Follower growth 2023-2024: 450,000
League: NCAA Basketball
Age: 22

Deja Kelly played NCAA college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels for four seasons and transferred to Oregon this year. Her star power on the court has earned her sponsorships from Dunkin' Donuts and Tommy Hilfiger, where she was the first college athlete to sign a deal with the clothing brand. In July, she was invited to the White House for a celebration of Black women in sports.

Follower growth 2023-2024: 500,000
League: NCAA Basketball
Age: 22

Hailey Van Lith now plays for the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs, but previously played guard for the Louisiana State University Tigers women's NCAA basketball team for three seasons. She has more than a million followers on Instagram and over 400,000 on TikTok, NIL deals worth nearly $700,000, and she has collaborated with Apple in social media posts this year.

Follower growth 2023-2024: 600,000
League: Ladies Professional Golf Association
Age: 34

Now-retired professional golfer Michelle Wie West is no newcomer to the professional sports scene and the top-dollar deals that come with it. At age 10 she became the youngest person to earn a spot in the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links and was the youngest person to qualify for an LPGA event in 2003.

Wie West blogs about food under the cleverly named handle @whatdowieeat. She also has a designer line of jewelry with e-commerce jewelry brand Wove, which fans have spotted on Taylor Swift. Wie West has notched sponsorships from Nike and others over the years and is now involved in investing and entrepreneurship.

Follower growth 2023-2024: 750,000
League: National Women's Soccer League
Age: 36

Kelley O'Hara plays defender for the U.S. National Women's Soccer team and New York and New Jersey's Gotham FC. The Olympic gold medalist and two-time Women's World Cup champion announced her retirement in May of this year. Her final regular season with the NWSL will end in November. She was one of the first female athletes ever sponsored by athletic wear icon Under Armour.

Follower growth 2023-2024: 900,000
League: WNBA
Age: 22

WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark may be one of the most talked-about athletes in the world. Her mere presence on the court has translated to broadcast viewership growth for both the NCAA and WNBA.

While at the University of Iowa, she had the fourth-largest NIL deal size among all eligible college athletes at $3.1 million and the most sponsorship deals of any other woman in NCAA basketball. Earlier this year, she inked an eight-year, $28 million deal with highly coveted sponsor Nike that far surpasses her annual salary of $76,000 from the Indiana Fever.

Follower growth 2023-2024: 1,100,000
League: National Women's Soccer League
Age: 23

Jordyn Huitema is another one of the several National Women's Soccer League players to make the top 10 ranking for social following growth in the past year. Huitema plays forward for the Seattle Reign as well as the Canada Women's National Soccer Team. Huitema has 1.4 million followers on Instagram and another 1.3 million on TikTok where she shared a brand sponsorship with New Balance earlier this year.

Follower growth 2023-2024: 2,900,000
League: National Women's Soccer League
Age: 24

Brazilian native Kerolin Nicoli plays forward in the National Women's Soccer League for the North Carolina Courage. The athlete was a member of the Brazilian women's team in the 2024 Paris Olympics. She was named league MVP in 2023.

Follower growth 2023-2024: 2,300,000
League: NCAA Basketball
Age: 20

Rapper and NCAA basketball star Flau'jae Johnson recently released an album inspired by her unique life as a performer and basketball player. The now-WNBA rookie went by the nickname "Bayou Barbie" in her previous role on the LSU women's NCAA basketball team, but was unable to trademark it due to Mattel's rights around the Barbie name.

The rising star's business sense and growing personal brand are apparent in her estimated $1.2 million in sponsorship deals with companies like Powerade and Amazon.

Follower growth 2023-2024: 2,400,000
League: NCAA Gymnastics
Age: 21

Olivia Dunne, better known as Livvy Dunne, is an American college gymnast who boasts a following of more than 13 million combined across Instagram and TikTok, where she shares brand-sponsored posts backed by athleisure brand Vuori and others. Dunne was thrust into virality last summer when TikTok user @h00pify shared a video about how she was "rizzed" up by Baby Gronk, which captured the world's attention for weeks.

Now competing for Louisiana State University in NCAA gymnastics while pursuing a communications degree, she notched a Southeastern Conference championship win for the Tigers in the 2023-2024 season.

Follower growth 2023-2024: 5,300,000
League: WNBA
Age: 22

She's only in her first year with the WNBA, and Angel Reese already finds herself on 98.9% of fantasy WNBA rosters in ESPN's fantasy women's basketball. The 6'3" power forward for the Chicago Sky made the WNBA All-Star team as a rookie. She's racked up sponsorship deals with PlayStation, Wingstop, Coach, Amazon, and others.

Story editing by Carren Jao. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn. Photo selection by Clarese Moller.