Who are the Minnesota Lynx StudBudz?
Minnesota Lynx fans wear pink wigs in the crowd during the first quarter against the Golden State Valkyries at Target Center on Thursday, Sept. 11, in Minneapolis.
Ellen Schmidt | Getty Images
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: All right. If you've been listening to Minnesota Now this week, you know that Emily Reese has been joining us every day in an effort to get us all to jump onto the Minnesota Lynx ever-growing bandwagon. The Lynx, of course, are in the playoffs. They play game 2 against the Golden State Valkyries tonight.
And I got to say, Emily Reese, our amazing newscaster and Lynx superfan, whatever gospel you've been spreading this week--
[LAUGHTER]
Whatever you've been doing, it's working. Because I am feeling more emotionally invested by the day.
EMILY REESE: Excellent. That's good news.
NINA MOINI: Your work here is done.
EMILY REESE: Yes.
[LAUGHTER]
NINA MOINI: So on Monday, we learned, of course, about this sort of revenge tour the team is on. The Lynx are really motivated to become champions this year after a loss in the championship game that they attributed last year to a bad call. And then yesterday, we got to know the starters, a handful of just amazing people on and off the court.
And today we're going to hone in even more and get to the Stud Buds. And I can't wait for that. Tell us about the Stud Buds. Like, what are they? I just started following them on Instagram.
EMILY REESE: OK. All right. Yeah. So we'll start with the basics. First of all, they are two of our players.
NINA MOINI: Yeah--
[LAUGHTER]
Who are they?
EMILY REESE: Yeah. They are two of our most popular players on the Minnesota Lynx, Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman. Now, Court and T are their nicknames.
NINA MOINI: Oh, of course.
EMILY REESE: Court and T. And we're just going to start from the baseline that they're fantastic basketball players. They're phenomenally talented.
NINA MOINI: No question.
EMILY REESE: That's not what we're talking about today.
NINA MOINI: We're diving deep into the hearts.
EMILY REESE: That's your baseline-- just mad talent. They're also best friends. And they have been for a long time. They've been best friends since 2019.
Natisha Hiedeman, just out of college, went to play for the Connecticut Sun. And Court had been playing there for a few years. And so that is how they met. And they explained how they met and how they became friends just a few weeks ago to Slam Magazine.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: This was, like, seven years ago.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: Yeah.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: Yeah, she was my baby. She came in as my rookie.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: I was fresh out of college.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: Yeah, so I was a vet.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: Court was turnt. I'm like, yeah, I want to be with her.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: Oh, me.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: And that's how it happened.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: I invited her out to my birthday. She was the only one on the team I invited out to call. Like, she the only one turning up that can hang out with me.
[LAUGHTER]
And she came out with me.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, they call each other twin. And they have a theme song. It's "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan. And they have dyed their hair pink to match each other for a while now.
NINA MOINI: I love their friendship and their love. That is so sweet. So how did they become so popular?
EMILY REESE: So in late May this year-- it's established they've been friends for a number of years. But in late May, they just kind of tossed around this idea that, we know we're funny and fun. Let's stream our friendship.
And they coined themselves the Stud Buds. And that's pretty how it all started. They just decided to stream. They were like, I think, 50 people or so on their first stream.
And it just exponentially started to grow. And they would just film themselves hanging out. But it really blew up in mid-July, because they did this massive 72-hour stream during the WNBA All-Star Game. And there were just so many cameos of players and people in that world. And it was just really cool.
NINA MOINI: This is a big deal, right? I mean, it's gotten onto this global scale.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, definitely. I think people really love the behind-the-scenes look into what that world is like and just what they were doing the whole weekend. Just even if they were walking to lunch or whatever, and they would see friends, and whether they're just hanging out here in the Twin Cities at T's apartment with her dog and cat, or if they're hanging out with other players, or whatever, that behind-the-scenes look is really cool. But I would say, also, for someone like me, it's because T and Court are masculine Black women. And Court talked about that to Sports Publication Boardroom.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: For a long time, the WNBA has been this idea that you got to be this feminine woman. You got to be a baddie to get the sponsorship. Now they're leaning more into authenticity. You don't get more authentic than us.
EMILY REESE: Now, she just said, baddie, right? You're going to hear that term a couple other times today.
NINA MOINI: I've heard it.
EMILY REESE: Yeah I'm sure you have.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, Nina is a baddie.
