It’s Ashtin Earle’s Year Of “Yes”

“My sister Ashtin… one thing about her is she’s cool,” Alix Earle said about her little sister in a March episode of her podcast Hot Mess. “Everything she does, everything she says, everything she wears, she’s just cool.” The compliment was given with a fair dose of sisterly reluctance — but the point stands: Ashtin Earle is undeniably cool.

The world is now catching up to that fact, too. The 21-year-old is spending the first week of September in New York City, and we’re chatting while she gets her glam done for her first-ever show, Coach. “I just love the energy of Fashion Week,” she says. “I’m just a girl in college. What am I doing here?”

Ashtin first gained recognition with occasional appearances in Alix’s viral videos over the last few years. Now the New Jersey native is a content creator in her own right with nearly 800,000 followers on TikTok and more than 420,000 followers on Instagram. “I really gained more of a following when I started being myself more,” Ashtin says, identifying this summer — where she took followers behind the scenes of her Mykonos trip and brat summer celebrations — as a turning point.

Fans of Alix have been eager to see more Ashtin for a while. In August 2023, rumors of a reality show, Earle Girls, started after Alix teased an upcoming project. “An Earle Girls show would be hilarious,” Ashtin says about the rumors. “I don’t really know the logistics of a reality show. I feel like constantly being followed by cameras 24/7 could be a lot. But who knows?”

The aforementioned project that Alix teased wasn’t actually a reality show. It was the launch of Hot Mess under Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network. But Earle Girls hopefuls still got their wish — kind of. The podcast meant more Earle family content, and on Sept. 26, Ashtin will officially join her sister for Hot Mess Season 2, which is designed to feel like you’re on FaceTime with the eldest Earle sisters. “We just set up my room at school for filming Hot Mess,” Ashtin says. “Now there’s just a camera in the middle of my bedroom. It looks really suspicious.”

Ashtin, who’s majoring in psychology, started her final year at Tulane in August. Like most seniors, she’s wondering what comes postgrad, but for now, she’s trying to focus on the present. “I’m kind of a ‘yes’ man. That’s how I’ve been navigating everything.”

It’s crazy that so many people — people that I’ve never met before — have such strong opinions about us. I’m terrified of being perceived, always.

So far, Ashtin’s year of “yes” has been packed with bucket-list moments — from a last-minute appearance on the Sports Illustrated Swim runway with Alix and her younger sisters Izabel, 11, and Penelope, 10, to an invite to Michael Rubin’s star-studded White Party.

To anyone watching, Ashtin looks like she belongs, but it doesn’t always feel that way. “I have horrible impostor syndrome,” she says. The go-to solve in such situations? Tequila. Ashtin took three shots backstage before walking in the SI Swim show in June. “I was shaking,” she says. “My little sisters were having so much fun and were asking me ‘Why are you so nervous?’ I was like, ‘Stop. This is scary.’”

She felt similar nerves when she entered the White Party in the Hamptons on July 4. “I immediately walked to the bar to take a shot,” she says. “I was scared someone was going to actually sh*t on me if I tried to talk to them, but everyone was really nice.”

Ashtin spent July in Montauk, a celebrity and influencer hot spot. There, she learned firsthand what it’s like to be a public figure with so many people invested in your life when a video of her and DJ John Summit making out went viral on TikTok. (The Internet was extremely on board, by the way. One fan tweeted, “ashtin [earle] and john summit IM HERE FOR IT.”)

Despite the prying eyes, Ashtin has a sense of humor about the whole thing. “I didn’t even know how to take it — you’re just out with your friends having fun, and then a thousand people are posting videos of you online. I’m like, ‘Well, shoot,’” she says.

And then, her father saw the viral video. “Honestly, that was the hardest part,” she says. “He brought it up to me: ‘I saw what you were doing last night.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘You were making out with someone on the dance floor.’”

As long as her dad isn’t confronting her, Ashtin tries not to take things too seriously. “People made up rumors, saying, ‘Oh, my God, they’ve been dating forever,’” she says of her and John. “People just come up with stuff. They pull it from nowhere.”

The situation may be weird, but it’s not new for her. Since Alix went viral, followers have been speculating about her family. “It’s crazy that so many people — people that I’ve never met before — have such strong opinions about us,” Ashtin says. “I’m terrified of being perceived, always.” (She laughs when I point out the irony in an influencer feeling this way. “Yeah, I know.”)

For the most part, Ashtin avoids reading conspiracy theories about herself. “The other night, I went down a deep dive about myself on Reddit. That was the first and last time I’ll ever do that,” she says. “A lot of people say that I seem boring. I know I can talk really slow in my Get Ready With Me videos, but I’m not boring. I’m actually really fun! I like to go out, and I love to chit-chat with my friends, I swear.”

Being single is literally the best thing ever. People just need to realize that.

She shares plenty of snippets of her life through her content, which toes the line between aspirational influencer events (fashion week) and relatable college student moments (syllabus week). But she doesn’t match the feverish posting frequency of some content creators.

“What I post depends on how bad my anxiety is that day,” Ashtin says. “Sometimes I wake up, feel super social, and post a million times. Two days later, I’ll be having a mental breakdown. I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, why did I post all that? I’m so embarrassed.’ Then I lock myself away for a week.”

Luckily, Ashtin has other content creators who understand posting anxiety in her inner circle. “I got really close with Jake Shane this summer,” she says. “I just love seeing him. He’s such a little ball of energy, and he’s hilarious.” They first met in the crowd at Coachella, while Lana Del Rey was performing. “I heard my name, turned around, and it’s him. He was like, ‘I know we haven’t met before, but hi, I love you.’”

Ashtin also calls Alix a “guiding post” for navigating influencer life. “When we were kids, we were strictly sisters. We would fight all the time like crazy, but we loved each other,” Ashtin says. “Since she’s blown up, we’ve honestly gotten so much closer. There’s a lot more real sh*t going on for her, so she confides in me because we’re family.”

“I love our relationship now,” Ashtin adds. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” Fans will get more insight into their relationship throughout Season 2 of Hot Mess, where they’ll tackle listeners’ questions and share personal anecdotes. Ashtin teases one of their upcoming episode topics: how to be single. “Girls always write into the podcast, upset that they’re alone or that a guy doesn’t like them,” she says. “Being single is literally the best thing ever. People just need to realize that.”

No matter what the Internet claims, she’s not looking to change her relationship status anytime soon. “Now that I’m back at school, I definitely don’t think I want to be in a relationship, at least until I graduate,” she says. “I was in a long-distance relationship once, and it sucked, so I’m trying to avoid doing that again.” Plus, she doesn’t have the time. “Between being at school, traveling on the weekends, and work, I’m so busy.”

Though she’s thrilled about past partnerships, like her first solo ad campaign for Edie Parker, she’s pausing before doing any more. Instead, she’s thinking about tailgating college football games and enjoying her last “ratchet” Mardi Gras as a student.

Long term, her goals are harder to map out. Ashtin knows she wants to keep making content and move to New York City postgrad. Beyond that, she’s manifesting happiness and gaining more direction. But for now, she’s savoring this moment at NYFW.

“Being here was always a delusional little dream of mine.”

Photographs by Emma Craft

Styling by Tabitha Sanchez

Set Designer: Elaine Winter

Hair: Sky Kim

Makeup: Akina Shimizu

Senior Producer: Kiara Brown

Associate Director, Photo & Bookings: Jackie Ladner

Photo Director: Alex Pollack

Editor in Chief: Charlotte Owen

SVP Fashion: Tiffany Reid

SVP Creative: Karen Hibbert