Texas native Jennifer Yepez-Blundell is on a mission to ensure the $484 billion sports industry doesn’t forget about the Latina community.
“The stereotypes around sports and what we usually see in sports is through a singular lens, and we’re just saying, ‘Hey, widen that lens, we exist, we’re here, and let’s grow sports together,'” Yepez-Blundell said.
Yepez-Blundell remembers transitioning from high school softball to the collegiate level and not having anyone she could identify with.
“I was fortunate that the high school I played at was very diverse, and so there were a lot of people with my lived experiences, but going to college, I was the only one, and it was lonely,” she said.
The life lessons she learned as a young adult helped Yepez-Blundell in sports marketing, where she represented some of the biggest brands.
However, the consistency of being the only Latina in the room didn’t go unnoticed.
“From the field to the front office, Latinas are missing from the narrative as fans, athletes, and storytellers,” she said.
After years of working in corporate America, Yepez-Blundell took another route, finding the perfect person to help bring her vision to life when she met Karina Martinez, someone just as passionate.
“Jennifer and I both agree that Latinas have been invisible in sports. When you look at the athletes and the stories told, we know a lot about other female athletes, but we don’t know about some of the best Latina female athletes,” Martinez said.
Ready to change the narrative, DRAFTED, the first culture-driven media company focusing on Latina sports, was officially launched in 2023.
“For us, it was how we bring those stories forward so they can inspire the next generation, so they don’t have to feel like us. Like we’re searching for that one person that looks like us. Every team and league should have our stories embedded into it,” Martinez said.
