9 DECEMBER 18 - 24, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS nights were spent at high school football games. She was a cheerleader at Allen High School — and tells me “we’re friends now” when I mention I attended Plano Senior High School, Allen’s archrival. The chroni- cally online might recognize Blackwell from an old Vine video in which she falls during a cheerleading stunt. Much of her videos on Vine — on which she amassed over 500 thou- sand followers — consisted largely of quick, physical comedy, including clips of her falling off a hoverboard and strumming a guitar with her hair. When she comes back to Texas, she en- joys Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q; the hot sauce is her favorite. She also looks forward to spending time with her parents, but will often stay with her grandmother, who lives down the street from them. Though she refers to her old videos as “freak content,” Blackwell has no re- grets about these clips. Our conversa- tion comes at a time when many former child influencers have opened up about identity crises that stemmed from grow- ing up in the spot- light. Blackwell, fortunately, is an ex- ception to that — fame came at her own accord, allowing her to more easily adjust to adult life in the spotlight. “I put myself in that situation,” she explains. “Now, I think if my mother was the one filming me, and my mom was the one creating the environments for me to be pranked when I’m going to my first day of school or some- thing, I would feel more of a warped sense of identity. I think the only skew of my identity I feel, which is what everyone feels, is like this third point of view that comes from filming things all the time.” Singer Destin Conrad has fostered a gen- uine friendship with Blackwell through con- tent collaboration. He says her closeness with her parents is a testament to the rela- tionship she has with fame. “Something people would be surprised to know about Quenlin is that she is very, very close with her parents, and values what they think more than what people might know,” Conrad says. “I admire her love for her family.” Still, Blackwell, who has been praised as one of the most influential creators on the internet by the likes of Time magazine and Rolling Stone, seems acutely aware of of the risks of online creation at such a young age. “I feel like everyone has kind of become their own PR agents,” Blackwell says. “They’re their own observers because of the internet. I feel like we’re self-surveilling, but I think that’s just what comes with the inter- net. I do feel bad for child influencers and what their families do to them. I think it should be illegal, honestly, and I think that we should have some type of law to protect them, because it’s ridiculous.” Blackwell moved to Los Angeles at just 17 years old. After Vine shut down in 2016, her status as a viral sensation pivoted in the form of a popular “Me Explaining to My Mom” meme, in which a screen-grab from a video of her screaming was paired side- by-side with an image of television person- ality Ms. Juicy. Another oft-circulated moment from her catalog of meme-wothy content features her trying a spicy gas sta- tion pickle, which has amassed nearly 6 million views on YouTube alone. Eventually, her algorithmic prowess led her to TikTok before the platform’s mete- oric pandemic-era rise, where she has pulled in over 13 million followers. Black- well’s tenacity has since earned her part- nerships with brands like Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty and appear- ances in music videos for Lucky Daye, SG Lewis and City Girls rapper JT. In 2024, her It Girlhood was cemented as she be- came a slime-green flag carrier for Charli XCX’s ubiquitous Brat movement, ap- pearing in the pop star’s all-star lineup video for “360” and joining her onstage for a Grammys per- formance earlier this year. In October, she joined models like Gigi Hadid and Ash- ley Graham on the runway for the an- nual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. “Her ability to multitask is honestly scary,” says YouTuber Larri “Larray” Mer- ritt. “Creative brain, business brain, strategy brain — all firing at once. She understands the algorithm and the audience. She sees the long game while winning the short one. And the wild part? She’s only getting started.” Blackwell’s tenacity for being a scroll ahead of the rest of the timeline has come full circle. At the time of our conversation, Vine was announced it will be revived as DiVine, and Blackwell is looking forward to being part of it . “They’re not allowing AI content, which I love,” she says. “I wish more social media platforms would [follow suit].” By and large, Blackwell has become a main character in the online-verse, but it’s no role — she’s not simply emulating inter- net culture; she’s an architect of it. “I feel like the same way everyone does [about social media], but it’s just my job,” Blackwell says. “You know how to use Tik- Tok, and you know how to use Facebook and Instagram, because that’s what the cultural zeitgeist has demanded of you. And I feel like I’m the same way, I just look at it in a bit of a different lens. How do I communicate with my audience in a dif- ferent way? It seems like it’s kind of intrin- sic to me. I feel like I’m bilingual in internet.” “She understands the algorithm and the audience. She sees the long game while winning the short one. And the wild part? She’s only getting started.” –YOUTUBER LARRI “LARRAY” MERRITT
