When Olivia Ponton has something on her mind, she does not keep it to herself. She says it then blasts it on TikTok or Instagram for her 11 million followers.
“It’s not easy,” the 20-year-old Sports Illustrated model told The Post on a recent spring day ahead of Coachella. Ponton can’t reveal if she will follow her 2022 debut when the SI Swim issue hits newsstands Tuesday (although Padma Lakshmi already did reveal she is in it), but she is definitely part of the SI family, as editor of its Instagram channel.
That accolade is because of her own social media clout. In addition to silly dancing videos and makeup tutorials, Ponton posts candid confessions about her coming to terms with her sexuality (she now identifies as “pansexual”), her struggles with eating disorders, and her myriad insecurities.
But she said that it’s important to keep it real for her teen fans, from showing a picture of her happily snuggling with another woman, to filming herself talking about her anxiety.
Ponton is a modern kind of swimsuit model: she has built a massive social media following by being unsparingly frank. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
Ponton has exploded to fame, appearing in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit edition last year, and editing their Instagram. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
Ponton tells The Post that being frank about her life is hard work but that she wants to be authentic to her followers. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
Ponton has 10 million followers, a social media presence that is unusual for a model she uses to speak frankly to. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
With an ability to bring light and shade through her TikTok, Ponton has captured her own audience. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
“I just think about when I was a young girl and thinking, what kind of [role model] did I need at that age?” she added. “I’m working on becoming that.”
Ponton’s frankness has helped her get noticed.
The Florida native has modeled for Fendi, Tory Burch, Juicy Couture, and American Eagle. She flew to Montenegro and donned a bikini for Sports Illustrated and spices up SI Swim’s Instagram as its “social media editor at large.”
Ponton takes followers behind the scenes of her life at the top of the fashion world, including in Paris earlier this year.
Her outspokenness about issues ranging from LGBTQ rights to climate change to sustainability has only made her more attractive for brands looking to appeal to Gen Z.
The Democratic Party tapped her to help urge young people to vote in last year’s midterm elections. And this year, she debuted her first campaign with Victoria’s Secret, a lifelong dream.
“I couldn’t believe it was real,” Ponton said of the VS Pink shoot. “I felt like passing out. I went to the bathroom and was crying because I was so happy.”
Modeling was a dream for Ponton from childhood in Naples, Florida and says it is still “home.” Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
This year has seen Ponton debut a Victoria’s Secret campaign, after her Sports Illustrated 2022 debut. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
Ponton says that being part of the Victoria’s Secret campaign was the culmination of a lifelong dream. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
Olivia Ponton was born in Naples, Florida, in 2002. “I had a very relaxed childhood,” Ponton said. “We went to the beach all the time.”
Her parents were both teachers, and would take their two daughters to different countries for summer vacations: Hungary, Paris, Germany, and Costa Rica. It made Ponton want to see the world. “I love traveling,” she said.
Ponton is the Gen Z whisperer for major brands and even for politics, having been asked to help by the Democrats. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
At 20, Ponton is already one of the biggest modeling stars of her generation, thanks to a commanding social media presence. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
Being a Sports Illustrated model and part of a Victoria’s Secret campaign is a dream but Ponton is open about her struggles. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
Ponton ran track and field in school, but at 13 she decided she wanted to be a Victoria’s Secret Angel. “I loved them,” she said of the bodacious lingerie models who were superstars at the time.
“Everyone laughed at me, because I was so short,” about 5 foot 4 inches, she recalled. “Fortunately I had a growth spurt,” the now-5-foot-9 model added.
When Ponton was about 16, her dad took her to Miami during Miami Swim Week. There, she met a real model. She was 6 feet tall and worked as a mannequin full-time. Ponton was enthralled.
Her first encounter with a real model was in Miami, and Ponton, who was with her father, was enthralled. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
“I loved them,” says Ponton of her 13-year-old self’s reaction to seeing Victoria’s Secret angels. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
In the seven years since Ponton first feel in love with the idea of Victoria’s Secret Angels, she has become one of the brand’s key figures. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
When she got back home, she applied for the big modeling agencies and convinced her parents to let her meet with Wilhelmina in New York City in March of 2020. “It took a lot of convincing [for them to sign the contract].” (She’s now at IMG.)
