17 Questions: Lexi Hensler Talks Releasing Music and Her Favorite Memories With Lexi and Brent Rivera
You may recognize 23-year-old Lexi Hensler from your TikTok "For You" Page, or that time she picked a boyfriend for her best friend, Pierson Wodzynski, on Bestie Picks Bae. While the California girl has 7.3 million followers on TikTok, she's been in the social media game since before the famous video app.
Hensler got her start on YouTube, where she mostly posts vlogs and fun challenges with her best friends. Since 2013, her channel has garnered over 2.8 million subscribers and she's dabbled in acting, modeling and singing. She has also starred in a few Awesomeness TV productions, including VS (pronounced Versus) and High School Trivia.
What you may not know about Hensler is that she has a tattoo inspired by her mom, or how much she loves llamas (seriously — she started an entire clothing brand inspired by them). Read on to meet Lexi Hensler, the girl behind some positive vibes across social media.
17: YouTube or TikTok?
Lexi Hensler: I very openly pledge my allegiance to YouTube. YouTube's just been a huge part of my life since I was a kid, whether I was watching it and enjoying it or creating videos. I just feel like it's a longer amount of time for me to be able to express myself as a creator and really connect. And it's just a platform that I love so much, but I do love TikTok as well. Just not as much as YouTube.
17: You recently helped your best friend Pierson pick a S/O on our series, Bestie Picks Bae. Would you ever trust Pierson to do the same for you?
LH: Oh my gosh, yes! I have been begging her to do the same thing for me. I just got out of a relationship after, like, two years and I told her I'm ready to get back out there! I'm giving myself a pamper day, getting my nails done and my hair done today, actually. So, I'm ready to get back out there and I definitely think she can find me a really good boyfriend because she knows me better than anyone.
17: What is your favorite TikTok trend/challenge?
LH: Oh man, that's hard. There are so many trends all the time. I wish I was good at dancing; I'm not good at dancing. I really love the one when you're in your car and you tilt your head back and then you're, like, with the scarves, with the song, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, 'Please Don't Go,' where you have a scarf on your head and your dog has a scarf on its head. I was really going to try it with my dog.
17: What is your favorite thing about being Benji’s dog mom?
LH: Oh my gosh. He's the best. I think my favorite thing is just coming home to him at the end of the day and he's just so stoked, just jumping as high as my height and hugging me. And then always just being outside with him. Overall, he just makes me so, so happy.
17: What are some misconceptions people always have about you?
LH: I feel like a lot of people have misconceptions about me. I think the biggest one is always that, like, I just look like I would be popular; I just look like a popular girl from a movie or something. I, I actually had a fan page make an edit of me this morning. That was like, 'Why does Lexi look like the mean popular girl in school?' In reality, I ate lunch with my math teacher and had no friends and was like the nerdiest person on the planet. I hit puberty pretty late. I feel like people think I'm really ditzy, sometimes. I think they don't realize that I'm actually very smart because I can be pretty goofy with people. That's just kinda my personality and my humor, but I'm definitely very smart and academic. Then, people think I'm really weak. 'Cause I'm like 5'2 and a little scrawny, but my favorite activity is boxing.
17: What is it like working with your best friends?
LH: Oh, man. I think it's a dream come true. I think it's funny because my mom always says, 'Wow, you have the best job in the world. You just hang out with your friends all day. Like this is what you do.' And there are definitely videos I've done where I've had a carnival in my backyard or snow in my friend's backyard. It's just been incredible. This family that we've built together, always filming and having fun. We've always had each other to lean on and we know we understand what each other's lives are like. It's just really been an incredible, fun experience. I feel like we have our own little Disney Channel going on, like, what's going on this week? Like, they're breaking up and then, 'Oh, what's going on with Dom and Sofie?' It's just never a dull moment.
17: What is your favorite memory with Lexi and Brent Rivera?
LH: I've known them for about three years now and I love them both so, so much. I think my favorite memories definitely are in Italy. We went to Italy for a web show and that's really when Lexi and I got to bond because before that, she was in high school and dancing and so, so busy. So I didn't get to see her that much. But when we were in Italy, we went through some things. Like we missed our flight and we were stuck in Paris for eight hours, which I think was really a blessing. Then we ended up traveling over 24 hours and we get to where we're staying and we had bed bugs and just so many crazy things happened. But we had fun together and it was just such a bonding experience that really brought us together. Just being sunburned and covered in bug bites in a beautiful place, getting stung by jellyfish a million times together. They were really cool memories.
17: San Diego or LA?
LH: San Diego, definitely. I'm a very laid-back person and I just really like to be at the beach with my dog and my friends. I don't really like to party or be out or anything. So, I'm definitely more fit for San Diego's laid-back lifestyle than anything. I lived in LA for a year and really did not like it, which is why I live in Orange County now. But I always end up having to come up to LA for work, so I love the food there. I make the most of being in LA, but I'm definitely a beach girl.
17: What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever read about yourself?
LH: I don't read too much about myself online because I'm sensitive and I don't want to end up crying. But I just read a comment the other day that Pierson showed me that said I "glowed down" after my breakup and that my style has gotten so bad and it just keeps getting worse and worse. I was like, 'Wow. Really coming for the throat there, guys.'
I mean, I started wearing sweatpants every day during quarantine and was trying to figure out my life. And then I was really going through it with my breakup. So I didn't have the energy to be a functioning human in society, really. I always think it's funny 'cause everyone usually notices it with you if they're paying attention to your page a lot.
17: What’s the story behind your favorite tattoo?
LH: One of my all-time favorite tattoos is definitely the lavender on my back. It's two stems of lavender, a longer stem and then a shorter stem. It represents my mom and me. When I was about 17, I was in the hospital and I almost died. It was a very, very, very long and difficult recovery for me and my mom would bring me fresh lavender from our home, every day at the hospital. It really became a healing thing between us; we both always loved lavender. That really solidified that love for lavender. It was just something very therapeutic for me after going through the trauma. So, I got that tattoo right before I moved out of my parents' house and it was kind of like a reminder that my mom's always with me and I have that strength from her.
17: What is the best part about running your brand, Lexi Llama?
LH: I think just bringing this brand together, a community of happy people and just really spreading positivity and mental health awareness as well as loving your unique self, and that's really the message I wanted to get across with the brand. Our pink tie-dye hoodie, a lot of the proceeds of that actually goes to the Jed Foundation for national suicide prevention awareness, as well as depression, anxiety, OCD, other mental illnesses. So every purchase of that hoodie is able to help me get closer to that goal of helping with mental health and then really just spreading those key messages around. But I've seen a really great community of people. They're like, 'I love my hoodie, I love wearing it.' I love it. It says 'be kind.' It's been really, really cool to be able to create that and then see the response for it.
17: When did your love for llamas start and why?
LH: It's really funny. So actually when I was a kid, I watched Emperor's New Groove, when he turns into the, I guess he's an alpaca or a llama in the movie, but I just loved that movie so much growing up and I would love llamas. And then I started getting deep into social media with all these pictures of llamas just doing silly things. I just love how dorky and unique and like unconventionally cute they are — their little crooked teeth and smiles, you know, they're really unique and beautiful the way they are. So, I would always post photos of llamas on my page and be like, 'Have a great day' or 'Be kind to one another,' and then it just kind of became a whole brand thing. All the fan pages were like, 'Oh my gosh, like you're a llama lover,' and then my friends started surprising me with llamas. Then I was like, 'Well, this is honestly perfect for a brand,' because it's everything I want to get across to people with messaging.
17: Would you ever dye your hair another rainbow color?
LH: Oh yeah. I want to so badly, but my hair is very thin and soft and it keeps breaking off. And without my extensions, I have like a whole mullet going on right now. So, I'm trying to let it heal. But like every other day, I have a crisis where I'm like, I really want to dye my hair and I have to get talked down from Pierson. I'm sure one day I will again, but I'm letting it heal for now.
17: What’s your weirdest or most embarrassing habit?
LH: Maybe that I'm a clean freak. People used to laugh at me because if I'm stressed out, I start like rapidly cleaning. Like, I'll be scrubbing the floors and doing the dishes and cleaning the toilet. If I'm stressed out, I'll be talking to my assistant and I'm like, 'Okay, we need to call these people back and we need to set up this video' and I'm just running around cleaning. She's like 'Can I help you?' Then I'm like, 'No, I need to do this. Can you talk to me?' I think that's a weird habit because I don't think most people do that.
No, really. I've like, had fights with my boyfriend where we've been arguing hardcore, where I've been cleaning like vacuuming in the middle of this fight because that's how I cope with anxiety.
17: What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
LH: That's a hard one because I'm so open on the internet about my life. I mean, maybe when people always meet me, they say that they thought I would be taller. That's always nice to hear. I was also working and training to be a surgeon before I did social media. I think about it a lot. I would definitely be in a very different place right now.
17: What’s the best way to maintain strong friendships?
LH: I think it's really about finding balance, which is also just healthy for your mental health. You really have to carve out that time to maintain those friendships and spend time with your friends and reach out to them. Like, if I'm just kind of going about my day and I'm thinking about my friends, I go ahead and text them or maybe I send them a photo of us. I definitely try to stay on schedule as much as I can so that I do have those days off where I can go to the beach with my best friends or maybe travel with my best friends when that's available to do again. But I think it's all about balance and it is so important to have those friendships, especially when your whole world is online and kind of a big production, it sometimes feels like almost not real. It's really nice to just have those moments with your friends, just like laying back and relaxing.
17: Would you ever release music professionally?
LH: Yes! So that was actually my 2021 goal, to finally make time for singing because I'm so passionate about it. But I haven't had time for it and I am really shy about it. So, I've been working really hard to overcome all of that and I definitely plan on releasing music as soon as I can.
I'm planning on getting more into music while not stopping what I'm already doing at my current pace. I'm just going to start really adding in music and possibly acting; I definitely want to get back into that. I feel like now, I have the time to do all of the things I love. So I definitely want to put some time and energy into acting and singing. But other than that, I'm definitely going to keep up with YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
If you want to keep up with Lexi Hensler, follow her on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
Parts of this interview have been edited and condensed for clarity.
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