Olivia Dunne harnesses the power of proximity. A few years back, she cemented the public’s appetite to be near her—illusioned or tangible, parasocial or personal—and became a pioneering face of name, image, and likeness (NIL) in collegiate athletics. Now, she’s known as Livvy to a collective 13.4 million Instagram and TikTok followers—and that number still sells her reach short. Livvy Dunne seems to be addicted to greatness.

Dunne, 21, started gymnastics at three years old, and she stuck with gymnastics because the sport demanded individuality. “I liked how I was in control of my own destiny,” she says over Zoom from her New Jersey childhood home in early August. “I loved the thrill of learning new skills and improving myself every single practice. I fell in love with trying to be the best.”

The young gymnast, model, and entrepreneur recognized early on that she could dictate the terms and never looked back. This April, Dunne’s senior season at Louisiana State University came to a poetic end when she and her Tiger teammates won the gymnastics program’s first-ever NCAA national championship. With this ultimate accomplishment, nobody would blame her for leaving such a punishing sport behind. Well, almost nobody. “To leave one more year of eligibility on the table?” she considers, “That felt wrong to me.” So, this fall she will return to Baton Rouge for her fifth and final year of gymnastics eligibility. After all, Dunne’s entire life has been dedicated to maximizing anything tangentially within her control—in the gym and on social media.

Dunne grew up in Hillsdale, New Jersey, but spent more time in nearby Paramus at ENA Gymnastics. By 12 years old, she would periodically train in Texas with the US National Team. Her mother, Katherine—a former cheerleader and gymnast— began homeschooling her in 2016 to accommodate national and international competitions. In June 2017, she joined the US Junior National Team alongside US Olympic medalists Jordan Chiles and Sunisa Lee, and she accepted a full athletic scholarship to LSU three years before she could even step on campus. Dunne’s adolescence was doused in medals, but glory came at a cost.

“I wouldn’t be able to go on field trips or the prom,” she says. “I had a hard time going to the gym most days.” She missed out on family vacations because elite gymnastics consumed her summers. “There are always times when you want to quit,” she says. “I just feel like that’s part of being an athlete at a top level.” Instead of quitting, however, Dunne doubled down.

While rapidly ascending as a star gymnast, Dunne developed into a keen social media creator, and eventually grew to become the most-followed NCAA athlete. “I started social media because I loved to do it,” she says. “I would have had to sacrifice my gymnastics career to make money or quit social media [to continue gymnastics]. But I didn’t have to give up either one.”

In July 2021, the NCAA adopted an NIL policy enabling student-athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness. Many may argue that no college athlete has benefited more than Dunne: the reportedly highest-paid female collegiate athlete has graced Sports Illustrated several times. She made Forbes’ 2024 30 Under 30 list after having already earned a spot in the top 50 of Forbes’ 2023 Top Creators List. Dunne has partnered with brands among the likes of Accelerator Active Energy, Motorola, Nautica, and Vuori. She made a cameo in The Kid Laroi’s June 2024 “GIRLS” video. She will star in the forthcoming Amazon Prime Video documentary series The Money Game. Because Dunne’s appeal is chronically expanding, this list will likely be outdated by the time this prints.

People quickly dismiss Dunne as a “social media influencer” without respecting her as a class gymnast or entrepreneurial visionary. “It definitely is frustrating at times,” she says. “The worst part is that people think gymnastics is easy when it’s not. The job is to make it look beautiful and easy. You’re not doing it right if it looks hard...The social media aspect of it—I worked really hard to get to where I am in building my personal brand, and it didn’t happen in the blink of an eye. It didn’t happen in just a year. It didn’t happen because of one viral moment. It happened over years of getting to know my audience, learning the algorithms, and growing my brand to be what it is today. That’s why people are so fascinated with what I’m doing.”

Dunne’s fan base is so fervent—so desperate to have a fleeting encounter with her—that LSU had to implement increased security measures at her gymnastics meets. From the beginning, Dunne knew that putting herself out there online would inevitably subject her to dangerous interactions and widespread objectification, but she was well-versed in making the impossible appear effortless in the world’s most subjective sport.

