Less than a year after helping Nebraska reach another national semifinal, former Husker Lexi Rodriguez is as busy as ever.

Besides gearing up for her second professional season with LOVB Nebraska and Major League Volleyball, Rodriguez has launched a pair of ventures that aim to both inspire and support young girls. I sat down with Rodriguez to learn about these new projects and why she is so passionate about them.

“Part of my why is to impact authentically,” Rodriguez said. “I am very true to that. I want to continue to do that for wherever and however long I play. I don’t want to stop, and I want to be able to continue to inspire and motivate the next generation, or just people in general, of all ages.

“We obviously at SheSports want to continue to grow it and hopefully get this app kind of nationwide and be able to provide these resources to kids around the country.”

SheSports is a new app designed to build confidence and community among girls ages 8–18 by connecting them with female collegiate athletes. Rodriguez co-founded the project and is working with a number of the top athletes from Nebraska, Omaha, and Creighton, including Maisie Boesiger, Gena Jorgenson, Britt Prince, Reese Snowden, Kayla Starr, Jasmyn Brown, Sarah Galligan, Cora Olsen, Ava Martin, and Kendal Radke.

In this new age of college athletics, those athletes are being compensated for their contributions through name, image, likeness (NIL).

“They just have to provide content to these young women, young girls who are kind of on the other side of it,” Rodriguez said. “And in exchange, we pay them, we give them money that they are so well deserving of. All they have to do is go on the platform, and they have the free range to create what they want, providing whatever kind of content they want. It’s their space.

“That’s the unique part about it; they have this safe space to be vulnerable and talk about things that maybe they want to talk about anywhere else.”

The app gives a space away from traditional social media for girls to ask college athletes questions about confidence, performance pressure, training, academics, and personal growth. Athletes respond with honest insight through video and written posts. The platform also includes a compliments section and guidance from mental-health and sports-psychology experts at Embark Counseling and Focus Therapy & Sports Performance Coaching.

“I think that social media, and I’m at fault of this too, but I think it’s one of the biggest contributors to self-doubt and negative thoughts and all of this,” Rodriguez said. “Which is part of the reason why we wanted to create a safe and positive empowering platform where it’s not about comparison or anything like that.”

Rodriguez and SheSports are tackling the growing issue of mental health among young girls. A big part of those growing issues comes from traditional social media.

“It’s really sad because social media and TikTok and Instagram, they can be great. They can be fun. They can provide connectivity, but it is also just a place that has a lot of hate and comparison and negativity,” Rodriguez said. “I think that’s kind of the biggest motivator for us is how can we provide a space where these girls can go to feel confident and we can help uplift them.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 53% of high school students reported mental-health impacts. That’s something Rodriguez dealt with at Nebraska, even with all of the resources afforded to Husker athletes.

“Even at the highest programs, you can have all these resources, and it’s still hard to get some of those answers to these questions of what do I do? Why is this happening? For me, the only people I could really go to was my family, just because they knew me from the inside to the out. They knew, and they had been along with me every step of the journey, so they knew exactly what I was going through and what I was feeling,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez is hopeful to bring that same feeling of security to SheSports, where others can have that same support system with relatable college athletes.

“What I hope we are able to provide is that people can actually come here and get honest and open feedback, and they can relate to it and actually find it is useful,” Rodriguez said. “Because there’s so many social media platforms that provide things, and it’s like, yeah, that’s fun. You get to see their personality, and maybe you won’t get that side of things here, but I feel like you’re going to get a lot more that’s kind of worth more.”

Back to the why for Rodriguez. She’s been searching for that with her professional volleyball team, but also examining that since her time at Nebraska ended and she had to figure out who she was more away from the court after being a college athlete and all that comes with that.

“You have the volleyball side, but then you also have, okay, what do I do outside of life? So that way, you don’t get fully consumed by just being a volleyball player,” Rodriguez said. “I think that’s part of it. This is a great opportunity. It’s something I’m passionate about, and it gives me something to take my mind off a bad serve-receive day.

“But then also, I think part of it is, after I left Nebraska, I kind of felt this, a little bit of this, like, emptiness of, well, what do I do now? What is my purpose?”

That purpose is being funneled to more than just supporting young girls. Just like her time at Nebraska and filling Memorial Stadium inspired a generation, her other venture is a new book, titled “The Big Little Dream”.

“I want people to know that no matter where you come from, the possibilities aren’t unfathomable,” Rodriguez said. ” I think a lot of people know me from my time at Nebraska, but I was just a young girl with a big dream who kind of had to start from scratch. I really want people to go for their dreams and believe in themselves.”

Her book has already sold out of its pre-order. As for the app, SheSports is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Have a question or comment for Kaleb? Send an email to kalebhenry.huskermax@gmail.com.

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