Angel Reese wasn’t handed a silver spoon by life, but she made sure she got one eventually. Long before she was a household name, Reese was just a girl in Baltimore navigating the weight of high expectations and the sting of childhood insecurity. Raised by a single mother, Angel felt the pressure of her future early on, knowing that a basketball scholarship was a necessity to afford an education. But the financial burden was only part of the story.

She spent years at war with her own reflection, enduring bullying from classmates who mocked her height and called her a “giraffe.” In true Bayou Barbie fashion, though, she answered critics with an unforgettable journey and eventual championship win at LSU. Yet, even that success couldn’t save her from the painfully underwhelming price that executives had already placed under her name.

When NIL opportunities were just emerging, Reese ironically had an agency tell her she would not make more than $2,000. “I signed to an agency initially that Jeanine was with,” Reese said. “And they told me that I wasn’t going to make more than $2,000. So I told myself, ‘I know I’m going to make more than $2,000.’” At the time, she was still a freshman at Maryland, simply looking for representation that could help her secure NIL deals. But the agency didn’t believe she had the value to generate meaningful earnings, and she clearly didn’t agree with that. In fact, it wasn’t only Angel Reese who found the agency’s stance limiting.

Her then-agent, Jeanine Ogbonnaya, who was working with the agency at the time, also saw things differently. And together, they made a decision to leave the agency following the 2023 championship victory. As Reese put it, “I know I’m gonna make more than $2,000, and me and Janine left. She left the agency with me.” They chose to walk away and build independently. “We took a bold step and we’re like, we’re going to do this on our own,” Reese added. And of course, the rest has been history.

The 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Game would change Angel Reese’s life for both the better and the worse. Yes, she will always be remembered for her “you can’t see me” celebration on Caitlin Clark in the dying minutes of the game, which effectively set off the media narrative of a rivalry between the two, but it also put her firmly in the spotlight.

Following the championship victory, Angel Reese had an On3 NIL valuation of $1.4 million, which ranked No. 1 in women’s college basketball and 10th overall in the On3 NIL 100. Her valuation had surged by 253% in the 10 weeks following the result. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Yes, there was plenty of hate coming her way from Caitlin Clark fans , but at the same time, the basketball world was rallying behind her. Her following exploded, over 1.3 million new followers in just a week. And with that kind of attention, the deals? They just kept coming.

She was seen using her “you can’t see me” gesture in a commercial alongside NBA stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Zion Williamson for Starry, a lemon-lime soft drink distributed in the United States by PepsiCo. And that wasn’t the only deal she landed. She had signed an ambassador deal with hair care brand Mielle just a week before the commercial aired, and was also among the first college athletes to appear in SI Swimsuit.

Reese has gone on to earn millions of dollars through endorsements and branding since then. In fact, by the time she left LSU, her NIL valuation was approximately $1.8 million. Her portfolio of brands looked something like this:

• Reebok
• ZOA Energy
• Amazon
• Starry
• Playstation
• Mielle Organics
• SI Swimsuit
• Bayou Traditions
• Caktus AI
• Campus Ink
• Raisin Cane’s
• JanSport
• Beats by Dre

Turns out that the small group that started with Angel Reese and Jeanine Ogbonnaya ended up becoming the foundation of something great. As she said, “We’re a very small group. A lot of people sign to really big agencies, but we’re very small. It’s just us.” Reese had a plan, and she took the risks. “I was like, I’m gonna do this. This is what I wanna do. I know I’m going to be able to do fashion. I’m gonna be able to be a basketball player. If I wanna start a podcast, I can do it. I just had big dreams.” And of course, she did achieve those dreams, and even at what she described as “a crazy fast pace.”

Ogbonnaya also found significant success, founding The Clearview Group, a sports marketing and branding agency. And with the help of two other women, they managed to grow the Bayou Barbie’s brand to new heights ever since she stepped foot on a WNBA court.

Jaclyn Reilly and Kirsti Yess, founders of Ethos Group, joined Angel Reese’s team and helped take her off-court success to another level. And the numbers? They speak for themselves. Reese has built a massive digital presence, 162,000 YouTube subscribers, 730,253 followers on X, 5.2 million on Instagram, and 6.2 million on TikTok, a following that surpasses the population of Chicago (2.72 million). That’s not all!

She also had the second-most-viewed WNBA player page on Basketball Reference in 2025, as per The Athletic. But did her achievements stop there? Absolutely not.

She made history last October by walking in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, becoming the first professional athlete to do so. She is the face of the “Season of Strapless” collection, which includes swimwear, lingerie, and fragrance. And while the exact dollar amount of the deal was not revealed publicly, it is sure to be a multi-million-dollar endorsement. And her exploits in the fashion industry didn’t stop there. 

Reese was also named to the host committee for the 2025 Met Gala, alongside stars like Simone Biles and Sha’Carri Richardson, for the event themed “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”

Oh, and did you think we forgot about her big-screen ventures? Angel Reese made her feature film debut in the Netflix thriller A House of Dynamite with a cameo role. She also voiced Propp, a polar bear, in the animated film GOAT, and has been announced as part of Season 2 of Hunting Wives.

“I think that she has a real superpower and (that is) being able to authentically connect with her fans,” Kristi Yess said. “She’s been consistent, she’s been authentic, unapologetically herself.” And if anything has defined Angel Reese’s rise, it’s exactly that.

Reese also officially launched her first signature shoe, the AR1, months before the Victoria’s Secret deal. She was already in a contract with Reebok, and so this signature shoe came as part of her 2024 multi-year extension. This includes a royalty structure where she earns a percentage of every unit sold from her signature footwear and apparel collections. And it made her one of only six active WNBA players with a signature sneaker. 

Apart from these two, Reese also currently maintains her relationship with Amazon Fashion, Reese’s Pieces, Panini America, among others. She also runs her weekly podcast “Unapologetically Angel” and is an owner-investor in a professional women’s soccer team based in Washington, D.C. 

You could definitely argue that the 2023 championship game changed her life for the better, but not everything about that moment was sunshine and rainbows.

Angel Reese Gets Real About Media Scrutiny Amid Meteoric Rise

In July, Angel Reese revealed to ESPN that her championship triumph with LSU in 2023 came with a darker side, as she found herself dealing with cyberbullying in its aftermath.

“And that was the first time I had seen negativity like that on social media. I’ve had a huge following before, but it skyrocketed to millions, and it was bigger than basketball, when they were finding my address, my car, and I had to change my whole lifestyle,” Reese said.

She echoed a similar sentiment while speaking on the April 21 episode of The Michelle Obama Podcast, where Angel Reese reflected on the emotional toll of constant criticism and the reality of living life under a microscope. For her, it’s something she “doesn’t think that anybody will ever, ever understand.” Yet, she also views it as part of her growth. “I think it was a character builder for me,” she said.

In fact, about two years ago, former WNBA player Val Whiting pointed out in a tweet that Angel Reese was receiving a disturbing level of racially charged abuse, arguably more than any player in the league. To back that up, she shared messages that had been sent to Reese’s mother.

And these weren’t just harsh opinions or routine criticism. One message referred to Reese as a “thug,” while another used the phrase “black b***h who disgusted him.” We also saw the entire “mebounds” saga play out in real time last season, and everyone knows just how mentally draining and brutal it was for Angel Reese.

But if there’s one thing the Chi-Town Barbie keeps proving, it’s this: no matter the challenge, she finds a way through. That’s been the story of Angel Reese’s life, and it’s exactly why she’s been able to build such a massive off-court empire at just 23.