where i've been this week
everywhere, kind of
I appreciate you all for being here! I am a full-time freelance sports writer. Paid subscriptions to this newsletter allow me to dedicate more time to this work. You can subscribe or upgrade here:
It’s been a busy week for me in terms of publishing and announcements so I have a quick rundown of all the places I’ve been. Also, full disclosure, I finally agreed to watch the Lord of the Rings movies with my partner and did you know it’s like NINE HOURS of film??? So that was, like three days of my week right there.
I published two pieces last week. At SELF, I wrote about Basketdolls, the all-trans pickup league in Brooklyn.
I’ll have bonus content from my interview with TRAND1, their transmasc-centered counterpart, later this week. But my feature for SELF features stunning photography from Hunter Abrams and I highly recommend checking it out.
With team names like the Whore Moans, the Metropolitan Trans Authority, and the New York LiberT-Slurs, there’s never any doubt that this is a community for trans folks, by trans folks. The league was born after 23-year-old Devin Myers got a taste of playing streetball last summer; Myers was hooked, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing from the experience. “When I played last year, I felt really insecure—not because of anyone else, but because of what I projected on myself,” she tells SELF. “I was the only trans woman in the tournament and the whole time I was wondering, ‘Am I playing too physical? Am I too tall?’ I felt this weird presence on the court and I knew I couldn't be the only person feeling this. I really wanted to create a space for trans people who are brand new to the game to have a space to really develop a relationship with their body.”
For Complex, I wrote about the endorsement gap for masculine-presenting athletes in the WNBA, with insight from Natasha Cloud, Natasha Howard, and Jonquel Jones.
At the beginning of the 2024 season, the league dropped their much-lauded Skims campaign, partnering with Kim Kardashian’s line of intimates. It was announced at the end of the previous season and players—including Cloud—commented publicly, encouraging the WNBA to make sure that “the papis of the league” weren’t forgotten. But when the campaign was released, Cloud remarked, “You can clearly see who was marketed from our league, and again, what demographic was missing.”
At the end of my interview with Cloud, I took a moment to thank her for being one of the few athletes to openly stand with Gaza. “God gave me this platform to do more than just wins and losses, and I feel like it's to be a servant to my community and to others,” Cloud replied. “And I truly do care. I don't need to know you, Frankie, to love you and to show up for you if you need help. And I feel the same way about other people, people in Gaza, Palestinians, and I feel like the world just needs a little bit more love and light right now.”
To which I responded, “That is some Pisces shit.” And Cloud laughed—because YES OF COURSE I have done Cloud’s chart! She’s a Pisces sun with an Aquarius Venus and Aquarius Mars, that’s a chart that cares about the collective and the greater good and will speak up for what she feels is right.
I’m pretty thrilled to have three essays in this new collection of stories about women who are changing the future of sports, curated by the amazing team at Togethxr.
For sports fans of all ages, this book shines a light on the grit, smarts, and determination of record-setting and boundary-breaking female athletes around the world and across sports. PLAY IT FORWARD will be available on March 4, 2025, from Chronicle Books, but you can officially pre-order it now!
The folks at Autostraddle asked me and some other really cool people for our thoughts about the WNBA season. You can read them all here.
“My highlight from this season was definitely seeing the Connecticut Sun and Los Angeles Sparks play a sold out TD Garden in Boston. As someone who has been covering the Sun since 2018, watching these teams play in an NBA arena full of enthusiastic and supportive fans made me quite emotional. It felt like the kind of environment they deserve and should have always had.”
Oh, and
shared my work (kind of) on her Instagram today. It’s wild how easily headlines on social media get divorced from the actual writing that accompanies them! Either way, glad to see this piece getting more reach. It’s an important one.
Pre-ordered the book! Can’t wait ☺️☺️