If It Doesn't Sound Like Your Kid, Don't Post It

There's a particular kind of social media post that I think every parent of a young athlete has seen.

It's a picture from a game.

A long caption about dedication, resilience and chasing dreams.

A few hashtags.

And you read it and think:

There is absolutely no way my kid wrote this.

Maybe they didn't.

And that's not necessarily the parent's fault. When you start thinking about recruiting and personal branding, it's very easy to fall into the trap of trying to make everything sound impressive.

You want your child to look motivated.

Professional.

Committed.

Like someone a college coach would want.

But somewhere along the way, you can lose the actual kid.

Your 15-year-old doesn't need to sound like a CEO

Young athletes are young.

They should sound like it.

That doesn't mean their posts need to be sloppy or inappropriate. It just means they shouldn't suddenly start writing like they've spent ten years in corporate communications.

If your kid normally says "That was brutal but we got through it," don't turn it into:

"Today's adversity provided an invaluable opportunity for personal growth."

Nobody believes it.

And more importantly, it doesn't help anyone get to know them.

The point of personal branding isn't to make a teenager sound more impressive.

It's to make them more recognizable.

Personality is an advantage

Think about the athletes you remember.

Usually there's something about them.

They're funny.

They're incredibly competitive.

They're quiet but work incredibly hard.

They're the person everyone goes to when something needs to get done.

They're obsessed with improving.

They love being part of a team.

That's personality.

And it matters.

Two athletes can have almost identical statistics and still leave very different impressions because of how they communicate and carry themselves.

Social media gives athletes a chance to let some of that personality come through.

They shouldn't waste that opportunity by trying to sound like everyone else.

Let them have a voice

This is where parents have to step back a little.

Yes, parents are probably going to be involved. Especially when kids are younger.

You might take the photos. You might help with the video. You might remind them that they haven't posted in three weeks.

But eventually, the athlete needs to own the voice.

Otherwise you're building your version of their personal brand.

Not theirs.

And that becomes pretty obvious.

A coach isn't interested in seeing a perfectly managed account if the person behind it can't communicate in the same way.

The best thing you can teach an athlete is how to tell their own story.

Not how to have their story told for them.

It doesn't have to be perfect

In fact, I think some of the pressure to make everything perfect is counterproductive.

The perfectly edited video.

The perfect photo.

The perfect caption.

The perfect posting schedule.

It's a lot.

And it can make social media feel like another performance.

It doesn't need to be.

A good post that sounds like your athlete is better than a great post that doesn't.

A quick thought is better than something they've spent an hour rewriting because they're worried about what people will think.

The goal is consistency, not perfection.

That's also why AI needs to be handled carefully

AI can be incredibly useful for young athletes.

It can help them brainstorm ideas, organize a content calendar or turn a rough thought into a caption.

But there's a difference between helping someone find their voice and replacing it.

If every athlete uses AI to write the same polished captions, we're going to end up with a lot of very professional-looking accounts that all sound exactly the same.

That's not a personal brand.

That's a template.

Use the technology to make the process easier.

Just don't let it erase the person.

Because ultimately, the most valuable thing an athlete can bring to their personal brand isn't perfect content.

It's themselves.