Latest / In Search Of Excellence / Where is Lele Pons Now? | Podcast Interview With The Venezuelan Social Media Superstar | E109

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Where is Lele Pons Now? | Podcast Interview With The Venezuelan Social Media Superstar | E109 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Lele Pons: And that came out I was in shock billing loops as views. I was the most viewed person in the world on Vine most important lesson. Why don't you just try to prove the people that believe in you, right? And that's it. I started at 16. And then at 18, I got known, so I posted videos every single day, not for any because I liked it.
• 0:23
  Randall Kaplan: Welcome to In Search of Excellence where we meet entrepreneurs, CEOs, entertainers, athletes, motivational speakers and trailblazers of excellence with incredible stories from all walks of life. My name is Randall Kaplan. I'm a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and the host of In Search of Excellence, which I started to motivate and inspire us to achieve excellence in our lives.
• 0:44
  Randall Kaplan: My guest today is incredible, Lele Pons. Lele is an actress, writer, producer, director, single model brand ambassador, and is one of the most important content creators of all time.
• 0:56
  Randall Kaplan: She has 54 million followers on Instagram 39 point 1 million followers on tic tac, and as 18 million subscribers on our YouTube channel. She currently stars in The Secret Life of Lele Pons, a YouTube Docu series that provides a look at our personal life. And as a host of the podcast best kept secrets with Lily ponds on Spotify. Lele, thanks for being here. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you?
• 1:19
  Lele Pons: Good, good. I mean, you're amazing. So it's like a long way to be like you.
• 1:25
  Randall Kaplan: Oh, that's I'm graceful. Say that. So nice for you to say. So let's start with your family. You're born in Venezuela. Your dad was an architect, your mom was a pediatrician. Yeah, let's talk about the influence they had on you as a child. Um,
• 1:40
  Lele Pons: I think that as you know, sometimes like, it's, they were always like, such amazing parents, but not just them. Just also my grandparents. My whole family is very, very together.
• 1:51
  Lele Pons: And they have like, they've always been super supportive in everything, even the things they don't understand, you know? So, since I was a little girl, I was I was the only child and what does that mean? You're spoiled.
• 2:02
  Lele Pons: You know? It's, you know, so. I, I was I had a really good childhood thanks to them. So the way that I am, I am the way that I am today because of them. And
• 2:13
  Randall Kaplan: did you see your parents working hard? They're both professionals. You say One day, I need to be a professional. I mean, those are the
• 2:20
  Lele Pons: architects a doctor a Viner? Like what is that? What does not fair it wasn't a thing.
• 2:24
  Lele Pons: So I didn't I didn't know what I want it to be. No, I have no idea of yet.
• 2:29
  Randall Kaplan: Did they tell you I just wanted to be your best. I wanted
• 2:33
  Lele Pons: to be happy. That's the type of parents that they were like, I just want you to be happy. Like literally my dad was like if you want to. It doesn't matter what you want to do. As long as like you're happy with it.
• 2:42
  Randall Kaplan: Let's talk about your grandparents and Venezuela.
• 2:45
  Randall Kaplan: They had a lot of money. I they didn't they were very poor. They were so at some point someone on tractors. Yeah, so
• 2:51
  Lele Pons: they were like, they're my grandparents. My my grandma, my grandpa, they were in Italy. And they were in a small town. They were like, nothing like very, very, very poor. And my grandfather got the first this is Toby got the first boat to Venezuela, just you know, like they just to see how light like how to get jobs to work. And it took them a while but he like brought tractors to like this town in Minnesota got to run like he started it all.
• 3:14
  Lele Pons: So he built a business over a year and years and years. And then yes, he definitely gained like, popularity there and money. But it came from like a very like he was I mean, it wasn't like my whole family.
• 3:29
  Lele Pons: Before before that never was never like I think he started thanks to him like our family changed.
• 3:35
  Randall Kaplan: Or sometimes bad things happen when people have money. You're kidnapped when you were five years old? Well, yeah, can you can you tell us about that? That's crazy.
