Vivian Zhu-Rehi

The nail artist Vivian Zhu-Rehi promotes the National Basketball Association on her social media feed.

She shows off hand-painted portraits of players that are literally thumbnail-sized.

Major League sports have noticed what's been called the Taylor Swift effect in bringing female fans to football.

Now the NBA is courting female fans with other online collaborations, including with a popular rug maker and a food artist who uses fried rice as her medium.

Netta Ulipi, NPR News.

And I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News in Washington.