Yamonie Jenkins has drawn a huge overnight following on her popular Twitter account.
Yamonie Jenkins’ photos were nothing outrageous, explicit or unusual.
But a tweet that intended to show off pictures from Ohio’s media day last October quickly turned into something much more than just three images of the sophomore point guard with a basketball.
The Reynoldsburg native is now Twitter famous.
Three days and 10,000 followers later, she became the most popular student-athlete at Ohio University — on Twitter, that is.
Followers from all around the world, including Oslo, Norway, have tweeted at her to express how cute they think she is and now the Bobcats are gaining new fans because of her looks. One guy even arranged their marriage, setting a fantasy wedding next March. They’ve never met.
“She’s the one who likes attention,” said sophomore guard Quiera Lampkins, her roommate. “It would be creepy to anyone else. I’d probably have to delete my Twitter. I’d think someone would come and try to find me or something.”
Instead, Jenkins has embraced her new audience — sort of.
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Since Oct. 27, when her original tweet from the media day was retweeted 9,600 times and received 21,600 favorites, she’s been a social media queen, Lampkins said.
On Mondays, there’s the newly created #MonieMonday hashtag, where the guard will post photos of herself. They’re never inappropriate or explicit, just pictures of her dressed up, in her jersey or random selfies.
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However, Wednesdays are usually the days when her Twitter gets the most traffic. Multiple followers usually deem her their “Woman Crush Wednesday.” Frequently, the level of attention Jenkins receives on social media gets so overwhelming even her roommate can’t handle it.
“Sometimes I have to mute her because she’s retweeting everything and I get irritated with that,” Lampkins said. “I have to mute her every Wednesday.”
On more than one occasion, Jenkins has had people she doesn’t know send her screenshots of their smartphones, where her picture serves as a background.
“I get a lot of creepy tweets, so I turned my notifications off so that they don’t come to my phone,” she said.
Jenkins also said that she’s had to block certain people on the social media site. One example: the person who wrote, “Jesus Personally Came Off The Cross & Blessed Your DNA !!!”
Now that Jenkins has hovered around 11,300 Twitter followers for a few months, she admits most of the outlandish messages are in the past. They still pop up every now and then, however.
“The funniest one was this girl said I’m the best point guard at Ohio State,” Jenkins said. “I just replied, ‘Awkward…’ and everybody’s like cussing her out and going off on her.”
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Although the tweets could have been a distraction for Jenkins, she has found normalcy in her social media fandom. Even her teammates, who had no problem dishing out jokes or mocking some of the tweets, have settled down and stopped teasing her about her online popularity.
Jenkins’ other roommate, sophomore guard Tmisht Stinson, said she’s never given Jenkins a hard time about her Twitter following.
Jenkins’ increased following correlates — though unrelatedly — with an uptick in interest in the Bobcats’ performance. Ohio is currently the top seed in the Mid-American Conference and playing its best basketball since the 1994-95 campaign, when it made the NCAA Tournament.
All of Jenkins’ social media attention hasn’t lead to any distractions for the sophomore either. She temporarily led the nation with an 11.0 turnover-to-assists ratio earlier this season — a statistic she prides herself in. She’s averaged 2.8 points and 2.3 assists per game as the Bobcats’ first or second player off the bench, as well.
Now it’s just a waiting period before she gets the Twitter-verified blue checkmark.
“Man, I hope so,” Jenkins said, laughing. “Just kidding!”
@charliehatch_
gh181212@ohio.edu