[LAUGHTER]
NINA MOINI: No, I'm just kidding.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: Baddie basically just means a traditional, beautiful, gorgeous woman. So we're going to talk about baddies more later. But I'll say, as a woman who dresses masculinity, I have certainly received my fair share of negative attention for that.
And the fact that these two women are being celebrated for exactly who they are, that means a lot to someone like me. And I'm not the only one. So it's just really cool.
NINA MOINI: I think they kind of hit it on the head, too, with authenticity. I mean, it used to be, everything has to look a certain way or sell a certain way. And now I think that people are just inundated with so much content, and people, and everybody trying to be something that, when people just show up as themselves authentically, I can see why this popularity has really grown.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, to the point where now they're getting all these sponsorships.
NINA MOINI: Nice!
EMILY REESE: They have these deals with DoorDash. They'll do like friend dinner dates and stream it. They threw out the first pitch at a Twins game.
They just did a spot, I think a week or two ago, for Kotex, where they both-- instead of pink, they dyed their hair red. And they wore shirts saying, I play on my period-- super cute with red hair. But they went back to pink immediately. But one of my favorites recently was this amazing spread they did for Vogue.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, folks should look it up. I've got it pulled up here. And they're just decked out in these gorgeous suits and menswear. And the hair is pink. And they're posed together in really just fun and playful ways, lots of colors and patterns.
So when they're not modeling professionally and they're not on the court, what are they doing? It sounds like they're just hanging out.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, over the weekend, they did yoga at T's apartment together. They did a best friends lunch date last week. They play video games together. They watch other WNBA games together. And really importantly about that, they do not allow people to talk trash about other WNBA players in their chats.
NINA MOINI: Oh, I like that.
EMILY REESE: They're just really supportive about everybody.
NINA MOINI: No need.
EMILY REESE: But on Monday, Nina, they dropped a video. And I mean, it just might be one of my favorite things I've seen on the internet in 2025, maybe ever. If there were-- so the Stud Buds, Court and T-- if there were a third, it would be Dijonai Carrington, also a Lynx player, Dijonai. She is very good friends with Courtney and T. So she's kind of like an honorary Stud Bud.
Dijonai did a makeover on T. And they streamed it all. Now Court knew that T was getting a baddie makeover. So they're going to take Natisha and turn her into this beautiful woman. But Court didn't know that they were turning T into Dijonai.
[LAUGHTER]
So they take T, a masculine woman-- Dijonai is a baddie. And T walks out. And the reveal is just amazing. Like, Court can't even talk for, like, five minutes.
NINA MOINI: Oh, wow.
EMILY REESE: She is just so impressed with how she looks. So it's quite a contrast. And T just nails it. But she did say, it was a hard thing to do, to be a baddie.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: Being a baddie is hard. And my feet was hurting. I couldn't see with the eyelashes. The eyeliner was impossible.
It was just crazy. I just didn't know all that went into it. So all y'all baddies, I ain't going to cap. Shout out to y'all. Y'all got it, hands down, for real, for real.
NINA MOINI: Such an honest review.
[LAUGHTER]
EMILY REESE: Yes.
NINA MOINI: The feet-- the eyeliner was impossible. Who hasn't felt that way about eyeliner? So they even have their own line of clothes now, Emily.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, yeah, they have a Stud Buds fashion line right now. And the tracksuits are amazing. And you got to check it out. And, Nina, I think you need one of the Stud Buds tracksuits.
NINA MOINI: I think you and I should do the Stud Duds.
EMILY REESE: Yeah.
NINA MOINI: And we just hang out at the vending machines. And then you go back to your studio. And then I go back to mine.
EMILY REESE: Yes. Yes.
NINA MOINI: I love that. I love that it's, like, high-end fashion. And oh, but let's not forget about the wigs. We got to talk about the wigs.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, no, that's been a big deal, the wigs. So it's not uncommon to go to a sports game or a match and get free giveaways from a sponsor, or the team, or the League, or whatever. It could be a shirt, a water bottle, a pair of sunglasses, you name it. It's just super common.
So at the final game of the regular season, the giveaway was a pink wig. And it was so great-- inspired by the Stud Buds. So loads of people in the audience were wearing them during the game last week. And it was just really sweet to see that support. And I just love that the world is embracing these women just for being the people that they are.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, and we'll see what happens tonight, because their next game is at 9:00 o'clock in San Francisco against the Valkyries. Emily Reese, it's been super fun jumping on the bandwagon with you. I think I'm a fan. I think it happened.
