Bella Sims won an Olympic medal before her 17th birthday. Now, she’s taking a brief break from elite competition to enjoy the mundanities of life. The swimming star is the subject of Bella Sims Needs A Life, a nine-part series produced by Portal A that will drop on her official Instagram page.
As 18-year-old Sims prepares to attend the University of Florida in the fall, she’s catching up on the activities she previously put aside. In a trailer for Bella Sims Needs A Life, the titular star discusses the impact her swimming career has had on her social life. “My life is awesome,” Sims said, “but it’s not like the life of a lot of my friends. So for a week, it will be fun to have somewhat of a normal life.”
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
During that week, Sims will experience everything from high school prom to dog ownership. Portal A, which partnered with Excel Management on Bella Sims Needs A Life, will distribute the project via an “Instagram takeover.” The nine installments will include a mix of vertically-oriented images and video.
The multimedia nature of Bella Sims Needs A Life allows it to fit into Portal A’s Moonshots program, which has been revamped since its initial 2018 launch. The digital content company initially used its Moonshots to support projects from creators like Mike Diva and Alexis G. Zall, but a 2023 shift directed the $500,000 fund toward projects that feature “emerging talent.” The common threads between Portal A’s latest Moonshots is that they “are innovative in format and have a differentiated creative point of view.”
Portal A has often partnered with athletes in the past, but its partnership with Sims also represents a shift in its sports content plans. In the era of lucrative NIL deals that allow college athletes to become creators, Sims will have a chance to grow her social media presence once she arrives in Gainesville later this year. It might not even take that long for her to become a household name — she’s expected to compete for more medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
