Yahoo News Sedona Prince Learned to Prioritize 'My Own Self-Love' After Calling Out Inequalities at March Madness
The college basketball star is "grateful" for all the highs and lows she’s experienced with her mental health for the lessons they brought her, which she shares with her TikTok followers
Sedona Prince has experienced incredible highs and some tough lows over the last two years, ever since she went viral for pointing out the steep inequalities between the men's and women's workout facilities at the 2021 March Madness Tournament.
Prince, now 22, already had a solid following on TikTok before she posted the video showing the single set of dumbbells given to the women — and the dozens of exercise machines and free weights for the men — and she had experience with calling out wrongs, from her medical malpractice suit against the University of Texas in 2020. But her followers skyrocketed from there, and it was the moment when she realized she was "on the right path," Prince tells PEOPLE.
"It just reminded me that my platform is useful," she says. "And it gave other athletes this reassurance to know that you will be heard, you will be seen if something is going on."
Since that moment in March 2021, Prince's life has "completely flipped upside down." She's now living in San Diego, a change she made after learning that an elbow injury would stop her from playing her final college season at the University of Oregon this year and after going through a tough breakup that was "very public" on TikTok, where she has 2.8 million followers. Prince is also taking advantage of the NCAA's NIL policy, passed in June 2021, which allows college students to take on brand partnerships and make money off their likeness for the first time, after years of criticism.
Related:NCAA Basketball Player Shows Stark Differences Between Men's and Women's Weight Rooms
But after learning that her elbow required surgery, Prince "at first was heartbroken."
"I had this injury, and it got worse and worse, and my mental health was declining. And all of a sudden I had been losing TikTok followers and my brand," she says. "I truly had thought that I had lost everything. In that moment, I was just so lost and I was scared, and I didn't know what was going to come, what my future would be. So I said, 'You know what? I just need to remember what it feels like to be a human again, to be Sedona.' "
Prince would walk around her new neighborhood and "cried so much," but the time ended up being a "blessing in disguise."
"I wasn't posting on TikTok during this time. So I was without my brand, without my followers, without anything else that I had, but I still was me, and I loved me, and I found me again. I found the things that I love to do, my hobbies, the things that made me happy."
And when Prince did come back to TikTok, she found that like the times before when she opened up about her mental health, her followers appreciated her openness and honesty.
"I would cry on social media, and just be like, 'Hey, I'm really sad right now. I can't post. I'm so sorry. I physically cannot. I need to take care of myself.' And watching my follower base accept that, and be like, 'That's normal, take care of yourself. We love you. Come back whenever,' was so healing for me, knowing that pressure wasn't there and that they see me as a human," she says.
Through her years attempting to balance basketball, school and brand partnerships, Prince has learned that she has to prioritize her "own self-love, and self-care." She recently got a puppy, and together they'll "go on an adventure," or Prince will "take a bath, or do a face mask, or watch TV, which I never allowed myself to do in college, because my schedule was so taxing."
And on tough days, Prince reminds herself — and others — that "everything happens for a reason."
"Everything, no matter if you think it doesn't happen for a reason, I promise you it does," she says. "Everything, every little thing, every bad thing, every good thing, it all happens for a reason, and there's a purpose for it. So just believe that, and that will get you through every day."
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