High School Senior Makes NIL History as the First Female Football Player to Land a Deal
In this day and age, we are seeing young women break all kinds of barriers in the sports world. We are seeing more and more young ladies play football from Ashely Martin who was the first female kicker to score a point in an NCAA division-I football game in 2001, to Bella Rasmussen who is making history on a regular basis.
Bella is a high school senior at Laguna Beach High who has made history not once, but twice now. Bella has been playing football since pop-warner days and decided that she wasn't going to stop once she go to high school. She joined the Laguna Beach football team as a running back and she went viral just a few months earlier for scoring two touchdowns in a varsity football game. Her touchdowns made California high school history and the senior running back went viral and has been a young icon ever since.
The young icon told ESPN "I would have never imagined that my life would be where it is right now. I have gotten messages and calls from players and athletes I could have never dreamed of hearing from and it's just crazy to see where the platform has taken me." Bella has even been invited to compete in a celebrity flag football game with some of the NFL's biggest stars in Sofi Stadium on December 19th. She began to use her growing platform on social media to raise awareness for mental health, but Bella wasn't done making history just yet. She became the first woman football player in history to land a NIL deal.
As if the story couldn't get any better, Bella's NIL was inspired by an issue that she takes very seriously. The senior running back has partnered with KeyWise AI, which is a mental health app that tracks your phone usage and tendencies and gives assessments based on the data it has collected. When asked about her plans for the future, Bella said she would love to play college football, but she plans on pursuing a major in psychology because mental is something that she feels is very important to her and wants to help those who are struggling.
Bella is a true inspiration not to just young female athletes, but to athletes everywhere. Just continued to do what you love and never forget what you stand for. We are wishing the best of luck moving forward and can't wait to see what you decide to do next.