- i think i figured it out. sophia?

 

[amiandjim]

never mind- i think i figured it out. sophia?

Yes

 

[justanothergymmom]

It would seem logical that if one family cannot accept money via a GoFundMe to help with training funds, another shouldn't be allowed to create a family a business around their child's sport and profit from that. Both scenarios would seem that the athletes are being paid to play, and therefore could be considered "professional" and no longer amateur or NCAA eligible.

I wonder if the Youtubers get around the NCAA amateurism rules by making sure that the products they market are based on their "channel name" not their child's actual name. I guess if the channel features things other than their daughter's gymnastics, they can claim it is a "family business" and the daughters' gymnastics is a small part of it....

Or maybe it has to do with the fact that these children haven't yet reached 9th grade so they aren't technically considered NCAA eligible yet. However, in today's game of early recruiting, athletes are starting to be looked at as early as 6th or 7th grade, so it is possible that they are already being looked at now.

I know when my gymnasts have done modeling, in order to comply with NCAA rules, they were not allowed to receive any sort of payment or reimbursement whatsoever. I was never paid for travel expenses, and they were not given hourly pay or even a single leotard for free. If undergarments are provided for the shoot, they must leave those behind as well! Everything is done by the book in order to protect their amateur status!

 

[Flyaway]

I agree, it just feels gross to me, these parents trying to live through their kids fame? It can't be good for the kids.

And don't get me wrong, she's a beautiful girl. I'm not surprised brands were knocking on her door. It's just not something I'd choose for my children or family. And I do feel very strongly that in a few years we are going to see the fall out of all this self-promotion as it pertains to young children. That encompasses not only YouTube but social media in general. But now I'm on another topic altogether. [emoji4]

 

[Jenny]

It would seem logical that if one family cannot accept money via a GoFundMe to help with training funds, another shouldn't be allowed to create a family a business around their child's sport and profit from that. Both scenarios would seem that the athletes are being paid to play, and therefore could be considered "professional" and no longer amateur or NCAA eligible.

I wonder if the Youtubers get around the NCAA amateurism rules by making sure that the products they market are based on their "channel name" not their child's actual name. I guess if the channel features things other than their daughter's gymnastics, they can claim it is a "family business" and the daughters' gymnastics is a small part of it....

Or maybe it has to do with the fact that these children haven't yet reached 9th grade so they aren't technically considered NCAA eligible yet. However, in today's game of early recruiting, athletes are starting to be looked at as early as 6th or 7th grade, so it is possible that they are already being looked at now.

I know when my gymnasts have done modeling, in order to comply with NCAA rules, they were not allowed to receive any sort of payment or reimbursement whatsoever. I was never paid for travel expenses, and they were not given hourly pay or even a single leotard for free. If undergarments are provided for the shoot, they must leave those behind as well! Everything is done by the book in order to protect their amateur status!

A lot of gymnasts get free leotards from companies though don't they ? I have heard of plum and dreamlight leos being gifted? I thought that was ok.

 

[LJL07]

Am I the only person who thinks all these public Instagram accounts of these tops kids/models are icky? Some of the children are quite talented but I see they are all leotard ambassadors and featured in the Leo ads in professional looking shoots. What's the motivation? I'm being very judge-y but it feels sort of like child exploitation to me. I'm off track from the original topic, but there are just so many of these types of accounts. I'm not even sure how these kids find time to attend school at all between all the Instagram videos, private lessons, modeling gigs etc, so NCAA eligibility might be a moot point!

 

[SMH]

Am I the only person who thinks all these public Instagram accounts of these tops kids/models are icky? Some of the children are quite talented but I see they are all leotard ambassadors and featured in the Leo ads in professional looking shoots. What's the motivation? I'm being very judge-y but it feels sort of like child exploitation to me. I'm off track from the original topic, but there are just so many of these types of accounts. I'm not even sure how these kids find time to attend school at all between all the Instagram videos, private lessons, modeling gigs etc, so NCAA eligibility might be a moot point!

Nope, I'm with you on this. All the social media marketing of very young children by their parents makes me uncomfortable. I've seen Instagram pages where parents were basically tagging brands over and over practically begging for a modeling gig. I can't imagine it's the 6 or 7 year old really pushing for or wanting it, as much as their parents.

 

[tomtnt]

NCAA recently put on guidance stating that crowdfunding is legal as long as the funds raised do not exceed the actual cost for training/competition:

https://teamboost.us/blog/ncaa-clarification-unlocks-a-window-of-opportunity

Here is a recent campaign for a highly talented jr elite:

https://www.gofundme.com/JayJayMarshall

It would seem logical that if one family cannot accept money via a GoFundMe to help with training funds, another shouldn't be allowed to create a family a business around their child's sport and profit from that. Both scenarios would seem that the athletes are being paid to play, and therefore could be considered "professional" and no longer amateur or NCAA eligible.

I wonder if the Youtubers get around the NCAA amateurism rules by making sure that the products they market are based on their "channel name" not their child's actual name. I guess if the channel features things other than their daughter's gymnastics, they can claim it is a "family business" and the daughters' gymnastics is a small part of it....

Or maybe it has to do with the fact that these children haven't yet reached 9th grade so they aren't technically considered NCAA eligible yet. However, in today's game of early recruiting, athletes are starting to be looked at as early as 6th or 7th grade, so it is possible that they are already being looked at now.

I know when my gymnasts have done modeling, in order to comply with NCAA rules, they were not allowed to receive any sort of payment or reimbursement whatsoever. I was never paid for travel expenses, and they were not given hourly pay or even a single leotard for free. If undergarments are provided for the shoot, they must leave those behind as well! Everything is done by the book in order to protect their amateur status!

 

[azara]

The problem with female gymnastics over pretty much any other NCAA sport is that most gymnasts hit their elite peak roundabout 16-19. The trend is for gymnasts to first do elite, and then do NCAA. For many other sports, athletes start in NCAA as an amateur, and then they improve and become elite, so they can accept money for their sport without compromising their eligibility, because they've already been there, done that. For gymnastics, it's the other way around, so gymnasts can't profit off their sport like others can. Jordyn Wieber was looking forward to NCAA, but voided her eligibility by accepting prize money. She now helps the team at UCLA, which she does appear to enjoy, but there's definitely some regret there. It makes me sad that it's quite a gymnastics-specific problem. I also think this may be one of the reasons we see people trying to circumvent the system.

I have no interest in the tiny compulsory-level gymnasts doing flips on home equipment and modelling leotards. I also think their (parents') motivation is different to the YouTube gymnasts. I know that Whitney's family started by just posting meet and home videos for their extended family to watch. Eventually they acquired a small following, which as we all know snowballed into a successful YouTube channel with several hundred thousand subscribers. The IG girls are manufactured by their parents, but I suspect both YouTube families were a happy accident; the growth was organic. What Annie&co are up to now, I don't know, but I've never felt Whitney's channel has much self-promotion. Then again, I only watch the training/meet videos. Perhaps in the home videos there is more.

 

[MeetDirector]

The problem with female gymnastics over pretty much any other NCAA sport is that most gymnasts hit their elite peak roundabout 16-19. The trend is for gymnasts to first do elite, and then do NCAA. ...

I don't believe that is the trend at all in the U.S. There are really very few gymnasts that go the elite route and many, many, many more that go the NCAA route every year. I do agree that this whole youtube fame thing is creepy and wierd.

 

[Flyaway]

I don't believe that is the trend at all in the U.S. There are really very few gymnasts that go the elite route and many, many, many more that go the NCAA route every year. I do agree that this whole youtube fame thing is creepy and wierd.

But isn't it true that of the gymnasts that do BOTH elite and NCAA, the trend is to do elite first? In which case what was mentioned above is true- it puts elite level gymnasts who want to do NCAA in a unique position compared to other NCAA/elite athletes.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Am I the only one who doesn't know who you guys are taking about?

I have zero desire to know. Neither does my kid.

 

[LindyHopper]

I'll be interested to see how these kids feel about their childhood 'fame' as adults. Will they look back and be happy they were filmed and followed throughout their childhood? This is really the first generation that has had the possibility of this level of exposure to the public thanks to social media and the like.

Shirt Stack asks me why I occasionally make snarky comments when I walk by and she is watching one of their videos. I mean, these girls will be going for job interviews in 10 to 15 years, and prospective employers could watch their entire childhoods. I wonder if they will ever be resentful of being the family "breadwinners" as kids.

 

[GYM0M]

I can definitely see how one might get wrapped up in that sort of thing. I'll admit J has participated in a pageant or two, way back when. And I'll admit that I enjoyed it, felt good even, when she won, lol!
That being said, one of her videos made it across the internet and she did not like all the attention!! Trying to keep up with all the questions that she was asked was exhausting. Now she doesn't post videos, not gymnastics ones anyway, lol! Let's just say her 'fan base' shrunk by the volumes after a few too many Olaf gifs! Haha!

 

[gasrgoose]

Family 2's (slightly smaller) channel is called Whitney Bjerken, after their eldest daughter. They post meet videos, some random home-video-type things, and lots of actually quite interesting films of Whitney's gym training. Sidenote: if you're a parent looking to see how higher-level optionalst train, take a look at some of her workout videos, it's quite astonishing. Anyway, she's extremely talented and is aiming for elite. She'd be excellent at NCAA assuming no injuries and/or burnout, but she's been struggling with problems on an off for a while now so hope things work out for her! She's the one who's being doing some modelling. Whitney also has many young fans who think she's an angel.

A different perspective. Whitney seems like a happy, lovely girl who takes all the attention in stride. It's kinda weird how much they video her, particularly her practices, but people love it so whatever. I'll disagree with the bolded statement above. She's likely the 3rd best level 9 at her gym in Georgia. And this is a gym that has coached an elite (Megan Skaggs) so they no how to get the most out of their athletes. She might make it to NCAA gymnastics or might not, but based on what I've seen I'd say it isn't likely. So why not ride this horse as far as it will go and have fun with it. I'd be shocked if she qualified Hopes much less elite.

Now I'm off to view the 2 sisters. I've never heard of them so I'm curious now.

 

[gfgymnast]

A different perspective. Whitney seems like a happy, lovely girl who takes all the attention in stride. It's kinda weird how much they video her, particularly her practices, but people love it so whatever. I'll disagree with the bolded statement above. She's likely the 3rd best level 9 at her gym in Georgia. And this is a gym that has coached an elite (Megan Skaggs) so they no how to get the most out of their athletes. She might make it to NCAA gymnastics or might not, but based on what I've seen I'd say it isn't likely. So why not ride this horse as far as it will go and have fun with it. I'd be shocked if she qualified Hopes much less elite.

Now I'm off to view the 2 sisters. I've never heard of them so I'm curious now.

I'm pretty sure whitney has already qualified for hopes, and was only .05 off of qualifying for jr. not sure if she's competed both compulsory and optional but i know i watched her compulsory