• 3:42
  Lele Pons: I know. It's so it's really it's really good. I don't remember my it was my mom was here because obviously, I was a child but ya know, you know, sometimes like they wanted you know, if you get kidnapped, they were like, Okay, well, let's set her free. Have you give us the money. So luckily, everything turned out good. And we left the state into the states. And I was very young. I was six when I when that happens when that happened. So it was like, it was it was that in that moment? That thing got to happen at that moment. Because it's like, I'm learning everything and I'm always you know, like learning how to speak love going to school like so it was hard, because I was very confused with what was going on. No, you know, when you're little and you're like, you don't understand what happened. Why we're here how long we're going to stay. They just tell you we're gonna be here for a little they tell you things to calm me down. But then like, it takes a turn on you when you start seeing like you don't see your friends anymore.
• 4:32
  Lele Pons: Your grandma because they live there. You miss them. So
• 4:35
  Randall Kaplan: did your mom ever tell you what exactly happened? Did they snatch off the street throwing a car? Oh, anything like that?
• 4:42
  Lele Pons: No, she she doesn't go into detail. Chi. My mom was like very, very like, attached to her past. My mom is very sad.
• 4:49
  Lele Pons: Like every single time she talks about Venezuela it's she's very sad because she really loved loved Venezuela because she knew she was she was born there. She lived most of her life. There I wish I would have been able to Live more more there in Venezuela. I didn't make the decision to move. But sadly I moved. But I am super grateful because I had the life that I have today. And because I moved here is the truth. I mean, I think that everything happens for a reason.
• 5:17
  Randall Kaplan: So you moved here, here to learn language.
• 5:20
  Randall Kaplan: And at some point, you started to develop some medical problems. Yeah,
• 5:24
  Lele Pons: Jesus. Okay. So I moved, I moved, and then I moved here. And then all of a sudden, my parents got divorced
• 5:33
  Randall Kaplan: at age seven.
• 5:33
  Randall Kaplan: We'll talk about the reasons in a little while. But But
• 5:37
  Lele Pons: yeah, so this is, yeah, this is happening. Yeah, this is happening, like all over the place. So this is I move the year after my parents get divorced, two years after I get diagnosed with many things, you know, you start seeing it as a young age. So my parents were like, what's going on? What's going on? And the lady who was my therapist, but not for like, my mental health, or just like, as a doctor for like, my, my parents, like, you know, oh, therapists like to cope with a divorce. Yeah. She said, she was like, she's, there's something off here. With her. She's doing a couple of things that I know what it is. So I'm gonna just refer you to another woman that can diagnose you. And then it was Gadea mores. And she did. I don't know what to how old I was, like two years, three years after. And yeah, everything. I mean, it was getting bad. It was getting really bad. I feel like I have I have many things, many, many things, things I don't even talk about, because I'm like, just don't talk about so much.
• 6:25
  Lele Pons: But I'm OCD. Very severe OCD, very mild Tourette's. I have anxiety, depression. I mean, I've never really talked about it. But I feel like many people probably know, but a little I actually not little bipolar disorder, like intensely, too.
• 6:42
  Lele Pons: And I'm telling you, like, I'm very grateful for the 17 years or 18 years that I've been in therapy and drinking my medication, because I'm so much better than I was before. And when people are like, Keppra, you're so good. You're good? No, no, I was nine. When I started.
• 7:04
  Lele Pons: My God is my I don't know, anything but therapy. But medication, you know, so I have to give it to my parents who found the therapist, my my doctors, myself, I have to because it's you have to be willing to want to get better.
• 7:19
  Lele Pons: But I was pretty bad. Many, many things I've done in my life that that I you know, it wasn't easy because of the conditions that I had. But
• 7:28
  Randall Kaplan: well, I think it's important to talk about them because you're a role model. And like a lot of people mental health now has become at the forefront of our lives these days. Yeah. And when famous people come out, there's so many people who say, gosh, if that person can talk about it, then I should probably talk about and get help. Yeah, OCD put a pillow over your face algebra for a minute. Because you
• 7:50
  Lele Pons: don't mean worse things than that. Yeah. It was insane. So
• 7:53
  Randall Kaplan: talk about, first of all, for those people that don't know what it is, what is it? What are the things that you did? Yes. And how did it affect your daily life? I mean, every second of every day,
• 8:02
  Lele Pons: so there's like, Okay, so there's like a, so OCD.
• 8:06
  Lele Pons: OCD is basically it's, it's an urge to feeling it's a feeling that you have to do something if you don't do it. It's not just like, I want to clean because like, I don't like that it's a mess. No, no, if you don't do it in a ritual way, in a specific way, it could be religious, like, let's say, you want to touch something three times because you, you for the Holy Spirit, for example, for me, something bad's gonna happen if you don't do it. So there hasn't happened to your mom. So there hasn't happened to your dad. So something bad is gonna happen.
• 8:31
  Lele Pons: It's like, and then there's like many layers to it, you know, there's physical, like, before I was more physical with touch, three times I would do things which I then it was like mental, I would think things. It had to be perfect thinking it had to be like, an obsession of just like, I have to do this, I have to do this. I have to do it, like nobody notices. But they're like, I have to do I have to do this. And it's just, it's the I have to when you say I have to that's when you know, it's like no, that's OCD. You don't have to do that. You don't have to touch it. When I was talking to my therapist, I was like, I have to touch I have to do this. I had to and then also the fear of the unknown. What if What if I don't do this? It will my mom Dyer, like it's a lot of things.
• 9:10
  Lele Pons: You know, OCD is very complex, very, and I learned everything.
• 9:15
  Lele Pons: Like it's like OCD goes near.
• 9:22
  Lele Pons: It's like it goes very well with anxiety and it goes very well with depression. Everything is aligned. Everything is very together. So yeah, I've had a very severely it's, it's it's caused me many problems in my career as well. Yeah, but it also has made me stronger in other ways.
• 9:39
  Randall Kaplan: So we talked about putting a pillow over your face, holding your breath for 30 minutes or for 60 seconds or you fail you're maybe going to die for those people who don't know as well. What do you mean about touching doors because I read at some point as well that you had to touch the door three or four times then you didn't want to touch doors but for what else can it be? You ever those people,
• 10:01
  Lele Pons: for those people, it's like, it has to feel the touch is like it has to feel has to doesn't even have to, has to feel perfect. If I touch this one time and like that was imperfect enough want to do one more time. And that becomes, okay, another time that wasn't perfect enough. We don't even know what perfect. It's what we feel. So you can't you don't know what I feel, you know? So it's like, it's this urge of doing things, religiously, ritually multiple times until it feels right. That's what OCD is in. It's in a very, you can definitely manage it. You can control it with therapy will over time, but it there's no cure with it. And you can yes, definitely manageable, you can decrease it many. Yeah, for sure. I'm a living proof. I've done it. So.
• 10:46
  Randall Kaplan: So what age were you when you first saw the symptoms, and I
• 10:50
  Lele Pons: was nine, I was 989.
• 10:50
  Lele Pons: And I couldn't, I couldn't get like, it all started with like I was in school. I was very, very nervous. Sometimes like OCD for me comes when I'm leaving nervous many times, it gets stronger, it's always there. But I was taking a test and like my pencil fell and I picked it up.
• 11:06
  Lele Pons: And the way I picked it up, I didn't like it. I was like, I didn't pick it up, right. I had to pick it up, it has to feel good to pick it up. The weirdest, you know, it is it's just like, it's like, the It's the feeling is like, you know when like, literally when you imagine leaving a baby in the car, you're seeing it, we'll have to open the door getting out. That's a bad feeling is like as a fleet like, it's insane. That it's like you have to, like open the door like you in reality, you don't have to. I know that. But the feeling is too strong. I do it again, even like I'll do it. I'll do it again. I'll do it again. I'll do it until I feel comfortable. OCD is about feeling comfortable. So exposure therapy is one of the ways to, you know, manage OCD.
