{"id":243379,"date":"2025-10-22T11:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/243379\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:23:08","slug":"sophie-cunningham-announces-personal-decision-inspired-by-angel-reeses-victorias-secret-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/243379\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham Announces Personal Decision Inspired By Angel Reese’s Victoria’s Secret Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Say what you want about Angel Reese and her dominance on the court, but her real power goes beyond basketball. The Bayou Barbie has built a brand that few athletes in the WNBA or anywhere, really, can even dream of. Reese is the most followed WNBA athlete on Instagram, a testament to her magnetic presence and the attention she commands. And there are plenty of athletes who look up to her. Just take Sophie Cunningham, for example.<\/p>\n

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Angel Reese made history last week as the first professional athlete to ever walk the runway at the Victoria\u2019s Secret Fashion Show. The 23-year-old Chicago Sky forward shared the spotlight with supermodels like Bella and Gigi Hadid, and former \u201cAngels\u201d including Adriana Lima, in a dazzling lineup that also celebrated diversity with transgender, pregnant, and plus-size models.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was destined for me,\u201d Reese said before the show, fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a VS model, a dream also shared by Sophie Cunningham, as she expressed on her Show Me Something podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAngel walked in it, she killed it. Like, absolutely killed it. And I\u2014oh my god. I text my agents right away, and I was like, \u2018Please.\u2019 Like, this has been a dream of mine since I\u2019ve been like second grade. I always wanted to be a Victoria\u2019s Secret Angel. Like, oh god,\u201d she said. We all hope to see you there someday, Sophie!<\/p>\n

Also, this isn\u2019t the first time Cunningham spoke about Reese\u2019s VS walk.<\/p>\n

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A few days back, Sophie Cunningham took to her Instagram stories to talk about some recent stomach troubles that led her to undergo food sensitivity tests. The results revealed that she\u2019s highly sensitive to a number of foods, including everyday staples like yogurt and some of her favorite treats, such as cheese and pineapple. On the bright side, most vegetables are fine for her, prompting her to jokingly say that her future could end up looking a lot like Angel Reese\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I feel like I\u2019m gonna be kind of turning into a Rabbit. So, I don\u2019t know, I guess I\u2019m gonna turn into a Victoria\u2019s Secret model\u2026. Call me Angel Reese,\u201d\u00a0she said in her story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That said, as poetic as it sounds, Angel Reese got her wings! The Bayou Barbie made her Victoria\u2019s Secret runway debut in two stunning pink-themed outfits. The first one had pink rose details, paired with a fluffy pink shawl covered in roses. The second featured a sparkly pink top with a chest cut-out and a high slit, finished off with silver-and-white angel wings.<\/p>\n

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Once a major televised event, the Victoria\u2019s Secret Fashion Show had been criticized for promoting outdated beauty standards, with viewership plummeting from 9.7 million in 2013 to just 3.3 million in 2018, which led to its cancellation in 2019. The show returned last year with a fresh focus on inclusivity and empowerment.<\/p>\n

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Before its comeback, Victoria\u2019s Secret launched the VS Collective, a group of brand ambassadors promoting gender equality and body positivity. Stars like Megan Rapinoe and Olympic gold medalist skier Eileen Gu were part of it, but none of them walked the runway. Only Angel Reese did! \u201cA lot of young women are going to be watching me today to know that they have some inspiration and know that they can dream this big,\u201d Reese said.<\/p>\n

But Reese\u2019s impact goes far beyond the Victoria\u2019s Secret runway; there\u2019s plenty more to admire about the Bayou Barbie!<\/p>\n

Angel Reese\u2019s Off-Court Success: An Empire in the Making<\/p>\n

Reese revealed she had visualized walking the Victoria\u2019s Secret runway after watching the show last year from the front row. While she didn\u2019t expect her dream to come true so soon,\u00a0it also serves as a reminder that none of this would have been possible without the empire she\u2019s built off the court\u2013shattering the old notion that women athletes can\u2019t be as marketable as men.<\/p>\n

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Reese made history as the first female athlete to get her own McDonald\u2019s meal. \u201cThe Angel Reese Special\u201d comes with a BBQ Bacon Quarter Pounder with Cheese, fries, and a drinkShe became the first WNBA star to be featured on the cover of Vogue magazineShe got featured on the WNBA edition of NBA 2K26She became the fastest WNBA player in two decades to receive a signature shoe.She was part of the host committee for the 2025 Met Gala<\/a>Reese took on the role of global ambassador and creative collaborator for Juicy Couture, helping design the \u201cAngel Couture\u201d apparel line and becoming the face of the brand\u2019s Viva La Juicy fragranceShe has brand collaboration deals with Reebok, Barbie, Topps, Beats by Dre, Tampax, Amazon, and PlayStation<\/p>\n

This is what truly sets Angel Reese apart in the WNBA. She knows how to market herself and leverages the power of social media to her advantage. Sure, the online world isn\u2019t always kind, criticism for her on-court plays comes fast and furious, but Reese has a knack for turning challenges into opportunities.<\/p>\n

The \u201cMeBounds\u201d saga is a perfect example: what could have been a controversy became a moment that boosted her visibility and influence, showing that she\u2019s as sharp a businesswoman (perhaps even better) as she is an athlete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Say what you want about Angel Reese and her dominance on the court, but her real power goes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-243379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}