A’ja Wilson’s Bag Is Full of Squishmallows, Sour Patch Kids, and Sentimental Value

Hey, Vogue, I'm A'ja Wilson,

and this is what's in my bag.

[upbeat rhythmic music]

This is my favorite bag in the whole, wide world

and my three Labubus.

I didn't fall for the trend at all.

Lovely fans got me these.

These are their outfits.

This has to be my favorite one,

because he's just decked out in the A'One brand.

You know how we do.

This is the outside of the bag, but inside the bag,

oh, it's about to get lit.

My wallet, and I have to have two pairs of glasses.

Because I really don't know what the function may bring,

so I always make sure that I am prepared.

These are my Michael Kors.

I kinda got like a smooth,

little silver action going on here.

And then, I got the staple black pieces.

They're a little dirty, but I be needing to see.

And then I have my Louis Vuitton wallet

that I will not open up for you guys, but it's heavy.

I would say, when it comes to my glasses,

it's one of my favorite accessories

because I feel like it just aligns with my face,

if that makes sense.

I kinda like this, it's a business look.

So when it comes to my lip gloss,

I just make sure that I have something

that is just not just cute and glossy,

but more so, it actually moisturize my lips when I need.

And I love my lip gloss kit,

'cause it's not just a lip gloss kit.

My pimple patches, gotta have 'em.

I wear these in game, it doesn't matter.

I have to have my pimple patches.

So this is kind of like a lotta different things.

When it comes to my lip glosses,

I like 'em in any type of way.

I love this case 'cause it has a little mirror.

So this is my brow and hair essentials kit.

Obviously, edge drop, Cecred, they do their big one.

Put that on all the time.

And but when it comes to my brows,

I love a good brow work

because it kinda brings the face together

without having to do a lot of makeup.

And this is kinda just like the glue

to make the brows stick.

One of my favorite kits, for sure.

And take it from someone that doesn't really pay

a whole lotta attention to her hair in game,

I try to at least make sure that my brows

and edges are intact,

'cause that's the first thing people really look at.

I never wanted to lose the beauty of being a woman

and a girl that can still hoop and still crush it on court.

So ever since I was a young girl,

I would always tie my uniform different

or do something different just to bring my personality

to the court.

This is my bathroom kit.

I'm terrified to open this,

so I'm just [laughing] gonna talk about it.

Has my Tide to Go wipes.

I gotta have my Olay hand lotion.

Got some Poo-Pourri up in here,

a little bit of everything.

This is really for planes, like to make sure

that I have my, like my bathroom with me

when I go on planes.

Have some plane etiquette, folks,

when you go to that bathroom, please.

People use it after you.

I be making sure my vitamin C is on lock

when I go on the road,

and I think everyone should do that.

And also, my congestion relief spray.

I'm ready for this plane ride.

I do not play with people and their germs.

My favorite snacks [laughing] isn't the healthiest.

I love me some Sour Patch Kids.

And let me tell y'all,

these strips, they're new on the block, and they're fire.

Am I a person that gets to snacks before they drop?

I don't know, maybe.

And gotta have the classic Sour Patch Kids,

and the blue ones are the best flavor.

I sometimes think, me, myself, I'm a Sour Patch Kid,

so why not have them as a snack?

My teammates sometimes even know

that I'm gonna always have a snack on me,

so they like to ask me for things.

But I don't like to share. [laughing]

These could come out in between a game.

Any time my stomach's growling, the snack's coming out,

and I have no shame in that.

Oh, yes.

Y'all, this is my favorite thing in my bag.

This is my grandmother's coin purse.

Literally, she carried it in her purse.

And for people that don't know me,

I have a wonderful relationship with my grandmother.

She passed away in 2016.

When she passed, my mom said

that she left this coin purse for me.

And when I tell you it has everything

down to her like driving license and identification cards.

It's just a reminder that she's constantly with me,

like literally, and this is a piece of her

that I carry with me every single day.

So I don't put coins in it

because my heart's in it. [laughing]

I feel like my grandmother was just,

she always just showed up as her true self

and she was always passionate in whatever she did.

And she loved knitting quilts.

She loved putting LEGOs together.

She loved watching, like, it was just anything

that she just saw and was a part of,

she was always just so passionate and giving and kind.

And I hope that I can be a pinch of that

when I play or when I come in contact with fans

or just the life that I live.

[sighing] My bag buddy is [laughing] something

that me and my boyfriend both have in our bags.

This is Ollie the Octopus. [laughing]

This has been in multiple bags, suitcases, anything.

This is something that my boyfriend and I share,

because the way our seasons are,

we sometimes overlap and we're not always there

for each other on the road.

So we got each other these little Squishmallows

just to, when we see 'em, it reminds us of each other.

And I love it deeply.

He's my best friend, my right hand, my better half.

And so these are just reminders of him.

And yeah, he has one in his backpack as well. [laughing]

I'm such a sap.

I'm such a girly girl.

I love it, okay guys, more things. [laughing]

When my boyfriend sends me like flowers

or Edible Arrangements, I keep the notes.

This is a note he actually wrote

on a Ritz-Carlton notepad, and Bam does this thing

where he hides them.

He hides them in all of my stuff,

and sometimes I feel like I love it

because I don't necessarily read the note right then.