[LAUGHTER]
EMILY REESE: Excellent.
NINA MOINI: Thank you for everything. Oh, and everybody remember that the game is going to be on ESPN tonight. We'll be watching.
And I got to say, Emily Reese, our amazing newscaster and Lynx superfan, whatever gospel you've been spreading this week--
[LAUGHTER]
Whatever you've been doing, it's working. Because I am feeling more emotionally invested by the day.
EMILY REESE: Excellent. That's good news.
NINA MOINI: Your work here is done.
EMILY REESE: Yes.
[LAUGHTER]
NINA MOINI: So on Monday, we learned, of course, about this sort of revenge tour the team is on. The Lynx are really motivated to become champions this year after a loss in the championship game that they attributed last year to a bad call. And then yesterday, we got to know the starters, a handful of just amazing people on and off the court.
And today we're going to hone in even more and get to the Stud Buds. And I can't wait for that. Tell us about the Stud Buds. Like, what are they? I just started following them on Instagram.
EMILY REESE: OK. All right. Yeah. So we'll start with the basics. First of all, they are two of our players.
NINA MOINI: Yeah--
[LAUGHTER]
Who are they?
EMILY REESE: Yeah. They are two of our most popular players on the Minnesota Lynx, Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman. Now, Court and T are their nicknames.
NINA MOINI: Oh, of course.
EMILY REESE: Court and T. And we're just going to start from the baseline that they're fantastic basketball players. They're phenomenally talented.
NINA MOINI: No question.
EMILY REESE: That's not what we're talking about today.
NINA MOINI: We're diving deep into the hearts.
EMILY REESE: That's your baseline-- just mad talent. They're also best friends. And they have been for a long time. They've been best friends since 2019.
Natisha Hiedeman, just out of college, went to play for the Connecticut Sun. And Court had been playing there for a few years. And so that is how they met. And they explained how they met and how they became friends just a few weeks ago to Slam Magazine.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: This was, like, seven years ago.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: Yeah.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: Yeah, she was my baby. She came in as my rookie.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: I was fresh out of college.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: Yeah, so I was a vet.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: Court was turnt. I'm like, yeah, I want to be with her.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: Oh, me.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: And that's how it happened.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: I invited her out to my birthday. She was the only one on the team I invited out to call. Like, she the only one turning up that can hang out with me.
[LAUGHTER]
And she came out with me.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, they call each other twin. And they have a theme song. It's "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan. And they have dyed their hair pink to match each other for a while now.
NINA MOINI: I love their friendship and their love. That is so sweet. So how did they become so popular?
EMILY REESE: So in late May this year-- it's established they've been friends for a number of years. But in late May, they just kind of tossed around this idea that, we know we're funny and fun. Let's stream our friendship.
And they coined themselves the Stud Buds. And that's pretty how it all started. They just decided to stream. They were like, I think, 50 people or so on their first stream.
And it just exponentially started to grow. And they would just film themselves hanging out. But it really blew up in mid-July, because they did this massive 72-hour stream during the WNBA All-Star Game. And there were just so many cameos of players and people in that world. And it was just really cool.
NINA MOINI: This is a big deal, right? I mean, it's gotten onto this global scale.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, definitely. I think people really love the behind-the-scenes look into what that world is like and just what they were doing the whole weekend. Just even if they were walking to lunch or whatever, and they would see friends, and whether they're just hanging out here in the Twin Cities at T's apartment with her dog and cat, or if they're hanging out with other players, or whatever, that behind-the-scenes look is really cool. But I would say, also, for someone like me, it's because T and Court are masculine Black women. And Court talked about that to Sports Publication Boardroom.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: For a long time, the WNBA has been this idea that you got to be this feminine woman. You got to be a baddie to get the sponsorship. Now they're leaning more into authenticity. You don't get more authentic than us.
EMILY REESE: Now, she just said, baddie, right? You're going to hear that term a couple other times today.
NINA MOINI: I've heard it.
EMILY REESE: Yeah I'm sure you have.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, Nina is a baddie.
[LAUGHTER]
NINA MOINI: No, I'm just kidding.
NATISHA HIEDEMAN: Baddie basically just means a traditional, beautiful, gorgeous woman. So we're going to talk about baddies more later. But I'll say, as a woman who dresses masculinity, I have certainly received my fair share of negative attention for that.
