‘Here comes Ava!’ 8 things to know about suddenly famous child of Chiefs’ Hunt family

Ava Hunt posed for a photo at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium last month that went viral swiftly.

And just like that, the public spotlight found this Texas teen who rides horses, plays soccer, cheers in high school, volunteers, wears sparkly cowboy boots and knows how to walk a runway.

Kansas City Chiefs fans recognize her last name. But unlike her dad, Clark, the team’s chairman and CEO, and her older sister, Gracie, who has 426,000 Instagram followers, Ava largely flies under the radar. (By design?)

She is busy being 17, finishing high school in Dallas and preparing for college at her dad’s alma mater, Southern Methodist University.

But she came to widespread attention in December when the Hunt family gave Taylor Swift a birthday present: a crystal-studded Judith Leiber purse shaped like a microphone. A photo of Ava standing next to Swift holding the elegantly wrapped box went viral.

Suddenly Ava’s name popped up in national and international news stories. She was name-checked all over social media.

Earlier this month, her mom, Tavia, shared a photo of herself with her two daughters in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where the Hunts rang in the new year enjoying sunny beaches and watching the Jonas Brothers in concert.

Tavia’s followers called them look-alikes.

“Y’all just gorgeous!” one follower wrote. “And here comes Ava! … Look out!!!”

Ava has shared 150 posts with her 30,000 followers on Instagram, who include Chiefs players and wives, Chiefs cheerleaders and the team’s official account. (Her big sister, on the other hand, has 426,000 followers and more than 1,700 posts.)

Ava’s Instagram has the low-key feel of a (well-to-do) family album. Vacation photos from Africa, Paris, Moscow, Hawaii, Iceland, on snowy slopes, at summer camp and with Egyptian pyramids. Ava with her high school friends — homecoming, Halloween — but also with the Jonas Brothers and Superman actor Henry Cavill, a Chiefs fan.

Now that she’s been shared with the world, here are eight things to know about Ava Hunt.

She shares a birthday with Gracie

Gracie, is the oldest of Clark and Tavia Hunt’s three children. Brother Knobel is the middle child. (Knobel was the maiden name of Clark’s mother, Norma Hunt, who died last year.)

Ava’s Instagram bio includes this description: “I’m Third.”

Ava calls Gracie her birthday twin.

“Happy birthday (to me &) to the best sister in the world! I’m so thankful to share a birthday with YOU! You truly are a blessing to the world and I look up to you so much!” she wrote on Instagram on March 29, 2019.

Other Instagram posts reveal nicknames in the Hunt family. Ava, for instance, calls Gracie “Gigi.”

Tavia calls Ava “Bitty.”

She attends a private high school

Ava will graduate this year from The Covenant School, a K-12 Christian private school in Dallas, where she has played soccer and run track. The school calls itself “the most joy-filled school in Texas.”

She has said her favorite classes are Latin studies, math, science, art and music. She enjoys ballet, gymnastics and singing and, as a dancer since age 2 can nail Bob Fosse moves.

She has zazz.

Ava is co-captain of the Knights cheer squad. She has posed with the Chiefs cheerleaders several times, mentioning after one audition that maybe she’ll try out “one day.”

Tavia Hunt honored her youngest-born in an emotional Instagram post in September.

“Celebrating Senior Night for @AvaHunt — and yes I’m crying,” she wrote. “Treasuring the last of these Friday night lights and Senior year (with) this sweet girl.

“…Believing in the inherent goodness of people, Ava empowers others to believe in themselves as well. She reminds me that there is beauty to be found in the simplest of gestures and the immense power kindness possesses.”

She will carry on the family’s SMU tradition

Ava will attend SMU in the fall, where the Hunts are longtime benefactors.

Ava’s grandparents, Norma and Lamar Hunt, the Chiefs’ founder, “were committed to investing in the future of athletics at SMU, having generously given toward the construction of the Gerald J. Ford Stadium; the Paul B. Loyd, Jr. All-Sports Center; and the Lamar Hunt Memorial, in addition to other funds and needs,” the school noted when Norma died last year at the age of 85.

Lamar, Clark — who graduated first in his class in 1987 — and Gracie are SMU alumni.

According to LinkedIn, Knobel Hunt is currently a finance major at SMU, where he plays soccer like his father did.

She is a pageant queen like Mom and Gracie

Ava has followed her mother and sister down the pageant runway. Tavia and Gracie both won Miss Kansas and competed in the Miss USA pageant.

Ava won Miss PreTeen Texas International in February 2018. “Dreams do come true! I can’t believe I’m going to bed as Miss PreTeen Texas Intl! I’m so thankful and excited!” she wrote on Instagram.

She loves horses

She could have been a cowgirl. (Or a rodeo queen?)

Ava, a noted animal lover — dogs, bunnies, birds, fish — has shared several pictures and videos of herself riding horses.

She’s a philanthropist who loves books

The book is always better than the movie, Ava likes to say.

“My first memorable exposure to books was at the age of four,” Ava wrote on the website of Turn the Page, a nonprofit she founded that provides free or affordable, age-appropriate books to children.

The group forged partnerships with national organizations including the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

“With the encouragement of my parents and access to age-appropriate books, I fell in love with reading,” she wrote. “I loved the fairy tales I read in my storybooks and, today, continue to love fiction and nonfiction alike. Books can show us things in a way that is both personal and exciting.

“I have leaped off a 14,000-foot mountain, traveled to 24 different countries, and sailed under one of the world’s largest waterfalls, and still find adventure in a good book.”

She speaks of her faith

Like her siblings, Ava references a Bible verse in her Instagram bio. (Their mom refers to herself as a “Christ-follower” in her Insta bio.)

Ava cites Acts 20:24: “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

When the Chiefs lost the Super Bowl to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in February 2021, Ava wrote to her Instagram followers that “sometimes life doesn’t work out the way you hope and pray. But God is still good when He doesn’t answer your prayers. We’re beyond blessed to have made it as far as we did and I’m so thankful for this amazing experience!”

Of course she’s a Swiftie

That photo of Ava with Swift that went viral wasn’t the first time she met the “Blank Space” singer. Ava and Gracie posed with Swift in 2018 when the singer brought her Reputation tour to Arrowhead.

And when Swift performed back-to-back Eras Tour concerts at the stadium in early July, the Hunt sisters attended both nights, Ava in bedazzled denim and boots, posing with two friends in a private suite, on Night 2.

Sometimes, it really is good to be queen.