How Jonkel Jones decided it was time to take over the space

Jonquel Jones he became known as one of the New York Liberty‘s bright stars. She helped lead the team to hers the first VNBA championship in history in 2024 after joining the previous year, and she’s been an integral part of the league’s growth since being drafted in 2016. However, the five-time All-Star didn’t always feel like the clear standout that fans see her as today.

Jones was one of several WNBA players named 2025 Glamor Women of the Year, and she opened up about the effects her unique childhood still has on her as an adult. The 33-year-old moved to the United States from the Bahamas when she was just 13, but her island upbringing has stayed with her in many ways.

INBOX: @glamourmag have announced their Women of the Year 2025, and five WNBA players will be among the covers of the magazine: Nafisa Collier, Lexi Hull, Jonkel Jones, Nyara Sabali and Satou Sabali. Through the topic of “Sisterhood”, there is a conversation with these five players… pic.twitter.com/KstVZ67jaVj

— Miles (@MilesEhrlich) October 27, 2025

Although she speaks on many peaks in an interview with the magazine, the valleys were what she had to work through as a black queer woman from a more conservative background.

“We were a family that went to church every Sunday, and I wore frilly dresses and socks,” Jones explained. “I always felt like, ‘Why do I have to follow these (gender) rules? Why do I have to clean the house all day with my sisters and my brother can be outside or just take out the trash and then he’s free the rest of the day?'”

Jones was candid about how she and many people raised the same way often feel about the treatment.

“I’ve always felt kind of about the stereotypes or roles that Bahamian society, or society in general, puts on women. I felt like they just wanted us to be less free,” she said. “And so for me, I just felt like the clothes I was wearing represented finding my freedom.”

Jones expanded on those thoughts to explain how she used clothing and her prominent fashion sense as a method of self-expression that helped her process those feelings.

“When you come from a place where being who you are can be seen as a bad thing, it feels really good to get validation from the world at large to really say, ‘No, it’s okay to live your truth. It’s okay to be who you are.’

Jones continued, “Not just in the WNBA, but even just living in New York. I see it everywhere. I see people who are themselves and who are truly happy and don’t feel like they have to shy away from who they are. All of those things just remind me that all of my hard work, all of my effort, all of those things don’t get overlooked just because I choose to wear another woman, choose to dress another woman, or choose to wear another woman,” he said.

Those feelings extend to the V and how far the league has come in terms of visibility. Jones described the change she witnessed firsthand and how it has affected today’s female professional basketball players.

“Gone are the days where people treat their WNBA teams like stepchildren or stepchildren,” Jones said. “The league is growing and moving in the right direction and we need ownership and people aligned with that vision to continue to grow the sport and give professional athletes what they deserve.”

It’s a far cry from how Jones felt in 2022, when she tweeted from her X, formerly Twitter, account that seats were “disappearing from the table” as a result of her identity as a masculine queer black woman, echoing challenges she faced earlier in her personal life. As of 2024, she told Complex that she felt more or less the same, saying she wasn’t sure if the “endorsement opportunities were necessarily there for me as a player” without her commitment to Liberty, but that she was still “fighting for those jobs.”

However, now Jones can reap the rewards of her efforts with opportunities like her collaboration with Nike on the KD 17 Bahamas and her invitation to the Met Gala. She exudes the confidence to have casual conversations with former Vogue editor-in-chief and event organizer Anna Wintour, and vows to move “through that space like I belong, because I do,” drawing on the highlights of her Bahamian roots.

“I’m an extroverted introvert, and when I go into spaces like that, I think the Bahamian in me—the Caribbean girl in me—comes out a little bit, and I can navigate those spaces as me. I let my culture, I let all the parts of me just shine.”