Raise Your Voice

How social media has helped Breanna Stewart realize the power of her platforms.

- Holly Rowe

The first time I met Breanna Stewart, in 2012, she was sitting in the stands at the Women’s Final Four in Denver after participating in the WBCA High School All-America Game.

She was a gangly teenager more interested in eating her french fries than talking to a national media member. Over her next four dominant years at Connecticut, she went from a quiet stalwart who would cede the spotlight to more vocal peers to a confident queen of the moment, a postgame star who wielded a sword to knight her teammates in celebration of their 2016 title.

A few months after that championship, as a 21-year-old rookie with the Seattle Storm, she accepted the ESPY for Best Female Athlete with an impactful speech about the need for gender equality in sports. The next fall, she added her voice to the #MeToo movement with an essay in The Players’ Tribune that revealed sexual abuse she suffered as a child.

I caught up with Stewart from Russia, where she’s playing with Dynamo Kursk of the Russian Premier League during the WNBA offseason, to ask her an important question: How did she find her voice and grow confident using it?

ESPN: How did you make that transition from being shy with the media early in your career to really speaking up?