There was a time not long ago when young athletes simply worried about making the team. Today, many are also thinking about followers, highlight videos, personal logos, social media engagement, and even future NIL opportunities. Long before they ever compete in a college game, some teenagers—and increasingly younger athletes—are being encouraged to think about their “brand.” Is this shift good for kids and their mental health? Or would kids be better served to focus on traditional youth sport goals, including developing sport skills, physical conditioning, and being a great team player?
Youth sports and building your brand
To be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong with athletes promoting themselves. Social media allows young people to share accomplishments, celebrate teammates, connect with recruiters, and build relationships that simply weren’t possible a generation ago. The ability to communicate directly with coaches and showcase athletic ability has opened legitimate opportunities for many student-athletes. The question is whether we’ve unintentionally changed the focus for kids participating in youth sports. Instead of simply becoming better athletes, increasingly more young people experience mental health issues due to feeling pressure to become their own sport marketers.
Today’s youth sport athletes are often encouraged to:
- Build a social media following.
- Create highlight videos.
- Develop a recognizable personal image.
- Post consistently to increase visibility.
- Think about future NIL opportunities.
- Do anything and everything to get noticed, get clicks, go viral, and stand out from other kids also trying to get noticed by college coaches.
None of these activities directly improve an athlete’s ability to throw a baseball, shoot a basketball, or hit a tennis ball, yet they consume a lot of time and emotional energy.
Adolescence is already a mental health period when young people are trying to answer one of life’s most important questions: “Who am I?” Sports can be a wonderful place to discover confidence, resilience, teamwork, and purpose. But when an athlete begins measuring success through followers, likes, and online engagement, identity can quietly shift from performance to popularity.
Instead of asking, “Am I becoming a better athlete?” the question becomes, “Am I becoming more visible?”
Ironically, the athletes who ultimately build the strongest reputations often do so by focusing relentlessly on their performance rather than their image. Their brand becomes a byproduct of excellence—not the other way around. Today, however, we have kids putting more time into beefing up their social media pages than they do putting extra time into practicing their sport!
None of this is meant to be an argument against NIL or social media, as both have created meaningful opportunities for athletes. The growing concerns I raise center around introducing adult-like NIL and social media conversations too early, especially at young ages where kids should be focusing on developing sport skills, training their bodies, and learning how to work well with others on a sports team. Childhood and adolescence should still be about learning, competing, failing, improving, and simply enjoying sports — a personal brand can always be built later.
Final thoughts
Maybe the goal of youth sports shouldn’t be raising athletes with the strongest online presence, but instead about raising young people who love to compete, respect their teammates, and discover who they are long before they worry about who the internet thinks they should become. Help kids grow and develop through sports, including embracing the countless life skills sports teaches that prepare kids to grow into successful adults. Youth sports should be about fun, not constantly posting sport metrics and videos designed to build a brand and get clicks.
drstankovich.com
