Livvy Dunne’s Business Acumen Lands Her Feature in ‘Forbes’
LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne has been making quite the name for herself. As a college athlete, influencer, and budding entrepreneur, the 20-year-old is a triple threat, having harnessed name, image, and likeness (NIL) endorsement deals to land her as the highest-paid female college athlete. And having already appeared in the pages of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, Dunne’s preternatural business savvy has now landed her a feature with Forbes.
In an interview accompanying the sultry photoshoot, Dunne—who currently boasts nearly 8 million followers on TikTok—explained how she became the top-followed college athlete.
“I will say it’s a little bit of everything,” she said, when asked to describe the Olivia Dunne brand. “It’s my lifestyle. It’s fashion, it’s fitness, it’s friends and fun.”
It’s perhaps that down-to-earth attitude that makes Dunne resonate so much with her fans. “I think it’s the balancing act of my life,” she remarked of her growing popularity. “I think it’s because I’m a student athlete. I go to class. I go to the gym. I also do work on top of that—I do social media…. It really helps being present in each moment, because it’s easy to get distracted with all of these things going on in my life. So just compartmentalizing everything really helps.”
But it was the NCAA revising its NIL policy that really put Dunne on the map. Having already racked up seven figures in endorsements, the blonde is now paying is forward. Over the summer she launched The Livvy Fund to help educate her peers on partnerships and personal branding, as well as help connect them with NIL endorsement deals
“My life has been changed ever since the NIL rule change,” she explained. “It’s been changed for the better, obviously, but it’s been a whirlwind. It’s been so fun to work with these brands that I never had the opportunity to work with before the rule changed and I’m just really grateful.”
Looking past college athletics, Dunne is also planning the roadmap for the next stage of her career, and already has loose plans for her own brand of merch—such as gymnastics gear, fashion, or an app. She’s still working that part out, but with so much already on her plate at the moment, she’s got plenty of time to figure it out.
You can watch her full interview with Forbes below:
