Alix Earle Reveals How Past Few Years Have Pushed Her to 'Stand Her Ground' in the Industry (Exclusive)
- - Alix Earle Reveals How Past Few Years Have Pushed Her to 'Stand Her Ground' in the Industry (Exclusive)
Kelsie GibsonJanuary 21, 2026 at 3:30 AM
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Alix Earle/YouTube
Alix Earle in Get Real With Me -
Following her whirlwind 2025, Alix Earle has big things on the horizon
The influencer, 25, talks exclusively with PEOPLE about stepping into 'new beginnings'
She also shares how the past few years in the spotlight have made her more confident in herself and her decisions as a businesswoman
If there’s one thing Alix Earle knows how to do, it’s resonate with her audience.
After rising to fame for her candid "Get Ready with Me" videos, the influencer, 25, has amassed a huge following on social media, where she boasts 8.2M followers on TikTok, 5.4M on Instagram and over 305K subscribers on YouTube. Just by posting a product online, Earle has been known to sell it out in what has been dubbed the "Alix Earle effect."
And her reach goes far beyond social media. She’s also proven herself as a savvy businesswoman with her popular Hot Mess podcast and numerous brand deals. Most recently, she announced that she would be joining GORGIE, a popular energy drink brand, as a strategic investor.
When it comes to using her influence, Earle tells PEOPLE there is one thing she always keeps top of mind: authenticity.
"Alix Earle Joins GORGIE as Strategic Investor
“When putting my name behind a product or a brand, what comes to mind first is just, is it something that I authentically like and enjoy? Those are the partnerships that end up just going over the best and the ones that my audience really enjoys as well,” she explains, noting that she first tried GORGIE in college and heavily relied on the energy drink to help her through her intense Dancing with the Stars schedule this past fall.“When I was going into Dancing with the Stars, I had a pretty rigorous schedule with a lot of cardio and dancing and moving around,” she explains. “So I was stocking up on energy drinks and I wanted something that was good, gonna be clean ingredients that was really important for me because I was gonna be taking in a lot of caffeine.”
“I remembered I liked this brand, I had been seeing it everywhere and I just started drinking them every day,” she continues, noting that things eventually progressed into a business deal as she met with the founder and learned more about the company.
“I think those are the partnerships that end up just going over the best because it happens in an organic way,” she notes.
Victor Boyko/Getty
Alix Earle
In fact, it’s knowing herself and her brand that she prides herself on most as a creator.
“I know my audience the best,” she says when asked what she’s learned about herself as a businesswoman through her various projects. “I think it's hard sometimes to want to believe or trust other people's creative visions or input on something, but at the end of the day, I do trust myself with knowing what will go over the best with my audience and what they're gonna wanna see and what they're gonna respond well to.”She notes that intrinsic understanding is something she has built up over time while living in the spotlight.
“Building up the confidence in myself over the past few years has been a big thing for me to stand my ground and to work with brands and open them up to the ideas that I think are ultimately going to end up being the most successful,” she says. “Being able to say no when something doesn't feel right is one of the best lessons I've learned.”
This past year, Earle continued to step out of her comfort zone as she embarked on her dance journey with Dancing with the Stars, where she ultimately placed second alongside her partner Val Chmerkovskiy.
Disney/Eric McCandless
VALENTIN CHMERKOVSKIY, ALIX EARLE
Aside from drinking GORGIE, Earle says one of her biggest rituals during filming was learning how to take care of her body amid her intense work schedule.
“One of my favorite rituals was just when I got home at night. I did a lot of recovery for myself,” she explains. “I would see a chiropractor and physical therapist every other day. Being able to take care of my body and just learn my body on a completely different level than I had done before was really nice for me and has made me want to implement that level of exercise and fatigue and movement into my everyday life.”
While Earle was pretty candid about the highs and lows of her DWTS journey online, she says the most surprising part of the entire process was how comfortable she got on the ballroom floor.
“I was able to feel going into the final weeks, going from being so afraid to get up on stage and dance for people, and then getting to a point where I'm crying because I'm not gonna be able to get to do that anymore,” she says. “I came a long way in that sense and in a confidence aspect.”
Though she admits there are little things here and there she could nitpick about what she might have done differently, ultimately, she wouldn’t change anything about her experience on the show.
“Maybe I should've had more confidence going into week one, but I think that's the beautiful thing about the process is just letting it happen, so I wouldn't change anything,” she says.
Looking forward to the future, Earle teases that she has many exciting new projects in the works, including her recently announced Get Real with Me YouTube series, which launched on Jan. 15.
"For 2026, it's gonna be a lot of new, big beginnings," she says, teasing that "a lot of things that have been in the works for a while" will finally come to fruition.
"The past few years have been a lot of decision-making and what paths I wanna go down, and I feel like these things are going to come into life this year," she adds. "We'll be doing this new YouTube segment, Get Real with Me, through Hot Mess Media, and then I'll be starting my own company this year. And I have a lot of other fun, big things planned, so it should be a big year with a lot of new beginnings."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
