HER SUPERPOWER: How Hannah Peery Overcame an Obstacle of Her Own Design

“Am I supposed to be here?”

As she walked into the Houston Rockets’ arena for her first shift as a social media coordinator, Hannah Peery’s mind raced with endless reasons why she felt out of place.  Being the youngest and newest person is hard enough, but she is also one of the only women in the room most of the time.  

Since her time as a rookie experiencing imposter syndrome, Peery has made a vow to always speak her mind and to treat herself in a way she would treat other women entering the sports industry.

Peery at a Barbie-inspired International Women’s Day photoshoot. Courtesy of Hannah Peery.

Her journey in sports hasn’t been linear, but she’s always been passionate about basketball, and she played for nearly 8 years. After her time as an athlete, she started studying medicine at the University of Florida. She had good grades but knew that medicine wasn’t something that she would enjoy doing for the rest of her life.  

In her sophomore year, she did some soul searching with the help of a counselor to find a career that was more than just something that paid the bills. After remembering her love of sports and all of the creative things she did in high school, her counselor recommended that she look at the journalism program.  

Under Florida’s sports media program, Peery explored different fields like on-camera reporting, videography, photography and broadcast production, but ultimately found her niche to be content creation. She did social media for the Florida Gators’ basketball program and an ESPN-affiliated radio station in Gainesville, but an internship with ESPN is what made her sure that content creation is where she fits into the sports media world. Even through long, late nights, she always felt fulfilled and like it was a dream come true to be working. “It felt like all the doors had opened for me once I was able to achieve that, and I just enjoyed every minute of the work I was doing,” she said.

Imposter syndrome is described as a fear of being exposed as a fraud despite clear success. People who experience imposter syndrome usually downplay their own skills or intelligence, even in areas where they have experience.

Peery first started experiencing imposter syndrome when she moved on from college and internships to her “big girl job” era. Moving from Gainesville, Florida to Houston, Texas created new challenges and forced her to grow as a person and a content creator. She found it scary trying to figure out a new learning curve without having the support system she had back home. There would be times when she had a good idea or an opinion, but the shake of her confidence made her feel like she didn’t have the right to speak up.  

“A lot of those instances, looking back, I would regret it and think that I could have made things better by saying what I was feeling, or like it could have been beneficial to the organization on this project,”  she said.

It took some introspection and the development of a new support system for her to change her perspective into a more positive one, making it a point to remind herself that her opinions and experience are valuable. Realizing that she wasn’t the first person to experience navigating a large jump in their career helped her overcome the constant doubt about her work and accomplishments. To this day,  she believes self-confidence to be a daily practice and finds herself needing to remember that it isn’t a miracle that she has this role. 

Peery getting content of Kevin Durant at an away game. Courtesy of Hannah Peery.

Photo by Peery of Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard at a Rockets practice. Courtesy of Hannah Peery.

Now, Peery lives her life viewing differences not as a downfall or problem, but a strength. She knows that it can be daunting when there is nobody around who looks like you, something that many women in the sports industry feel on a daily basis. While this could be viewed as something negative, Peery encourages people to look at it from another angle. “I think there’s a superpower in the sense that you have perspectives and opinions that you can bring to the table that nobody else in the room may be able to,” she said.

Because of social media, women in sports have created their own space to share their unique experiences, advice and support in a more extensive way than Peery had when she was first starting out in the industry. She’s happy to see that more women are coming into this space, making it easier for women to thrive in this environment.  

Peery and her co-worker, Leigh Vo, during the 2025 Houston Rockets’ media day. Courtesy of Hannah Peery.

Her favorite part of her work, and one that she finds most rewarding, is connecting fans to the athletes. She and her team are marketing a complex, unique group of people who all have their own personalities and interests. Peery loves her team; she knows that their diversity in perspectives makes their strategy and social media better because any team’s target audience isn’t only men. With their differing mindsets, they are able to not only tell their individual stories, but also how they come together to create the story of the Rockets and its season.  

In her current role as a senior social media coordinator, her focus has changed from making content to overseeing others and thinking of the strategy behind each post. Her confidence has grown over time, and with a senior role, she shares her wisdom with anyone who might be feeling the same doubts she felt.  

Cynthia Cooper, Hannah Peery and Vanessa Richardson speaking at a women in sports panel sponsored by Gatorade and the Houston Rockets. Courtesy of Hannah Peery.

Peery is paving the way for women in the sports industry by encouraging everyone to speak their mind regardless of self-doubt. “I’m not keeping my mouth shut, really ever anymore,” she said. This mindset, treating yourself with the same compassion you would give to others and remembering your own journey and accomplishments, has helped her grow into the person and content creator she is today.

Edited by Reese Dlabach