Yet the day after she left the Big Apple, the country shut down due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Instead of jetting across the world for modeling campaigns, Ponton was stuck at her parents’ house, attending Zoom high school and bored out of her mind.
So she turned to TikTok. She posted workout videos, beach videos, outfit videos, silly videos. All of them showcased her goofy, gregarious personality — and won her a lot of fans.
With frank discussions about eating disorders on her TikTok, Ponton has connected with her followers.
For Ponton, there is little off limits on her social media, which has allowed her to connect with an audience outside of the world of high fashion.
Not all of the model’s TikToks are serious topics, she is also frank about less weighty topics, including bad skin.
“I never thought social media and modeling would go together,” Ponton said. “It was just genuinely fun for me.” Now she can’t imagine her career without it.
Ponton has 7.9 million followers on TikTok and 3.2 million on Instagram. Social media has gotten her a stylist, friends and romantic partners, jobs. But such attention also has its downsides.
Online trolls would leave cruel comments on her Instagram posts, criticizing her body in a bikini. They called her too fat or not busty enough or just plain unattractive.
Will Ponton be in Tuesday’s Swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated? She can’t say. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
Whether she is in SI Swimsuit or not, Ponton is part of the family, as a 2022 debutante and its Instagram’s editor-at-large. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
Social media has brought upsides and significant downsides to Ponton, but she has made her struggles with trolls, food and anxiety public on it, and connected with her followers in doing so. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
The onslaught of insults led her to hate her body. She did not take much comfort in her modeling jobs either. Though she was booking high-profile gigs, some high fashion samples did not go over her hips.
“I developed an eating disorder,” she said. She stopped eating, thinking that becoming “super skinny” would solve all her problems.
Ponton began talking about her complex relationship with food and her body in public, and to her audience. She also has a therapist. But speaking out about her issues — and connecting with so many other women who struggle with eating disorders — has helped her come to terms with her body.
While Ponton is tight-lipped about whether she will be in the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, Padma Lakshimi has already revealed that she will be in it — and showed Jimmy Kimmel one of her shots. Jimmy Kimmel Live /ABC
Lakshmi is the first confirmed 2023 model for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. Sports Illustrated Swimsuit
“I realized that [loving yourself and your body] is a decision you make, that you choose,” she said. “You have to say to yourself, ‘I am beautiful.’”
Last June, Ponton came out as “bisexual” in an interview with Teen Vogue. (She now identifies as pansexual, meaning she’s attracted to a person regardless of their gender.)
It happened when she came across her now-ex-girlfriend’s profile on social media — and couldn’t tell if she just thought she was pretty or was sexually attracted to her. Ponton slid into her DMs, and the two began a relationship.
Social media has brought Ponton modeling roles, a stylist, and romantic partners — which led her to come out as first bisexual, then pansexual.
She also uses her TikTok to show what life as a model involves, including hair, make-up and even eyebrow sessions.
She didn’t necessarily hide it from her fans — she posted cozy videos of the two of them — but Ponton had trouble wrapping her head around the fact that she could be gay.
“I realize that I had a lot of internalized homophobia,” she said. “I thought, I’m very femme-presenting, I can’t come out, I don’t look like a lesbian! It took me a while to realize that you can look any way [and be gay].”
She said grappling with her sexuality also helped her with her body image issues. “You don’t have to worry about the male gaze,” she says. “I can go out tonight without needing guys to think I’m beautiful.”
Coming to terms with her sexuality was a journey for the model, who said she had “internalized homophobia” about being attracted to women. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
She says that without the “male gaze” being a concern, it’s possible just to enjoy a night out on her own terms. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
It’s not just Ponton: The Post has its own behind-the-scenes shot of Ponton, from our photoshoot in Hollywood. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com
That’s what she does. Ponton now splits her time between Los Angeles and the East Village. When she’s not modeling, she said she likes to go out to eat, work out, pick up trash on the beach (she’s involved with 4OCEAN organization), go snorkeling and even paint pottery.
She adds that she’s single, for now.
“I travel so much for work,” she said. “I was tired of constantly getting my heart broken!” And as she would tell her followers, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Sports Illustrated’s Olivia Ponton
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