“You have to have tough skin to do gymnastics or any artistic sport,” she says. “I actually looked at a statistic, and it said anorexia and body image issues are the highest in artistic sports. That is terrible, but I understand it. Growing up in elite gymnastics, it was very hard with body image. Being a young girl going through puberty, it’s hard to be in a leotard. The whole sport of gymnastics is having people judge you, and I just think that’s something not a lot of people talk about. Yes, I’m confident in myself, but it’s something I still struggle with to this day. I want girls to know that it’s normal. That’s normal.”

While misogyny and objectification are unfortunately inevitable for girls and women in the public eye, Dunne refuses to surrender to unrealistic societal norms. Like she said on TODAY in January 2023, “As a woman, you’re not responsible for how a man looks at you and objectifies you. That’s not a woman’s responsibility.” Dunne remains empowered in her self-expression, but she’s not immune. “My life has gone crazy this past year—so many new eyes,” she says. “When there are more eyes on you, there are more people trying to tear you down constantly. I’m just trying to stick to what I believe and what’s true to me.”

Dunne continued to advocate for herself this May when she partnered with Passes, a platform that helps creators monetize their followers and engage with their audience directly. It helped her lean further into her entrepreneurial aspirations, as well as facilitated positive interactions with her fans. “It’s kind of like what I said before: I’m in control of my own destiny,” Dunne says. “I don’t need to rely on any algorithms to grow my personal brand. I get to come up with my own prices. It’s super cool to be able to personally connect with the people who follow me and get input from them or teach them about NIL.”

When we speak, Dunne is fresh from her final practice at ENA. She’s scrambling to pack and “trying to get my butt back in shape” before moving back to LSU the following week. Earlier, she had been overwhelmed by how many little girls rushed up to her and gushed about wanting to be like her. They told her how much she inspired them to pursue collegiate gymnastics. And, of course, they made TikToks together.

“That’s super inspiring,” Dunne says. “It makes me happy to see little girls who want to create and use their creativity. I loved it. That’s something that I feel strongly about. If you’re going to be scrolling, you should create.”

Of course, Dunne wants to stay in the LSU leotard for one last season to potentially become back-to-back national champions with her teammates. But she also wants to ensure progress at LSU won’t end with her. In July 2023, Dunne launched The Livvy Fund to spread the wealth—literally. “Women’s sports, in general, it’s quite unfair still with NIL,” she says. “A big school like LSU [has] collective money. None of it goes to women’s sports. Most of the collective money goes to football, basketball, baseball—the men’s sports.” With The Livvy Fund, Dunne opens the door for her brand partners to donate toward NIL opportunities for her teammates and fellow female LSU athletes. Dunne’s goal is to make controlling your own destiny the standard.

Dunne’s mother Katherine once told her, “You’re more than your sport.” Dunne leans on that perspective now more than ever. Former US gymnast and five-time Olympic medalist Nastia Liukin has been a mentor to Dunne for years— Nastia’s father, Valeri Liukin, was Dunne’s coach at Karolyi Ranch—and Dunne looked up to Nastia because she embodied Katherine’s advice. “She grew her brand beyond gymnastics. She loves fashion. She does sports broadcasting,” Dunne says. 

Dunne can’t get those little girls at ENA out of her mind—the notion that she became for them what Liukin was for her. She adds, “You can have it all. You can be a D1 athlete. You can be a student. You can do social media. You can work with your favorite brands. You can grow your own brand. You don’t need to limit yourself to one thing. That’s something I really want to show people.”

As for what that will look like for Dunne post-gymnastics, Dunne isn’t sure. She will always stay close to gymnastics, and she’s immersing more in baseball. She can see a future where she gets into sports broadcasting. Above all, in the midst of a long, lauded, career, it seems that Livvy Dunne will achieve success in any field. The key to it all?

“I never feel complacent.” 

Photographed by Katherine Goguen 

Styled by Dylan Wayne

Writer: Megan Armstrong

Hair: Chika Nishiyama

Makeup: Bryan Zaragoza at See Management

Flaunt Film: Warren Elgort at Monday Artists 

Location: Bechdel Project Studio

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