Emma Leyden

🚨The wait is finally over! 🚨 Our documentary on Pick Her Up Basketball is now live! 🎥✨Dive into the heart of our women’s basketball community of over 700 members and help us share our story far and wide! If you are able to financially support our mission of creating safe spaces for women to hoop consistently, please consider donating at the link in our bio or visit pickherupball.com/donate 🎥 crew: Director: @korheea Director of Photography: @mandy.rasmussen Producers: @korheea @mandy.rasmussen @eleyden @sajameso 1st AC: Anabelle Sutton Editors: @theoschear , Amelia Alemayehu, @nash.rood

It was a different time, a different life 🎶 — what a difference a year can make ✨🌼💛

Forging my own path & letting intuition show me the way ✨🍃🌊 Let’s see what happens…

ta ta for now England, it’s been lovely ✌🏼🇬🇧

[an essay to 2025]: In building this Reel, I realized the sounds of these clips together perfectly sum up how my year felt. So, I intentionally didn’t add a song & instead love hearing the rawness of my life. While I hear so many loud, laughter-filled moments, (& that’s probably what you see from me mostly on social media) woven between them, just as clearly, were the quiet, solo moments. Moments of trying to figure out how to build the life I actually want. Some highlights: • started a new job - yay to consistent income! • I showed uppp day in and day out for my body that did a remarkable job of healing all year long. We made it to about 90% full capacity now! #acl • started and nearly finished a coaching certification program that has been so fulfilling both professionally and spiritually • first full year (since 8th grade!?) of being single 😱 leaned into independence, growth & compiling truly unbelievably hilarious stories that should probably turn into a book one day. • Became a master potter for a month 🍶 • Sang a lot of karaoke, often alongside the angelic voice of my sweet friend @tiffyeh_ • Got two tattoos • My dream came true of having a @wnba team in my hometown & I witnessed the historic @valkyries debut • Spontaneously ran a 5K in my Christmas underwear • Remained undefeated (seriously) in pop-a-shot against every.single.man who tried. • Saw my Lord and Savior Queen Bey herself! 👑 • Went to Spain with my besties • And Paris with my mom, including my favorite restaurant in the world for her birthday And so so much more… My word of the year was: Expand. And expand, I did. I took up space in a way I never have. Found my full voice. Stretched emotionally, physically, and creatively, especially when it felt uncomfortable, scary or extremely hard. My phrase and intention this year is: trust & enjoy the process. I have so many goals for this next year…looking forward to seeing where 2026 takes me!

Forgive me, felt like adding something spicy to the feed 🌶️

Happy one year anniversary to my new ACL 💕 This 1 min Reel barelyyy scratches the surface of all that has gone into this past year. I learned real quick that healing is not linear. It has taken a different kind of deep grit, patience and determination. Setbacks are to be expected but they always came at the most unexpected times. While growth is a gift, it’s also damn hard. And yet through it all, I learned so much about who I am. I built such gratitude for my body’s capabilities. The tiny moments became big milestones. It has been a transformational year, to say the least (& I still have more to go)… The last clip here is me in the same spot where I hobbled on crutches post surgery. This time, I just got out of my 12 month post op appointment and got cleared to not come back. The celebratory moment called for a silly dance. Never forget to celebrate your wins, especially when by yourself! To all of you who have followed the journey and been supporting near and far, from the bottom of my heart thank you for pulling me through, for sharing your own challenges, and for motivating me to keep working. To my phenomenal physical therapist @jasondphysio , there are no words for the gratitude I have for you being there every single step of the way. You, more than anyone, have seen it all, and I truly couldn’t get to where I am today without you. Thank you for literally making no two workouts the same (!!), for training my mind as much as my body, and sharing your expertise and care so abundantly. & now you’re stuck with me as a homie for life too 😂 let’s keep going, we got goals to chase! #acl #aclrecovery #aclsurgery

Swipe through to see the many emotions of my Mumsie after getting *matching mother daughter tattoos* 🤭😂 About our tattoo: two energy waves, each its own line but always moving in rhythm and sync with the other, just like us. We came to the idea through Bell’s theorem, a physics concept that says two photons once connected will always move in sync, no matter how far apart they are. My mom and I are incredibly lucky to have a soulmate connection that deeply relates to this concept. Throughout all of life’s wins and losses, we continue to shape and reflect each other effortlessly. To represent just that, a cool part of these tattoos is when next to each other, they are the perfect mirrored flipped image of each other. A permanent tattoo for a permanent bond. Here’s to 2 tattoos in two months… can we say I’m addicted now? Thank you @joeyhilll for bringing this one to life.

Surreal moment. Pinch me, I’m dreaming! To my most amazing friends and basketball community: Thank you for getting me here. The cheers heard in this video and the care for my safety that they gave me today represent how they show up for me every week. I’m so lucky to have such a supportive crew. I’m still taking baby steps to fully playing. But today marked a big milestone of mentally progressing, more than anything. I’m training my mind through fear, I’m listening and trusting my body and the work I’ve done to get here, and I’m staying equally patient as I am determined. & to my little knee: I love ya. Look at us 🥹🫶🏼

Gimme pizza ➡️ looking for pizza ➡️ found pizza! ➡️ happy girl ☺️🍕

July Spain dump pt 2 bc this trip deserves to be in the archives twice 💃🏻🎊😊

To me, birthdays are about turning a new page, resetting for another precious year of life. Bring it on 33 ✨💛 (more thoughts as you swipe thru)