Alix Earle gained over 2 million TikTok followers in a month. Why people are obsessed
A brand new “It Lady” has entered the TikTok chat. What’s inflicting her to be in comparison with the reigning stars of the platform like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae? Being herself.
Alix Earle, 22, is a College of Miami senior advertising main — and a TikTok influencer with a millions-strong military of followers ready to look at her subsequent “Get Prepared With Me” (typically abbreviated GRWM) video.
Earle has been posting on TikTok since 2020. But when she appears to be in every single place proper now, that is due to her follower depend’s current exponential rise.
In line with influencer marketer Amanda, the founding father of @letstalkpopculture on TikTok, in early December, Earle had 627k Instagram followers and 1.2 million on TikTok. As of in the present day, Earle has 1.5 million Instagram followers and three.7 million on TikTok.
The seemingly in a single day sensation works with the substances which have outlined the approach to life influencer recreation for years: Introducing viewers to new hair and make-up merchandise, exhibiting off her current purchases out of the bag and as glamorous outfits and being a pocket-sized advisor for an aspirational life.
However based on her followers, her affect is greater than floor stage. Earle’s attraction, followers say, is in her approachable and relatable storytelling demeanor.
Earle made her TikTok debut in February 2020, by posting a video of her and her buddies exhibiting off their outfits constituted of trash baggage. Quick ahead two years later, her content material now displays life with an elevated platform — she lately posted about attending Miley Cyrus’s New Yr’s Eve get together, for instance.
By way of all of it, her candid method has remained, whether or not she’s speaking about her experiences with cosmetic surgery, her struggles with pimples or just getting mascara throughout her eyelids as she applies make-up and recounts the earlier night time’s misadventures.
“From the beginning, I made a decision I used to be going to be open with this, particularly on social media,” Earle mentioned in a current TikTok posted on the one-year anniversary of her breast augmentation (her “boobaversary,” as she places it).
“If you happen to’re paying to get one thing finished, wouldn’t you need individuals to note? Like, I paid all that cash for a surgical procedure and nobody observed something completely different about me, I’d be pissed,” she continued.
This “openness” has labored, as Earle’s following solely retains rising (as do her partnership with manufacturers like Tarte, Uncommon Magnificence, GrubHub and White Home Boutique).
Her large sister perspective units her other than different influencers on the platform, as LaPaglia mentions on her podcast, PlainBriUncut.
“If you happen to take a look at when Addison (Rae) and Charli (D’Amelio) blew up, all of their followers have been like fandoms of little children,” LaPaglia mentioned on her podcast. “They’re similar to, ‘Oh, she’s so fairly! Who’s she relationship?’ However individuals are a military behind Alix Earle already. It’s like they really care about what she’s saying.”
TikTok enterprise, model and profession professional Samantha (@samanthatannor) chalks Earle’s rise as much as the “cool greatest buddy impact.” This, she defined in a TikTok of her personal, is achieved in a superb steadiness being each glamorous and self-deprecating. Merely put, she lives an aspirational life however one way or the other stays relatable.
“Quite a lot of influencers are doing it, however I believe Alix Earle does the very best job at it,” Samantha mentioned. “As a result of she genuinely looks like your cool greatest buddy. You’re feeling like you realize her, which then signifies that you’re loyal to her and when her movies come up in your ‘For You’ web page, you’re going to love them and possibly remark too.”
The Alix Earle impact has labored on followers like 28-year-old Gabrielle DiDato of Connecticut, tells TODAY.com she found Earle by scrolling by the “For You” web page on TikTok.
“I immediately adopted her, eager to see extra,” DiDato says. “Alix is interesting as a result of you may inform she is being her genuine self. I believe a variety of us are uninterested in seeing image good Instagram posts. Individuals are retaining it actual on TikTok. It’s relatable when somebody doesn’t attempt to act good 24/7.”
Earle has seemingly adjusted to the highlight — maybe as a result of she’s no stranger to it.
Her father, Thomas Earle, 49, runs a profitable New Jersey asphalt and highway building enterprise and is now married to Ashley Dupré, a former escort who was the goal of intense media scrutiny that ultimately led to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s resignation from public workplace. Earle’s father and mom, Alisa Earle, beforehand divorced.
Earle’s private life additionally makes headlines, because of an on-again, off-again relationship with Yankees participant Tyler Wade.
And as devoted as her followers are, Earle will not be with out controversy. Some commentators level out the wealth she flaunts in movies (like her resolution to purchase a second Dyson Air Wrap, a hair accent product that prices $600). Creator Diana Melstrad added up the merchandise in Earle’s magnificence routine, discovering it amounted to $497.
She additionally most lately confronted criticism for selling a $10 hair oil from Mielle Organics, an organization whose merchandise are supposed for Black hair.
The Black-owned hair model’s Rosemary Mint Scalp & Hair Strengthening Oil rapidly bought out after Earle advised followers a month of utilization led to “great hair progress,” leaving Black girls with fewer hair care choices.
“Our black part is already small,” one TikTok person commented. “Don’t promote out our stuff and our make-up as nicely.”
Mielle Organics introduced Wednesday, Jan. 10 that it’s going to be a part of P&G Magnificence to broaden entry to the model in Black communities and fund analysis and innovation in hair look after underserved communities.
Regardless of these controversies, Earle will proceed to dominate TikTok — at the very least that’s what followers like 23-year-old Nicole King of Florida imagine.
“I believe she’s a younger woman that has seemingly blown up in a single day and is navigating such a brand new huge set of eyes on her in one of the best ways she will be able to. I believe she’s been doing a very good job at it,” King advised TODAY.
King grew to become a fan of Alix after she got here throughout one in every of her “Day Within the Life” movies.
“I watched that video and was hooked,” King mentioned. “Now I’m a loyal follower.”
This text was initially printed on TODAY.com
