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Former college volleyball star Kayla Simmons is lighting up TikTok these days.
The Gainesville, Florida native was standout on the hardwood in college.
Simmons finished her college career with over 2,000 assists for Conference USA’s Marshall Thundering Herd.
But volleyball wasn’t her only interest. Simmons also made a name for herself in the worlds of modeling and social media influencing.
Though she says that the university wasn’t always entirely supportive of those endeavors.
“Being a former college athlete and growing up around sports has taught me to push myself to the limit,” Simmons said in 2019 while applying to a spot in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. “College athletics was a great experience for me, but it also taught me some valuable lessons. I was told by my school administrators that the pictures I post are inappropriate because of my body, I was even asked to delete my Instagram at one point. I was torn bc I felt I couldn’t embrace my body & play the sport I love. I’ve since learned that you can’t let other people affect how you feel about yourself.”
Nevertheless, she stuck with them and the decision has proven fruitful. Simmons has over one million followers on her must-see Instagram account and has gone viral time and time again.
She’s also extremely popular on TikTok, where she’s amassed over 844,000 followers. She caused a major stir on Thursday night with her latest post on the platform.
The short 11-second video is set to the song “She’s Kinda Hot” by the band 5 Seconds of Summer. It features her in a low cut shirt singing along to the song. And, well, the lyrics seem to fit pretty well.
Simmons’ popularity has exploded over the summer, and it’s really not difficult to see why.
Maybe Marshall University administrators want to rethink things the next time they try to stifle their athletes’ creativity.