Alix Earle Says Kendall Jenner Inspired Her to Talk About Her Acne

Alix Earle has always been an open book when it comes to the things she shares online, but her transparency surrounding her acne journey was inspired by an unexpected person. The 24-year-old TikTok star is WSJ. Magazine’s latest digital cover star, and in a corresponding video interview, she opened up about how model Kendall Jenner’s role in an acne commercial helped her feel inspired to normalize dealing with acne to her millions of followers.

“I don’t know if it was Kendall Jenner—maybe she did like a Proactiv campaign or something—and I remember that resonating with me so much when I was younger,” she said. 

Earle currently has over seven million followers on TikTok and four million on Instagram. Most of her posts these days are a series of “get ready with me” videos and vlogs documenting her travels and hangouts with family, friends and her partner, Houston Texans player Braxton Berrios, but at one point, she also had a series detailing her struggles with cystic acne. It was her transparency in those videos that caused her online fame to skyrocket.

“When I started dealing with super, super bad cystic acne, as much as it was the last thing I ever wanted to post about, and I was so embarrassed and so scared at first, that’s truly what kickstarted my success,” Earle continued telling WSJ. “I always try now to just be realistic about filters or photoshopping. And I just think it goes a long way.”

Realistic is an understatement. In 2023, Earle began an “All Things Acne” series on TikTok. In one of her first videos, she spoke about how her skin looked one year prior after looking at a Snapchat memory, sharing that because she had been experiencing severe breakouts at the time, she would cry “probably three times a day” and avoid leaving her house.

@alixearle i hope this helps someone struggling with their skin 🫶🏼 so excited to talk more about this! #allthingsacne ♬ original sound – Alix Earle

“What you see on social media it’s all filters. It’s all edited out. It’s all fake,” she continued. “Stop picking at your skin. Stop looking in the mirror. Stop taking photos of it. Just relax. You are beautiful. Your skin does not define who you are.”

Earle’s post naturally garnered tons of positive feedback and commentary, and she followed up with more videos about her acne journey, including one that detailed her experience with Accutane and another naming products she often used to cover her blemishes.