Columbus native Melanie Krings' SheSports app supports female athletes
When Columbus native Melanie Krings' daughter got a smart phone, she was a big fan of Youtube Shorts, and while nothing she was watching was inappropriate or really harming anything, it was mostly mindless — something the kids nowadays have taken to calling "brainrot."
Krings' husband, Kelly, saw this and thought there should be a platform with more inspiration, even helpful content for girls their daughter's age. So, they started thinking about a solution.
"There's really not a lot out there for them that's not social media, that's not games, those types of things," she said.
Melanie had experience in the pageant world, and the pair of them had experience in business. Kelly had some contacts within the name, image and likeness arena of college sports (NIL) and, due to the way college sports work, female athletes generally had less work in those contracts than male. Gears started to turn in their heads.
"The disparity between not only the number of deals that female athletes are exposed to when it comes to NIL but also the dollar amounts that come with those deals, the male athletes, by far, have that market cornered, and there's not much left for those female athletes, which is a shame. So we said, how can we bring these two sort of different issues together?" Krings said.
They could simply start the very thing they wanted to see, connecting girls with college athlete role models that they can interact with in a positive, safe environment. They called it SheSports, opening the digital gates in November 2025.
Melanie, Alivia and Kelly Krings pose with Husker volleyball alumna Lexi Rodriguez (center right), Alivia and Lexi donning matching SheSports jerseys. Melanie (far left), a Columbus native, and husband Kelly (far right) developed SheSports as a way to support female athletes and give girls ages 8-18 a platform for positive online content.
Users download the app, from the App Store or Google Play, and create a profile. It has some of the look and feel of social media, which they wanted to emulate as many, especially teenage, girls like social media. It's one-sided though. They can simply ask these athletes questions and view their content, with no interaction with each other, open messaging or commenting.
"It has that same look and feel, but it is not social media and this was a huge thing for us, because not only did we want this to be a really empowering space, but we wanted it to be very safe, and a lot of that stems from not having those open messaging boards where you have the keyboard warriors posting whatever they want," Krings said.
In addition to the athletes, several professionals are on the platform to talk about things like mental and physical health. Right now, they have a sports psychologist and a mental health therapist and are onboarding nutritionists in the coming weeks.
The athletes also post some "behind the scenes" content, like "what's in my bag" videos and content about being a college athlete outside of the games. Former Husker Macy Bosinger recently launched a podcast on the app, talking with athletes and others in women's sports about the challenges and bright spots in what they do.
Users can also leave feedback for the athletes, Krings said, and the athletes love being involved in the app and giving back to the young woman athletes of tomorrow.
They have collegiate volleyball, basketball, soccer, track and field, bowling and swimming athletes, and are now around 4,000 users. Support on all fronts has been good, Krings said.
"What we did was found a really great app developer over on the west side of the country, and they had a lot of experience in doing this type of work, big companies like Nike and Google. So we brought them on board, and they've been a great partner for us in helping develop this app," Krings said.
On Sunday, March 22, Lexi Rodriguez, Husker volleyball name of legend, will visit the Lindsay Event Center first, from noon to 2 p.m., then Lakeview High School from 4 to 6 p.m., a short meet-and-greet event for girls ages 8-18. Rodriguez has been a big part of the app's foundation and success, Krings said.
"Not only is she an athlete posting content and she's the face of the company, but also is a co-founder. So she was really integral in helping us figure out 'What does the athlete side of this look like when we sign an NIL deal with an athlete? How much can we ask them without it being too much because they're managing so much in their lives already?'" Krings said.
At its heart, SheSports is all about those age 8-18 girls, aspiring athletes, young women thinking maybe they're facing their problems alone or wondering what things are like in their future.
"We want them to know that when it comes to their mental health, there's this safe space that they can go to get support, to be seen, to be heard in the challenges that they're facing. They're not alone," Krings said. "Look at all these amazing female athletes who are playing at the highest level, collegiately and in the pros, and they're going through the same things, the same challenges."