• 11:50
  Lele Pons: So if I feel comfortable touching this three times, right? Then my therapists will say, okay, exposure therapy, touch it two times, instead of three, because minus three. And I was like, Okay, I'll touch it two times. And then I would go crazy attitude one more time.
• 12:07
  Lele Pons: Whatever I didn't I shake, sweat, everything. And it's just a you have to do exactly the opposite of what your mind is telling you. And if you're saying like, Oh, I'm, I'm this tomorrow is good. Let's say tomorrow, my mom's gonna die, right? Or if tomorrow the world is ending or tomorrow, I'm gonna get a bad grade. If I don't do this. If I don't turn off the shower, right? Then you were you say to yourself is like, Okay, tomorrow, the world is gonna end tomorrow, your mom is going to die tomorrow, you're gonna get a horrible grade. Okay? And that's what you have to say to yourself. horrible feeling. But it will be there for a couple minutes. And then a week goes on to something else.
• 12:48
  Randall Kaplan: So let's talk about something else. Tourette Syndrome. So we have OCD and Tourette's. Oh, one is bad enough. That's Tourette's as well, which is bad talking about Tourette's, first of all, what is it? Yes. In fact, you give some examples of
• 13:01
  Lele Pons: target. So there's a like people think and this is Torres has to be just like, you know, saying bad words are very, very intense. No, no, there's different types of Tourette's.
• 13:10
  Lele Pons: Okay. There's the very severe ones that we all know it, the more physical you can see. And there's the ones that are, yes, they're there. But they're not too noticeable. You know what I mean? And with industry truth, like you will notice some of my Tourette's but my my friends will, if they aren't together with me all day, they will see it. Because there's things I do, and then we'll see. And also, I've been doing therapy for a long time. There's no cure for Tourette's, but there's a way to also calm it down a little bit.
• 13:37
  Lele Pons: There's a way there is a way and I've done it many times. For example, back in the day, I was not drinking my medicine, medicine when I did the Docu series and my Tourette's were going crazy, because it's not because there's no medicine for Tourette's, but there's medicine for other things, anxiety, depression, everything. So everything you're going crazy already with other things.
• 14:00
  Lele Pons: Torres welcome. Very, very intensive, there's always gonna be they're very, but I have been very mild, except that time because I wasn't taking care of myself. But I'm very mild. I can show you twice that I have and it's a little things I do to not make people see my Tourette's as well.
• 14:15
  Randall Kaplan: So what are some examples of a mild case? All right,
• 14:18
  Lele Pons: I every single time I text people don't see it because obviously, you don't live with me, you know? So let's see, I text you via text. I'm like, somehow this this I do this. I do that. For example. I'm like,
• 14:30
  Randall Kaplan: like, I do that a lot to physical habit. It's a
• 14:34
  Lele Pons: physical habit. I do it even without texting. But like when I'm texting it goes and I'm just like, you don't even see. I mean, if I'm talking to you here, you guys won't see it. I'm like, I can be like this and I can be like this and you won't see it. And then also a lot of things that I have with my Tourette's is voice. I had a huge thing take a couple years back that it was like like that, right? So how I started making it so people wouldn't notice. I would actually be like, I can I got let's go through, oh my god that go to that place over there. Like, I love it. You don't even know what you think is like I'm talking I'm talking.
• 15:07
  Lele Pons: It's a weird thing that I mean, it's so weird how I've been able to like kind of like people not like not for people to see it so much. And it but it's there. And it's very rare and when sometimes I'm just like when I talk to people I'm like, huh, and then like, I hold my hand because I want to, I want to do this. So it's, it is so complicated. It is really fucking complicated. There are tricks
• 15:30
  Randall Kaplan: basically. So sometimes there
• 15:32
  Lele Pons: takes their takes their takes, and I'm, I'm telling you, they're very mild.
