Here's What It's Like To Share Your Relationship With 20 Million People

Nearly 10 years ago, Lauren Riihimaki shot to fame as LaurDIY, a YouTuber with creative hacks for fashion, beauty, home decor, and more. Since then, she’s amassed more than 20 million followers across platforms, all while becoming an entrepreneurial powerhouse (she has licensing deals with Amazon, Walmart, and Target); hosting and producing two seasons of Craftopia on HBO Max; and running Wild ‘Til 9, a comedy podcast about relationships. Her co-host? Jeremy Lewis, a frat star-turned-tech mogul — and Lauren’s boyfriend.

They first met through work in the mid-2010s, but didn’t truly connect until they crossed paths online in 2018. She matched with him on Hinge, not realizing that she had already missed the Instagram DM he sent after spotting her on Raya. They began dating, and in 2020, launched their podcast. Thanks to Lauren’s past experience sharing a previous relationship with the public, they didn’t take the decision to co-host Wild ‘Til 9 lightly. “If the podcast ever got in the way of our real relationship on a day-to-day basis, we would abandon it so quickly,” she says.

“My ex and I, we didn’t do this on purpose, but making content about all the best moments in our relationship, the funniest moments, the cutest moments, we created this false narrative of what a ‘perfect’ relationship might look like. We weren’t showing the road bumps,” she recalls. Now, she and Jeremy take a different approach to working together. Rather than showing off a highlight reel, she calls their podcast “the authentic, organic conversation that just happens to be between two people who are in a relationship.” If they ever split, she says she wouldn’t regret anything they’ve posted thus far.

In Elite Daily’s Q&A series Everything I’ve Learned About Love (So Far), celebrities share their most heartfelt and heartbreaking lessons about dating, relationships, and breakups, and offer their best advice. This time, Lauren talks about what it’s really like to date as an influencer, shares the game-changing power of understanding your love language, and sets the record straight on the biggest misconception people have about her boyfriend.

What’s your most memorable first date story, good or bad?

This was one of our first dates, on the day Jeremy asked me officially to be his girlfriend. We went to Disneyland with a big group of friends. About half of us were content creators, and we ended up running into a lot of viewers. So, we’d stop for photos or conversations, because that’s one of the best parts about being a creator — meeting people out in the real world. We’d have to stop every couple of minutes.

We were in the honeymoon period where you just want to spend every second of time with that person, and you want to make sure that they’re having the best time and you’re having the best time. So, I was trying to balance that whole situation. We hadn’t known each other that long, and obviously, he wasn’t actually annoyed by it, but I was like, “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” But also, this is amazing, getting to meet people. It ended up being OK. We haven't been to Disneyland since.

What’s one underrated thing you love about Jeremy?

We both have extremely childish food palettes. I love that together, we don’t have to be ashamed of ordering a Happy Meal or really enjoying Dino chicken nuggets. That’s something that we probably haven’t shared on the internet… that he might be embarrassed that I’m sharing now.

What is your strength as a partner? What’s something you want to work on?

My strength is that I make an effort to understand love languages — how you need to receive and show love. I know some people think love languages are such clichés, but when they don’t align, it can be so detrimental to a relationship. Both of our love languages are acts of service.

I don’t want to take full credit for that, because that’s a strength of Jeremy’s, too. For example, I have so many issues with allergies, and when we first started dating, he went out of his way to replace the air filters in his apartment with specific allergy ones. It was just one of the most thoughtful, considerate, attentive things. That moment brought clarity, like, Oh, this guy is different. Maybe that’s when I knew it was love.

As for what I’m working on, when I’m faced with conflict or confrontation, I have a tendency to shut down while I gather my thoughts. It’s a blessing and a curse. I never want to impulsively say something that I don’t mean, but I think I can also be frustrating for a partner when I need a few minutes to be in my head before I address the situation. That’s something I’m definitely working on — making a bigger effort to be conscious of it, and to communicate that I’m not giving the silent treatment or trying to make the conflict worse, but I just need a moment.

What’s one misconception people might have about your love life?

People forget that Jeremy has a full-time, regular job and a really successful career. We always make the joke because sometimes in PR stuff or news articles, whenever we do podcast stuff or interviews, people refer to him as “Lauren's boyfriend, Jeremy.” We laugh about it now. He's a wildly successful director-level tech entrepreneur who works at Crypto.com. He's got this insane list of achievements and he’s crushing it, and I think people forget that he's not just a YouTuber's boyfriend.

What’s the most meaningful lesson you’ve learned from your relationship?

If your partner wanted to, they would. We say this on our podcast all the time. Jeremy was so forward in being interested in me and wanting to make an effort to show me that he cared. Coming from a relationship where, in the past, I had issues with commitment, it was such a 180 for me. He made me feel so valued.

What’s your best piece of dating advice?

Being authentic at the very beginning is so important. I feel like people are so prone to putting a filter on who they really are when they first meet people because it’s scary to be vulnerable to a stranger. But I think when you are truly your authentic self, when you’re up front about who you are, that’s when you’ll really find a good match. You don’t have to waste time trying to figure out if they’ll accept you once you start letting that wall down.

What’s your best piece of breakup advice?

This might be petty as sh*t, but it’s always been really effective for me: I make a list of all my negative feelings toward them, and I read it when I’m sad. It’s such an immediate snap back to reality of why the relationship wasn't working in the first place and why it was essential to break up.

Who is one celebrity couple you admire? Why?

Oh God, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are my favorite celebrity couple ever. I'm totally speculating, but they just seem like they have so much fun. Obviously, we only see what is portrayed on social media again, and I understand that can be a total highlight reel. But being with Ryan Reynolds, who seems like one of the funniest people on the planet, probably makes it easy to laugh through hard times.

What’s one song that’s gotten you through a breakup?

“I Don’t F*ck With You” by Big Sean. It’s so abrasive. It's so aggressive. But that's a good breakup song.

What does love mean to you?

I think that love means togetherness. It’s being best friends and being able to find the fun in mundane tasks, like when you can go to the grocery store and have a great time. It’s about finding someone who is willing to communicate, and who wants to be in that relationship and give 100% every day. It’s when you feel safe together.