Having walked away from a modeling career to pursue her hoop dreams, Elena now combines them as her large following tunes in for some big-name interviews.
Sports Illustrated and Empower Onyx are putting the spotlight on the diverse journeys of Black women across sports—from the veteran athletes, to up-and-coming stars, coaches, executives and more—in the series, Elle-evate: 100 Influential Black Women in Sports.
Brittney Elena doesn’t use social media to merely collect clicks and likes for attention’s sake, but rather use it to make a difference in how we see athletes and influence sports culture.
“I started using my platform without even knowing. I didn’t do it for followers. It just happened,” Elena says. “That’s when I realized that my mission is to be a motivator, to be an expert, to be inspired, to use my love for the game to help others.”
Elena has managed to converge her basketball skills, modeling, witty sense of humor and engagingly likable personality to build @brittneyelena, her popular Instagram account that has people following—823,000 to be exact, and rising. Elena wants her followers to see athletes and sports as she does, through a more human lens.
And the basketball lover and player can speak from her own personal experience. Having played most of her life, Elena walked away from a promising modeling career to pursue her hoop dreams, so she understands who players are outside of the court. While athletes may seem superhuman, they are not, having challenges and dealing with the same emotional struggles most of us do. Being an athlete, Elena gets what’s happening behind the scenes. Other athletes gravitate to her, an unintentional quality she can’t understand herself. Doing interviews is par for the course for athletes, but getting them to trust you and share their stories transparently is another.
“I really care about their well-being and their lives,” she says. “It’s not easy being in the position that they’re in; I could sense that. I let them know that I am there to make sure that they have fun and to create a safe place for them. I really gained respect from a lot of athletes, both men and women, when they realized, O.K., she’s not here just to try to gain clout. She genuinely cares about our well-being.”
That trustworthiness was validated when the typically guarded Kobe Bryant granted her a rare interview. “I cried like a baby,” Elena recalls. “I was grateful because it was so early in my career. For him to even accept me to interview him and be vulnerable with me was pretty dope.”
While social media put a spotlight on the influencer, Elena’s career as a host started in 2016 when she got the attention of Nike. The global brand believed the young influencer could deliver what its online presence needed. She lived up to expectations, with her first interview being another tough athlete, Kyrie Irving. Her résumé of interviews now reads like a dream team—Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Kobe Bryant, Lisa Leslie and Cheryl Swoopes, the latter of whom Elena still finds hard to believe even knew who she was. She is waiting to check off Sue Bird and Michelle Obama from her dream interview wish list.
Elena says she believes in manifestation and has deleted the word “no” from her vocabulary, especially when it comes to excuses. While grateful for the opportunities she has been given, she knows belief must start first with her, something she had to learn through her own experiences and struggles. While Elena loves motivating others, she needs to find her own motivation, too, which is still on the court.
When Elena first moved to Los Angeles from her hometown in the Bay Area, she was having a hard time emotionally. She remembers how she would leave her nightclub job, in full makeup, and head to the court to calm herself and think. This is where Elena first started posting on social media and realized she could connect with others who were dealing with similar issues. She shares her story and struggles often, not only on her social media platform, but also with the young girls she meets and mentors while traveling as an ambassador for Nike and Dick’s Sporting Goods’ “It’s Her Shot,” a campaign that tours nationally with the goal of empowering young female athletes through the purpose and power of sport. While kids meet their sports heroes, they get to learn playing skills as well as life skills.
“I try to influence young girls that anything is possible; you’ve got to start somewhere,” Elena says. “I tell them, ‘Why don’t you be the first person to start it and encourage other girls that might want to do the same thing?’”
While Elena is focused professionally and mentally, like a true athlete, there is always something new to conquer and another goal to reach. In the meantime, she gives basketball all the glory for the sisterhood of athletes she has bonded with, as well as her followers she has connected with who have gotten her to the place she is in now. She wants to continue to empower everyone but especially women.
“Women’s empowerment to me is a sisterhood and being there for one another, to not pass judgment,” Elena says. “You never know what someone has gone through. Just help them grow and be better. I’ve made so many new friends and connections because of my love and the game of basketball. The game just connects you with so many people and you learn a lot. I’m really doing something that I love. I never take it for granted. I’m so thankful for it.”
Senita Brooks is a contributor for Empower Onyx, a diverse multi-channel platform celebrating the stories and transformative power of sports for Black women and girls.