• 15:36
  Lele Pons: But if you're with me all day, you will see them. It's not that it's a it's not a show, but I'm gonna give to you, you know what I mean? It's not a show, whatever is happening, whatever is happening in the moment, severe or not, you will see them and maybe another day you won't see them is the truth. So I don't have them very, very strongly. But if you live with me like my husband does, he sees it a lot.
• 16:03
  Randall Kaplan: OCD. Tourette's.
• 16:03
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, depression, tension Deficit Disorder. Yeah. Oh, executive functioning executive functioning skills.
• 16:10
  Lele Pons: That's the worst one for me. So it's called many problems in my religion. So
• 16:14
  Randall Kaplan: let's, let's talk about that. What last?
• 16:16
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. So talk about this to others, ADHD and then potential ADHD. I think a lot of people don't tell tell people what the difference is. Because I think a lot of people don't know the difference between those two.
• 16:29
  Lele Pons: Um, ADHD, um, it's like ADHD is like you're very hyperactive. Like you get distracted very easily. It mostly happens with like, yeah, with kids that it's not just you don't just have ADHD, sometimes you just have that and some of us are, you're just hyper like, and then you're, you're distracted. And it's Yeah, I think it's just,
• 16:50
  Randall Kaplan: I don't know.
• 16:50
  Randall Kaplan: All right. The the medication people think yeah, no, yeah. But that can Catterall is the main is the main. Yeah. Yeah. Drug for that. So we're on Adderall at a young age. Yes. You're okay. I'm gonna everything. And now let's talk about attention deficit disorder, executive functioning skills, and how that started at a young age and give some examples at a young age.
• 17:09
  Randall Kaplan: And sounds like you still have it. I still have it. And it's still you said it impacts your career. Yeah, exactly.
• 17:16
  Lele Pons: I think executive functioning has impacted my career, my relationships so much, because executive functioning is just basic things that everybody does, but you it's difficult for you to do.
• 17:27
  Randall Kaplan: Depression.
• 17:27
  Randall Kaplan: That's horrible. So son, I got five things at a young age, right? What when did that start?
• 17:34
  Randall Kaplan: And what what were you impression failure? So
• 17:38
  Lele Pons: I mean, you know, what's so crazy depression, sometimes you're you're set for no reason. I feel like people that are depressed, yes, they're depressed for really good reasons. But imagine being depressed for nothing. It's a feeling you're just like, a panic attacks. You know, like, it's just, I have panic attacks I have, I'm depressed when I have a crazy life. But it's here. You know, that right?
• 18:03
  Lele Pons: Like, depression is just, it's a, it's a horrible chemical feeling.
• 18:09
  Randall Kaplan: Are you still depressed?
• 18:10
  Lele Pons: I mean, when I'm not when I'm perfectly happy, I'll let you know.
• 18:15
  Randall Kaplan: Oh, you have a great life, and we're gonna talk, I have a great life,
• 18:18
  Lele Pons: I have a great life.
• 18:18
  Lele Pons: And I'm very grateful for that.
• 18:21
  Lele Pons: But um, many people that I know just like suffer with depression, and it just comes and goes, and it just, it is really hard. You know, depression, you can, you can be in a very depressive mode. And it's okay to be sad for things that you should be sad about.
• 18:34
  Lele Pons: But it the extent that I am, or the extent of people that have depression, or is a little bit too much, it's an extreme. I feel like every single thing that I'm talking about is normal. But when you're diagnosed when it's a little bit extreme, when it becomes not normal, that's when you get diagnosed.
• 18:50
  Randall Kaplan: So you had all these issues and you're in school and were bullied because of these you are lonely.
• 18:55
  Lele Pons: Yeah, that's a bit depressing, but about that.
• 18:58
  Lele Pons: Well, and
• 18:59
  Randall Kaplan: and it's hard, right? Because kids are making fun of you. They're very cruel kids were a lot more cruel back then. And yeah, jays in trouble for it? Yeah. So did you come home crying your mom every day?
