Riley Gaines didn’t think saying ‘men and women are different’ would turn her into an influencer -- but it did

This is never a position that I wanted to be in. It's never something that I prepared for. It's never something that I sought after. But I saw a need. I saw a space where nowhere, no one else. Especially given the position that I was in having being directly impacted by the harmful gender ideology movement, I saw very few other people, especially athletes willing to speak up about this. My name is Riley Gaines, I am a contributor at Outkick. I have a podcast, the Games for Girls podcast through Outkick. Love being a part of the Outkick family. I was a collegiate swimmer, A12 time NCAA All American, five time SEC champion, the list goes on. But now I spend my time advocating for the rights of women, for the safeguarding of children, for parental rights, just really for restoring common sense insanity in our culture at the, you know, the public level, but certainly from a legislative perspective as well. It has been a whirlwind these past two years. I've had my eyes open in a lot of ways. But social media, it has allowed for me to continue highlighting not just what happened to me and to the other athletes at that Division One national championships for swimming, but the growing number, the exponential number of stories of this happening to other athletes. Whether it's in actually other people, whether it's in the sports world, whether it's in the corporate world, whether it's in academia, whether it's now. We've seen it in beauty pageants and sororities and in prisons and all over where people are again, being negatively impacted by the agenda that the people in the White House, President Biden and certainly trickling all the way down are pushing on our society and on our culture. And so in doing that, it's wild to me that I've now garnered over, I mean, well over a million followers. I have a million followers, over a million followers just on, on X alone for saying something that in the nearly 250 years we've been established as a country has never been controversial. But now and in the world and the time that we live in, it is deemed controversial. So all I'm saying is men and women are different. There's more to me than just this issue. I'm a big time hunter, as you could probably see from behind me. I do a lot of big game hunting. So I follow a lot of, you know, outdoor hunting, fishing accounts, love that kind of stuff. I'm a big animal lover, have lots of dogs. I follow all all the dogs and dogs accounts sports I'm still very much involved in in sports, keeping up with sports. So I follow my favorite sports teams, which again, it's it's just a wonderful way to be able to in all the different realms that make me me. Social media contributes greatly to to staying up to date, keeping up. And ultimately, I mean, it contributes to the joy that I have on a day-to-day basis. Social media has given me friendships that will serve me for a lifetime, friends that I I wouldn't have made otherwise. People who of course live in different states, it would have been impossible to keep up with if if not for social media. And so for that, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for, again, the impact that it allows people like me, just a recent college graduate, college swimmer and dental school, the impact that it allows me to have. And so I've been able to add lots of titles to my name over these past two years. Of course, advocate now best selling author, which is crazy, but influencer. But that is that is a thing I can add to my resume. And I understand the gravity that comes with that. I understand the the weight that comes with that because I mean, my platform, especially, I've got little girls, you know, young girls looking up to me as a role model and it's it makes my day. There are very few, I think people who we can look up to as role models. And I hope to, with my platform through social media, continue to be that that person for younger, younger girls, the next generation.