How Livvy Dunne Turned Early Fame Into a Multi-Million-Dollar Brand

Former LSU gymnast and internet megastar Livvy Dunne took the social media world by storm during the pandemic, garnering millions of followers and paving the way for college athletes in the NIL era.

Since graduating, she hasn’t missed a step, turning her massive following into major brand partnerships with companies like Vuori, Grubhub and Fanatics, and recently securing a role in the Baywatch reboot. Now, the 23-year-old is entering the next phase of her career — one defined as much by ownership as it is by exposure.

Dunne has been the face of countless brands, but at this stage in her career, her mindset has shifted.

“I really value those longer partnerships,” she tells Entrepreneur. “One-off deals can be great, especially if it’s a product you genuinely love, but long-term relationships show loyalty to the team, the partnership, and the product.”

That doesn’t mean she’s chasing equity in just any brand that comes her way. She’s intentional about aligning with companies she genuinely believes in, a philosophy that is evident in her partnership with the energy drink brand Accelerator Active Energy.

“Accelerator was the first brand I had equity in,” Dunne says. “In a sense, it’s like my baby.”

Image credit: Accelerator Active Energy

It’s ‘Geaux Time’ for Accelerator

Dunne has worked with Accelerator for the past three years, helping develop her signature Cotton Candy flavor, which has quickly become the brand’s No. 1 SKU across both retail and e-commerce and is on track to surpass one million cans sold by April, some of which her teammates at LSU used to stock the locker room fridge.

“The whole squad loved it,” she says, noting several of them did deals with accelerator as well.

Unfortunately, that level of success hasn’t been the reality for most student-athletes — especially women. Dunne is working to change that through the Livvy Fund, an initiative designed to help LSU’s female student-athletes secure NIL deals and close the gap. Accelerator became the first brand to contribute.

“It’s so important for female athletes to capitalize during college, because there aren’t many professional opportunities afterward,” Dunne says. “That’s why it means so much to have a brand like Accelerator supporting the Livvy Fund.”

Don’t sweat the haters

Dunne began posting on social media around age 10, documenting her gymnastics journey. During the pandemic, her already growing platform exploded from hundreds of thousands to millions of followers, and her bank account ballooned to seven figures by age 19, thanks to NIL rule changes.

While platforms like Instagram and TikTok have opened doors once unimaginable, they haven’t come without drawbacks. But as a gymnast, Dunne has been conditioned to handle criticism her entire life.

“Gymnastics is a judgmental sport,” she says. “Social media is judgmental, too. Sometimes it’s out of your control.”

Rather than going back and forth arguing with strangers in the comments, Dunne prefers to make light of viral situations and even embrace the jokes.

Last September, she was filmed with visible armpit sweat while cheering on her boyfriend, pitcher Paul Skenes, at a Pirates game — and turned it into a brand deal with Secret deodorant, creating an ad centered on stress sweat.

“Social media is supposed to be fun,” Dunne says. “It’s not the news — it doesn’t have to be serious all the time. I try not to take anything too seriously.”

While she often makes light of her surreal rise, Dunne has put in the work to master her craft, largely without a roadmap.

“I was pretty self-taught, because this isn’t something you learn in school,” she says. “I was always paying attention to the analytics, and what worked and what didn’t on my own posts, without knowing NIL would eventually change.”

It helps that she unabashedly adores her career.

“I love posting, engaging with fans, and connecting with people who actually enjoy the drink,” Dunne adds. “It doesn’t feel like work when you love what you’re doing.”

Former LSU gymnast and internet megastar Livvy Dunne took the social media world by storm during the pandemic, garnering millions of followers and paving the way for college athletes in the NIL era.

Since graduating, she hasn’t missed a step, turning her massive following into major brand partnerships with companies like Vuori, Grubhub and Fanatics, and recently securing a role in the Baywatch reboot. Now, the 23-year-old is entering the next phase of her career — one defined as much by ownership as it is by exposure.

Dunne has been the face of countless brands, but at this stage in her career, her mindset has shifted.