And the fact that these two women are being celebrated for exactly who they are, that means a lot to someone like me. And I'm not the only one. So it's just really cool.
NINA MOINI: I think they kind of hit it on the head, too, with authenticity. I mean, it used to be, everything has to look a certain way or sell a certain way. And now I think that people are just inundated with so much content, and people, and everybody trying to be something that, when people just show up as themselves authentically, I can see why this popularity has really grown.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, to the point where now they're getting all these sponsorships.
NINA MOINI: Nice!
EMILY REESE: They have these deals with DoorDash. They'll do like friend dinner dates and stream it. They threw out the first pitch at a Twins game.
They just did a spot, I think a week or two ago, for Kotex, where they both-- instead of pink, they dyed their hair red. And they wore shirts saying, I play on my period-- super cute with red hair. But they went back to pink immediately. But one of my favorites recently was this amazing spread they did for Vogue.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, folks should look it up. I've got it pulled up here. And they're just decked out in these gorgeous suits and menswear. And the hair is pink. And they're posed together in really just fun and playful ways, lots of colors and patterns.
So when they're not modeling professionally and they're not on the court, what are they doing? It sounds like they're just hanging out.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, over the weekend, they did yoga at T's apartment together. They did a best friends lunch date last week. They play video games together. They watch other WNBA games together. And really importantly about that, they do not allow people to talk trash about other WNBA players in their chats.
NINA MOINI: Oh, I like that.
EMILY REESE: They're just really supportive about everybody.
NINA MOINI: No need.
EMILY REESE: But on Monday, Nina, they dropped a video. And I mean, it just might be one of my favorite things I've seen on the internet in 2025, maybe ever. If there were-- so the Stud Buds, Court and T-- if there were a third, it would be Dijonai Carrington, also a Lynx player, Dijonai. She is very good friends with Courtney and T. So she's kind of like an honorary Stud Bud.
Dijonai did a makeover on T. And they streamed it all. Now Court knew that T was getting a baddie makeover. So they're going to take Natisha and turn her into this beautiful woman. But Court didn't know that they were turning T into Dijonai.
[LAUGHTER]
So they take T, a masculine woman-- Dijonai is a baddie. And T walks out. And the reveal is just amazing. Like, Court can't even talk for, like, five minutes.
NINA MOINI: Oh, wow.
EMILY REESE: She is just so impressed with how she looks. So it's quite a contrast. And T just nails it. But she did say, it was a hard thing to do, to be a baddie.
COURTNEY WILLIAMS: Being a baddie is hard. And my feet was hurting. I couldn't see with the eyelashes. The eyeliner was impossible.
It was just crazy. I just didn't know all that went into it. So all y'all baddies, I ain't going to cap. Shout out to y'all. Y'all got it, hands down, for real, for real.
NINA MOINI: Such an honest review.
[LAUGHTER]
EMILY REESE: Yes.
NINA MOINI: The feet-- the eyeliner was impossible. Who hasn't felt that way about eyeliner? So they even have their own line of clothes now, Emily.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, yeah, they have a Stud Buds fashion line right now. And the tracksuits are amazing. And you got to check it out. And, Nina, I think you need one of the Stud Buds tracksuits.
NINA MOINI: I think you and I should do the Stud Duds.
EMILY REESE: Yeah.
NINA MOINI: And we just hang out at the vending machines. And then you go back to your studio. And then I go back to mine.
EMILY REESE: Yes. Yes.
NINA MOINI: I love that. I love that it's, like, high-end fashion. And oh, but let's not forget about the wigs. We got to talk about the wigs.
EMILY REESE: Yeah, no, that's been a big deal, the wigs. So it's not uncommon to go to a sports game or a match and get free giveaways from a sponsor, or the team, or the League, or whatever. It could be a shirt, a water bottle, a pair of sunglasses, you name it. It's just super common.
So at the final game of the regular season, the giveaway was a pink wig. And it was so great-- inspired by the Stud Buds. So loads of people in the audience were wearing them during the game last week. And it was just really sweet to see that support. And I just love that the world is embracing these women just for being the people that they are.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, and we'll see what happens tonight, because their next game is at 9:00 o'clock in San Francisco against the Valkyries. Emily Reese, it's been super fun jumping on the bandwagon with you. I think I'm a fan. I think it happened.
[LAUGHTER]
EMILY REESE: Excellent.
NINA MOINI: Thank you for everything. Oh, and everybody remember that the game is going to be on ESPN tonight. We'll be watching.
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