Asian Social Science; Vol. 17, No. 3; 2021 ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 9 Challenges of Self-Presentation and Athlete Branding among Saudi Female Exercisers: An Auto-ethnography of a Muslim Saudi Personal Trainer Instagram User Wesam Basabain 1,2 , Kirsten Macleod 2 , Tony Westbury 3 & Afnan Qutub 4 1 Faculty of Communication & Media, Department of Marketing Communication, King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 2 School of Arts and Creative Industries, Department of Screen and Media, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland 3 School of Applied Sciences, Department of Sport Psychology, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland 4 Faculty of Communication & Media, Department of Journalism and Digital Media, King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Correspondence: Wesam Basabain. E-mail: Wbasabain@kau.edu.sa Received: January 25, 2021 Accepted: February 2, 2021 Online Published: February 28, 2021 doi:10.5539/ass.v17n3p9 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v17n3p9 Abstract Some athletes have attracted millions of audiences, even if being namely recognised. Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar JR., and David Beckham have the most Instagram followers on a global scale. Online Social Networks (OSN) allows users to establish their profiles to communicate with others through actions such as follows and comments. Currently, athletes prefer to utilise Instagram for self-branding purposes. Therefore, many studies have examined their practices. From the rising of Model of Athlete Brand Image MABI offline practices to the development of online athlete branding consumers’ engagements on social media, many studies have concerned three main categories to build athlete brand image, namely Athletic performance, Attractive appearance, and Marketable lifestyles. As a Saudi female personal trainer who uses Instagram to build a brand image, this auto-ethnography aims to reflect on my personal experiences, including cultural aspects that affect athlete branding strategies. Athlete branding studies have not focused on cultural differences yet. Most Muslim Saudi women are culturally conservative; they cover their bodies in public as a religious practice. This qualitative study describes my own experiences and Instagram visual content selections. It attempts to understand the motives, outcomes, and online self-presentation challenges and strategies of Muslim female exercisers who aim to build their athlete brand image. A key result indicated that the Attractive appearance category was hard to apply to a Muslim female athlete's self- presentation in her athlete branding strategies. The trainer encountered some cultural challenges, for instance, religious values such as veiling and gender segregation, which conflict with the ability to rely on the self- characteristics for branding. Therefore, other strategies were applied, such as presenting body composition before and after test results and testimonials for clients. Keywords: athlete branding, auto-ethnography, model of athlete brand image, online social networks, Saudi female exercises, self-presentation, Instagram 1. Introduction From the perspective of Goffman’s self-presentation theory, this study investigates the practices of Athlete- branding among Saudi women athletes and exercisers who use online social networks in the field of media and marketing communication. An extensive number of studies on athletes’ online self-presentation and self-branding have been conducted in the Western context (Filo, Lock, and Karg 2015). However, there is a lack of studies on Saudi women in this field. While they are ruled strictly regarding their presentation in public, this could affect their online practices. According to a recent report by CITC (2015), 99% of Internet users in Saudi Arabia use online social networks, and 43.06% are Instagram users. Online social networks (OSN) are a significant part of a media revolution that affects youths and adults who are frequent users of these platforms. This new media form has transformed people’s ways of living in terms of values, cultures, and attitudes (Safko, 2010). The convergence of digital cameras and Internet-connected devices has simplified access and taking/sharing of visual images, etc. (Lasén & Gómez-Cruz,