Why I Hate to Love Alix Earle
By Sarah Bluett
Credit: Hot Mess with Alix Earle
Whether you became familiar with Alix, yes, A-l-i-x, through the early days of TikTok while she was at the University of Miami doing Get Ready with Me videos, or you’re just tapping in for the Alex Cooper drama, you might be disappointed to find out–she’s a likable person. I know, I know…I was equally dismayed–another white, blonde, privileged creator with a great boob job and a hot friend group making her mark on social media and brand deals. While there are iconic creators like Monet McMichael and viral moments like Jools Lebron’s “very demure, very mindful,” it’s safe to say that whiteness, thinness, and being politically neutral are still the social norm. In fact, thinness is back in, despite TikTok’s ban on #skinnytok in June 2025. And as cited in the book Fearing the Black Body, which argues that fat phobia isn’t about health at all, this is a means of using the body to validate race, class, and gender prejudice. This further explains why someone like Alix Earle remains the benchmark of success on social and digital media in the US.
Credit: @alixearle on TikTok
So why are two white women named Alix and Alex, respectively, fighting on the internet? It might be clear whose side I’m on, but let’s revisit who Alix Earle is and what makes her so popular, from her rise to fame, and how she’s finding herself backed by social media followers in a dramatic call-out by Alex Cooper.
It’s 2023, and I’m finding myself emotionally invested in Alix’s life as a senior at the University of Miami. She’s living in a house with all of her friends, and on the weekends, she’s dressing up for raves and giving us unfiltered storytimes. She was back and forth between New Jersey and Miami, and along the way, I became equally invested in her blended family and sister, Ashtin—the black cat to Alix’s golden retriever. Earle continues to grow on TikTok, and later rumors start that she’s dating NFL player Braxton Berrios.
Credit: People Magazine
Amidst this growth on social media and her love life, Alix signs to the Unwell Network in the summer of 2023. The network’s first podcast, Hot Mess with Alix Earle, features chats with friends, family, and covers Alix’s life post-grad. Earle opens up in her podcast and vlogs about her family dynamics and past issues with her stepmom, Ashley. She often talks about how her younger step-siblings helped heal the family dynamic, and now they are often seen together as a blended family with Alix and Ashtin’s mom, Alisa, and TJ and Ashley, and their three kids, Isabel, Penelope, and Thomas.
As an early follower of Alix Earle, admittedly, I was hooked on her rise to fame, relationship drama, and even her family. But something felt wrong about loving a creator who doesn’t align with my values. In a digital age where beliefs clash daily on the internet, what about Alix Earle’s online presence captures my attention? Is there something wrong with following her? These feelings started to bubble up again when Call Her Daddy host and Unwell founder, Alex Cooper, publicly called out Earle in a TikTok video. Their “so-called beef” and falling out in 2024-2025 was never addressed online, and so fans were quick to pick sides.
Credit: Yahoo! News
Why was I siding with Earle, and why was the rest of the internet also doing the same? According to Business Insider, negative sentiment was growing because of Cooper’s work on The Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special. But still, why do I hate to love Alix Earle? She’s been known to align with more conservative, pro-Israel values, and generally takes a neutral stance of not posting about politics online. This would typically mean a quick unfollow for me, but what keeps me (and the rest of her followers) locked in?
I have three thoughts on why this might be:
She’s posed as being more relatable than other creators/celebrities like her.
She produces in-the-moment content where followers are seeing things as they unfold.
She is very family-oriented and has a tight-knit friend group.
Number one, she’s real, even though she’s white, wealthy, and thin. When she talks about her breast augmentation, beauty routines, and history with acne–she’s inviting her viewers into her world. It’s aspirational and dream-like. Her world is full of GRWM videos, breakups, and new products, and it certainly avoids any topics like immigration or genocide. Sounds like an escapist’s dream. Another reason I follow Earle is that her content is shared the same day it’s filmed, similar to the reality dating series Love Island. In today’s social media landscape, where Instagram grids and marketing campaigns are done months in advance, there’s an appeal to watching live content. Alix provides vlogs, outfit changes, and post-event TikToks in the moment. Fans connect with her day-to-day life, and this is one of the main reasons her skincare brand Reale Actives has had such a successful launch.
And lastly, her focus on her relationships with family and friends has not changed since she became viral four years ago. If anything, I’ve become a frequent follower of Ashtin’s shenanigans and annoyance with Alix, similar to my own relationships with my sisters. And her visits home or vacations with her younger siblings. Izabel does nails, Penelope rides horses, and Thomas loves those damn dinosaurs. And I can’t wait for their reality television show premiering on Netflix later this year, which comes from Fulwell Entertainment, the company behind Hulu’s The Kardashians.
Am I wrong for following her? Or taking her side in the Cooper drama? I’m not sure on a moral level, but one thing I know for sure is, I do hate to love Alix Earle.
