This story has been corrected to reflect that Whitmore played in the Partner Leagues, and not in the MLB. We apologize for the error.

Along with Kelsie Whitmore’s impressive career, she is embracing her passions within her mission to inspire women around the world, being vulnerable, and opening up about her struggles. 

Whitemore is a 27-year-old professional baseball player from Temecula, CA, and has shaken up the world of sports as the first woman to play in the Major League Baseball Partner Leagues. Now, she makes history again as the top pick within the Women’s Pro Baseball league (WPBL) draft, which will be the first women’s pro league since 1954. 

Whitmore wishes to be an example of something more than just who she is within the baseball world. She stated that she’d like people to get to know who she is as a person, not just as a baseball player. 

“I fell in love with trying to figure out who Kelsie is outside of the game,” Whitmore said. 

There is so much more to her than the statistics within her career, and she makes this evident through the messages she puts out into the world. This is especially so when it comes to her passion project and clothing brand, which is called “Be You.” The brand encourages authenticity within the world, even if it makes you feel inconsequential. 

On Be You’s website, the mission statement is stated as, “to inspire others that we don’t fall short to others’ opinions, but rise to our own abilities through strength and perseverance.”

This is the type of energy that Whitmore wishes to exude to prevail despite feeling inadequate due to others wishing you to be something else.

“I just want to use that as a testimony, to show people that even if you’re in your darkest times of adversity on or off the field, if you keep going, it’s possible to get out of that in the best way. It’s possible to get to where you want to be,” Whitmore said.

She mentioned how in the third year of playing professional baseball, she began to lose her own identity. Her entire personality and life was wrapped up in the sport, so much so that if she lost a game, she would feel as though she was a failure, which was detrimental to her well-being. This brought on a lot of sadness, despite what it may have looked like on the outside due to her success. 

“There was this loneliness that came with it, where sometimes not even my family could understand. And I think a lot of people don’t realize there was a lot of struggle that came with it before there was success or before there were positive outcomes,” Whitmore said.

Nonetheless, these adversaries are exactly what inspired her to create the brand and led her back to what truly mattered to her. 

“If there’s anything I want people to take away from me, it’s to not allow your identity to get wrapped up in what you do for a living, and make sure to be someone outside of that too,” Whitmore said. 

She expressed the importance of being authentic within what she puts out into the world, even though people can often skim over who she is apart from her athletic identity. 

“I’m someone who wants to chase the best version of myself every day, both on and off the field. And that’s what my brand represents, and that’s what I want to represent,” Whitmore said.

Despite what her journey has been and the pushback she has experienced within her process of being the only woman in many spaces, she has not let anything ruin her drive to be the best version of herself. 

You can see Kelsie next pitching for the Women’s Pro Baseball league in San Francisco as she continues to make history.