Why Aces’ Plum wants fans to know she repeated fourth grade

Nearly two decades ago, Kelsey Plum was faced with a choice.

Now, at 29 years old, the Aces guard wants young girls to know about it. So she had it inscribed on her commemorative collectible bobblehead.

When fans enter Michelob Ultra Arena on Sunday to watch Plum and the Aces take on the Los Angeles Sparks, they’ll be gifted a seemingly normal figurine — her plastic head will be a disproportionate size for her body, and it’ll move comically.

Things get interesting in the “Did You Know” section on the back of the box. It lists her birthday (Aug. 24, 1994), her favorite color (blue), her favorite sweet (licorice), drink (water) and hobbies (napping and playing cards).

Oh, and a random fact: Kelsey Plum, a former academic All-American at the University of Washington, repeated the fourth grade.

It wasn’t an easy experience for her. In fact, she can’t recall a single positive memory from that year when asked. But she got through it, and she hopes anyone in her situation knows that they can, too.

Bullied by classmates

Plum is the second-youngest of four siblings. She has two older sisters, Kaitlyn and Lauren, and a younger brother, Dan. Growing up in Poway, California, near San Diego, Plum struggled in school.

After initially going through fourth grade at a local Montessori school, Plum didn’t feel prepared to advance.

“I was young for my class, and I just didn’t feel on track with other kids and stuff,” Plum said.

Plum has dyslexia, which made school difficult sometimes. Even outside of the classroom, she was “bullied and outcast” by her classmates.

That led her to transfer to a public school, Midland Elementary. In the process of making that decision, Plum’s mother, Katie, thought repeating the fourth grade would be beneficial for her education and confidence.

But Katie gave her daughter the freedom to make the decision, and Plum agreed.

“In life, and a lot of times as a kid, you feel like you’re the only one that’s going through this,” Plum said. “A lot of kids struggle in school. They feel like they don’t belong. I felt like that my whole middle school, even into high school.”

Plum said she feels she has a “rhythm in life” now, and basketball has been a large part of that journey.

But she didn’t have it as an outlet in middle school, and even her preferred sport made her stand out from her family. Like their mom, Plum’s sisters played volleyball. Her brother followed in her dad Jim’s footsteps and played football.

Now a three-time WNBA All-Star and two-time champion, Plum’s success knows no bounds. Fans can go to her Instagram and see it all: orange carpet photos from WNBA All-Star weekend; countless photos from the Paris Olympics, where she became a gold medalist; and a paid partnership with Google in which she seamlessly reads an AI-generated answer on camera.

When she hears young girls say that they’re “not smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough,” she realizes they don’t understand where she came from.

“I was that girl,” she said. “And I’m not saying I have it together now, but I want to offer encouragement to just keep being you, finding your way, and everything will work out.”

‘It’s personal’

Even once Plum made the decision to repeat the fourth grade, it wasn’t smooth sailing. She was placed with a teacher she “didn’t vibe with,” and her few friends were in a different class. Her parents told her that if she wanted a new teacher, she’d have to ask the principal herself.

Her parents advised her to say “it’s personal,” when asked for a reason, and that’s exactly what she did as she made the successful request.

The phrase the 10-year-old Plum’s parents recommended could still be useful now. She went through a public divorce in the offseason, something she addressed via social media. Her goal this season is to “choose joy.”

“I’m very open about things in like my life and my journey. And so I feel like that also helps me grow, and in turn it helps other people,” Plum said.

She learned that lesson when she opened up about her struggle with anxiety and depression as she transitioned from being the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer to the WNBA’s No. 1 overall pick in 2017, and people shared their own stories in response.

“You just don’t want to feel alone,” Plum said. “At the end of they day, we’re human beings. We want connection.”

Maybe fans will be reminded of that fact when they look at her plastic bobblehead.

Contact Callie Lawson-Freeman at clawsonfreeman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.