But when I find the note,

sometimes I need exactly what the note is about.

And I'm grateful to have somebody like that.

And so yeah, I don't really read them all the time,

but it seems like they're always on time

when I do read them.

Becky, my coach, she made us write something

that we wanted to accomplish before a game.

And she was just like, After the game,

I want you to read your note and see if you did

what you wanted.

And I could read you actually from here, I said,

Trust God, release all your burdens onto Him.

Play free and play forgiven.

And like, I literally wrote this

before a playoff game actually,

and we ended up winning the game.

Okay, yeah, this is another one I can't really open up,

but this is my girls kit, y'all.

Got everything I need and more

when it comes to just being a girl.

I got my Tampax up in there, got a little medication

to help me calm down a little bit

when people are getting on my nerves.

Always prepared, that's another thing

my mom always taught me just growing up.

Just be prepared.

Always be prepared for any moment, and I am.

I make sure, even at the age of 29,

I'm going to always listen to my momma

and be prepared. [laughing]

I hope that, you know, women athletes are,

including myself, that we are building a platform

for particularly the younger athletes to be able

to be them true selves.

Like it shouldn't be taboo that I'm like,

I have my Tampax.

It shouldn't be taboo that I'm talking about my body

and what I have to go through.

Like yes, I play on my period and I kick ass on my period.

Like, that should be talked about,

and I hope that, as women athletes,

that we continue to uplift this platform

and let young girls know that, no,

you can still be your true self and live through that

while being great at what you do on the field,

off the field, on the court, off the court,

no matter where you are.

Yeah, y'all, this is the technology.

This is where it gets a lotta fun.

I have my brand charging kit.

It got all my cords, my headphones, all that up in there.

When it comes to my phone, my Google Pixel,

I do not play around about it.

You see I have my little influencer thing, but yes,

this is my Google Pixel 10.

And then this is my eye mask.

I go into just a different world when I put this on.

It massages everything here, it heats,

it plays white noises.

It just really calms me down.

When you cut it off, she says goodbye.

Like it's pretty legit.

[Interviewer] Whose ideas is it to do all the TikToks?

[A'ja laughing] Talk to me about that.

When it comes to our TikToks,

I may have something to do with it.

Am I the CEO of bringing it together?

Maybe.

But it doesn't flourish without the help of my teammates,

so they are really the ones.

I love my teammates 'cause they're always down

for a good time and shenanigans.

Every time we have like a viral TikTok,

we win a championship.

So it might be something there.

Pulling out the heat.

Now y'all, this isn't just your ordinary Uno games.

This is the customizable wild cards.

This has shuffle hands in it.

So it can get busy.

When I talk about it gets busy, it gets busy.

And am I the queen of Uno?

I don't know, ask my losers.

They know.

I don't mess around when it comes to Uno.

I have no friends, no family, no cousins, no dogs,

no pets, no fish, no uncles, no aunts,

none of that when it comes to Uno.

Every man for themselves when it comes to this Uno game.

But Bam don't make the game fun,

'cause he talks so much junk and it really makes me mad

when he wins.

When he wins, he be throwing the cards down like spades,

like I really don't be fooling around with that.

But yeah, he is the most competitive person I play,

and it's very disrespectful.

We have this rule called jump in.

And jump in, let's just say I got a green three.

If you have a green three as well,

you can play it outta turn.

[mouth clicking]

Keeps everybody on their toes.

Make sure you got that same card.

We don't really play by the rules, sorry, Uno.

[metal jingling]

Y'all, this is my lanyard, my AKA lanyard that I had

since I crossed fall '17 of University of South Carolina

Theta Gamma chapter, you already know what it is.

Give you my supports.

I am like so grateful for the sisterhood

that I formed in college through AKA,

only because it allowed me to be a woman.

It allowed me to be a young girl.

Because sometimes, being a student athlete,

you're kinda trapped in this world

of just like gym, class, gym, class.

Like that was it.

But when I gained my 60 sisters,

I got an opportunity to actually enjoy

the like college side of it,

to see them, to see the paths of life

that they were coming from.

And so as I've gotten older and I've become a leader

and I've been in it and I'm put in different situations,

I have to credit AKA and our sisterhood

when it comes to that.

Because it tests you to see if you are really down for it.

I'm down for it. [laughing]

I can't give y'all my whole information,

like see my Social on there and something.

This is my passport.

Leave it to A'ja, I lost my passport

before I needed to go out of the country.

So I had to get it like expedited.

So it was, I had to take what I had to take.

'Cause normally, I got tattoos in my passport.

And it's another note.

See, they're everywhere. [laughing]

Anytime I have an opportunity to travel for the Olympics,

it's truly amazing.

Because I'm surrounded by the best in the world.

I mean, like the best of the best.

Obviously, winning the gold medal or medaling at all

is a blessing.

I had Tokyo and Paris.

It has been amazing to just watch people be so great

at what they do.

I think my bag tells me that I am very prepared.

I got a little bit of everything.

I'm ready to be on go.

Like, if the world ended,

I could take my purse and I'll be pretty solid

for a couple of days, which is pretty good.

Come on, eyes.

I got all my stuff in my bag.

I'll see you next time.

Thanks, Vogue.

[upbeat rhythmic music continues]