How a Love of Women’s Basketball Leads to a Career in Journalism and a New Book...at Twelve Years Old

If someone handed you her resume, you’d think she was a seasoned journalist – maybe with an Emmy or two. With a roster of interviews that include Michelle Obama, Chadwick Boseman and former President George W. Bush alongside sports legends like Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Diana Taurasi, Chloe Kim and Sue Bird, and with her work featured on EPSN, CBS and Sports Illustrated, Pepper Persley is clearly an award-winning journalist on the rise.

She’s also twelve years old.

As a matter of fact, Pepper has been honing her interview and play by play skills since she was six (hear this early interview with NCAA record-breaking Clark), and is one of the youngest people ever to broadcast professional sporting events having called games for the NBA, WNBA, and MLB by age eleven. In 2022 she was named one of the Most Powerful Women in Sports by Adweek.

How does she navigate middle school while covering events for ESPN’s KidsCast, hosting her podcast Dish With Pepper and gearing up to release her brand new book Not Too Anything which hits shelves on February 27th?

Girls everywhere had these and other questions for Persleyas they watch her host Title IX panels for Nike, report on the red-carpet, or team up with the WNBA. And when girls ask, Être asks. Below is an edited version of my interview three days ago with Pepper.

Was it daunting to pose questions to such an accomplished journalist? You bet it was.

Ê: I’m so happy to meet you! I received so many questions from girls that they wanted to ask – one was about your first interview ever with then-Liberty guard, Sugar Rodgers. You were six years old – how did that happen?

PP: I had so many questions about basketball - which I love - so my dad reached out to the Liberty [team] to see if maybe I could send in my questions by email. And then they said why don’t you just come into practice and ask? It was more than we ever expected! My favorite memories of it are how I had all my questions written down on a notepad - which I still have somewhere – and I just loved the whole experience. That definitely was the first domino to fall for everything I’m doing now.

Ê: Like your new book! We’re so excited about this - tell us about the book.

PP: I can’t wait! So, when I was in second grade people kept saying that I shouldn’t talk about sports…that I shouldn’t be enjoying sports as much as I do and playing and all that. It ended up with me being given a letter that said a bunch of awful things – and one of them was that I was too athletic.

“This was so weird to me because I kept thinking I’m not too anything! Now it’s like a compliment…but at the time I was on my way to basketball practice thinking I don’t want anyone else to ever go through this.”

So, I ended up putting together an anti-bullying video called Not Too Athletic, and I talked to non-fiction journalists about their experiences with bullying and asked their advice. And that was kind of my way to kind of bounce back from the bullying. In doing that video I made more connections in sports industry, and that helped me with the work that I do now. It’s important to me because a lot of kids don’t have this kind of platform.

“Bullying affects a lot of people, but it affects kids the most – so I want to do whatever I can to bring attention to that. I ended up writing a book…and I love my book.”

Ê: We love it too! We also heard that your dream job would be to be on-site at the Olympics – is that true?

PP: I have so many dreams! One thing I would definitely do is broaden what I do. I would love to do more at sporting events working for ESPN - I’ve done a couple of things with them - so as an actual job when I’m an adult it could be consistent. Right now, being a minor and going to school makes that hard, but that’s definitely my dream.

I would also love to have some sort of talk show beyond that; I really love pop culture, music, and movies so doing more red-carpet events for award shows or movie premieres is something I really want to do. And then in terms of the near future…the Olympics in Paris is definitely something I want to be a part of!

Ê: There are so many stats out there about girls quitting their sport and we have new ones coming out soon – do you think mentorship has an impact on keeping girls confident and in their sport?

PP: Oh, I have so many thoughts about this! I’ve a little bit of research on this too, and I think I think you’re right, definitely, that mentorship has a big impact on that.

To me, mentors are often coaches. I’ve had a lot of experience with different coaches on different sports, and I think the type of coaching you have really makes an impact especially on girls and their confidence. Having coaches that kind of break you down and don’t build you back up is tough. I’ve experienced that, and knowing when to move on from that situation is important.

“I’ve seen girls on my team not sure they want to practice anymore, and I get concerned. I’ve even felt that way. That’s where mentorship is so important.”

Another sport I do is taekwondo, and I got my black belt a few years ago. One of the important things for this practice is teaching it to the next generation. I go to an all-girls school, so being able to teach this self-defense practice to younger girls is amazing for me. I love being a mentor…mentorship is so important.

Ê: We couldn’t agree more! Last question - what’s the best piece of mentor advice you’ve ever heard, and what’s one piece of mentor advice you want other girls to remember?

PP: One thing that I do is in almost any interview, is I will ask at the end: What advice do you have for kids like me? I do this for whatever profession they’re in, and an answer I get a lot in sports and journalism is work hard and have fun. It sounds simple but it’s really important. If you lose the fun in your sport, there goes your will to want to play it. It goes with working hard – the harder you work, the better you get and the more fun you’ll have.

Another piece of advice I’ve heard is that if you’re anxious or nervous, that’s just another version of being excited. I was like wow – that’s interesting because I get so nervous before games and before I am on TV! I often struggle with that, and hearing someone say that gives such a great perspective.

What would I say to other girls? Two things:

The biggest piece of advice comes from my book: if people tell you that something shouldn’t be part of your life or you should push down your passions – don’t. Just be yourself.

The second, like we said before, is to have a community around you – people you trust. Whether that’s adults, friends or people mentoring you, value them. And value the friendships you make, especially in sports. Finally, don’t let anything coaching-wise hurt your confidence in your sport.

Thank you, Pepper.

Thank you to every sports icon taking time on the sidelines to speak with her and every journalist sharing their mic to mentor her.

When girls who might be thinking about quitting their sport hear her or rising journalists watch her, they are emboldened and inspired. And when anyone experiencing bullying or feels they are too anything picks up her book on February 27th (or preorders it now), they will undoubtedly be braver.

More confident.

More ready to show the world exactly who they are and who they are going to be.

I can't think of a message I want girls to hear more.

Looking forward,

Illana

ÊXTRA: Three more things about Pepper's book you won't want to miss: the breathtaking illustrations throughout the book by Jessica Jones, this clip from MAKERS Women featuring Pepper's book journey in her own words, and this recent PIX11 spotlight with Pepper and Être epic mentor Marysol Castro!