Gen Z influencer Alix Earle allegedly posted racial slurs in 2014. — Getty Images/The New York Times
Gen Z influencer sensation Alix Earle, 23, started her content-creation career on TikTok in 2020 as a college freshman at the University of Miami.
Today, she has nearly four million followers on Instagram and more than seven million followers on TikTok, many of which she amassed in late 2022.
What’s more, she’s worth an estimated US$6mil (RM26.60mil), according to several outlets. During college, she made US$5mil (RM22.17mil) in one year alone, according to Forbes.
She’s beloved for her “get ready with me” videos, carefree attitude, and picture-perfect party lifestyle, but social media users have unveiled some unseemly posts from her past that could sour her stardom.
Starting Aug 8, Reddit users published alleged screenshots of posts Earle had allegedly made in 2014, which repeatedly include racial slurs. In screenshots of ASKfm posts, a user by the name of “Alixxxxxx” with a profile picture that appears to be Earle responded to several posts using the N-word.
ASKfm is a social media platform founded in 2010 that lets users ask and answer questions “anonymously”, although many users still comment using their real names and likenesses. At the time the original post was allegedly made, Earle would have been a young teenager.
Reddit feed r/AlixearleSnark has been blowing up for the last day as users attempt to validate the screenshots. One user uploaded a video showing Earle commenting on different ASKfm posts made by people who she also followed and interacted with on Instagram. The user was attempting to draw a connection between the users in which Earle interacted with on both ASKfm and Instagram.
Earle has not made any public statements denying or affirming the accusations or authenticity of the posts. She and her team also did not respond to Fortune for multiple requests for comment.
The Alix Earle effect
Earle is somewhat of an anomaly. While there are plenty of Instagram and TikTok influencers out there, there’s no one else who quite matches the level of stardom and attention Earle has received in the past several years.
She’s landed numerous brand partnerships, from popular makeup brands including Tarte, Too Faced, and Rare Beauty, to drink brands like Poppi. And she hasn’t just earned these partnerships for her beauty, but for her “humour, vulnerability, aspiration, relatability, and product mentions”, Janet Balis wrote in Harvard Business Review.
Earle is also a part of the Unwell brand, which includes podcasts from Earle (“Hot Mess”) and other Gen Z and millennial demigod Alex Cooper, host of “Call Her Daddy”. Plus, she’s famously dating Braxton Berrios, a wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins. Her early posts with him referred to him simply as “NFL man”.
Fans want answers
At the time of publication, Earle has not made any public statements about the accusations or had responded to multiple requests for comment from Fortune. Fans have started calling on Earle to either fess up and apologise or prove the allegations were false or fabricated.
“Alix honey you need to address the elephant in the room,” one user commented on Earle’s most recent Instagram post.
“In today’s interconnected world, audiences demand accountability, and a single misstep can snowball into widespread backlash,” Toni Ferrara, founder of Ferrara Media, a talent management and public-relations firm, told Fortune. “When trust is broken, followers often disengage, reducing the influencer’s ability to impact and inspire their audience.”
The level of influence Earle has is closely tied to her integrity, “and any perceived breach of that can be devastating,” said Ferrara, who has more than 18 years of experience in public relations.
Other users, however, say Earle’s alleged racist posts aren’t surprising, but disappointing. Earle’s exposure also happened during the same week Brooke Schofield, an influencer, podcaster, and actress, has similarly come under fire for past racist posts, including one where she defended George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin, a Black 17-year-old, whose 2012 death largely sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.
Schofield, though, has issued three apologies for the posts she made as a teenager. But from Earle, it’s been crickets – a move public-relations and communications experts say is a mistake.
“Alix Earle needs to own her mistakes and act fast: apologise sincerely, show personal growth, and make it clear she’s committed to learning from this,” Evan Nierman, founder and CEO of crisis-PR firm Red Banyan, told Fortune. “Ignoring or downplaying the issue would only amplify the backlash and prolong the damage.”
Earle’s reckoning – along with Schofield – also underscores the importance of realising and recognising that one’s internet footprint isn’t easy to erase or ignore.
“This situation underscores a harsh reality for influencers: Your digital past is never truly behind you,” said Nierman, who has two decades of experience working in crisis communications. “In a world where accountability is non-negotiable, even long-past actions can resurface to create significant present-day consequences.” – Fortune.com/The New York Times
