she’s so fly

Beija Marie Velez is an irrepressible force. She designed her first basketball shoe at 7 and Adidas recently released an exclusive based on a prototype she created. She launched her own fashion brand while still in college, created social media content for Usher, interviewed Linkin Park, modeled for Nike, and was immortalized in the NBA Live Mobile video game. (Yes, you read that right: not the WNBA. The NBA. Velez’s avatar takes on some of the league’s hottestat stars. And holds her own.)

You get the sense that she does the same in person. Velez admits, “my biggest dream was to be in the WNBA, but I did a report in high school on the salary coming in as a rookie and it shocked me at how much women were underpaid in comparison to men playing professional ball.”

Unwilling to play a game rigged against her, Velez decided to forge her own way. Turning her back on a basketball scholarship, she dropped out of college to “pursue