Fame comes with its many benefits, but it also is accompanied by a multitude of drawbacks.
LSU gymnast and TikTok star Oliva Dunne (A.K.A. Livvy) has learned that the hard way as she’s been thrust into the spotlight as a college athlete. At just 21-years-old, Dunne has become a household name for her social media presence, her impressive gymnastics skills, and obviously for another reason…
With college being viewed as “some of the best years of your life,” Livvy would probably prefer to have a somewhat normal college experience. However, she’s no normal college student, considering Dunne is the highest paid female athlete in the NCAA, making an exorbitant seven figures in NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) money, and has millions upon millions of followers on social media.
Having your bank account look like that is far from normal when it comes to most college kids, but like I said earlier, those positive side effects coincide with a bevy of negatives as well.
One of those that Oliva Dunne discovered was being a high profile celebrity on a campus with a ton of other people isn’t ideal. The added attention led her to struggle with going to class in the first place, and when a stalker threatened her through a social media direct message.
Dunne says that it’s very common to receive messages from fans through her many social media platforms, but one that she opened up recently actually had a huge impact on her daily life. She told NJ Advance Media:
“I had a scare once with a message that I got about a class I was going to, and I was like ‘you know what, it’s not worth it.’
It was a threat. It seemed like they knew where I was at and what class, and I just decided better (to be) safe than sorry.”
So Oliva Dunne switched to online classes following that, just to be safe. There have been a number of other incidents reported by Livvy and her gymnastics teammates at LSU of men hanging around their practice facility, with one man even sneaking in to watch when he was unauthorized to be in the building.
It would be nice to live in a world where all Dunne had to worry about online was if she rizzed up Baby Gronk or not, but that’s unfortunately not how it is. The young college athlete is living the dream in most aspects, though she does have to navigate some rather difficult moments due to her social media fame.