• 19:09
  Randall Kaplan: This is terrible. Yeah.
• 19:14
  Lele Pons: Yeah. Yeah. But I don't think she was like, Oh, she's depressed. But because I mean, that makes anybody sad.
• 19:20
  Lele Pons: Oh, my God, you know, like being bullied everything. Yeah.
• 19:22
  Lele Pons: However. How long are you depressed? Well, you know, I mean, imagine like, I'm like, Okay, this happened. I'm depressed for like five days for something little, little, for example, you know, that's, that's intense. You know, I mean, a lot of things trigger me to be depressed. I get very easily triggered for everything.
• 19:38
  Lele Pons: Everything is intense.
• 19:41
  Randall Kaplan: But when you're young, you're going to school.
• 19:43
  Randall Kaplan: You're 11 years old. Everyone's making fun. You're 1213 High School. I mean, you're sitting alone. I was bullied in high school as well, stuttered my whole life. You know, kids making fun of me. I mean, it was traumatic. I came home from school crying every day. You know, kids are so mean. Didn't have a lot of friends sat alone.
• 19:58
  Randall Kaplan: I mean, I've been They're, it's a horrific feeling. Yeah.
• 20:03
  Lele Pons: It you know, it's so crazy. They asked me the other day, I was like, What do you have to say? What I have to say to people to kids that are bullied these days, and I only see I can, from my experience, there's only one thing to tell them, you will not remember them. I don't remember anybody from high school that I mean, they, it was not one, it's a long time ago. It's nothing in your life for years. And you have 50 6070 years. They are nothing in your life, you will forget your will get married, you will have boyfriends you will have kids or not. You will live live you will meet friends.
• 20:35
  Lele Pons: And those people are literally gonna be like, maybe they did somehow they made they they touch your life, but your life moves on. I promise you they does. And you will not think about them because I don't write.
• 20:49
  Randall Kaplan: You know, when I come home crying from school, my mom would say, Don't worry, all these people who make funny the cool kids, they're not gonna be that cool when you're older when you grow up. But I remember all the kids who bullied me I remember Oh, yeah, we're Randy, are they?
• 21:05
  Lele Pons: Are they important in your life? No. I
• 21:08
  Randall Kaplan: mean, they're not. And
• 21:10
  Lele Pons: if they feel like, it's now an ordinary, like, no moment, you feel like these people are the most important people in your life. I decided not to think that. So that's why I don't care. And like, Yes, I can tell you the name, but I don't think about them unless you told me, right.
• 21:26
  Randall Kaplan: But I mean, it's still you're very successful.
• 21:29
  Randall Kaplan: You're a beautiful woman. I'm sure all those people today are thinking, Gosh, I knew her. Back when I was meaner. I shouldn't have been today. And I, you know, in my own success, you run into people who used to make fun of me. And, and it's it's somewhat remote rewarding. And it feels good that I've made it.
• 21:49
  Randall Kaplan: And I wasn't retarded. I don't sit alone anymore. I have confidence now. And my life is very good right now. Yeah. And I'm very grateful for but because you moved on, I moved on. I mean, I work to get
• 22:03
  Lele Pons: you moved on. You actually did not listen to them.
• 22:06
  Lele Pons: You listened to yourself, you prove yourself, right. Because it's not about proving them.
• 22:09
  Lele Pons: Right. It's about proving you.
• 22:11
  Lele Pons: Yeah. So I think that's the most important lesson. Why don't you just try to prove the people that believe in you, right? And that's it. We're,
• 22:19
  Randall Kaplan: what was your mom and dad telling you, when you came home and you were being bullied, my mom was saying, you know, like I said, life will get better. You're working on your speech every day. I mean, I go to speech therapy three times a week, I read aloud at night for one hour practice and he technique to speech, it took a long time. So I work to get better. But she was encouraging me as well.
• 22:42
  Lele Pons: Like knowing that he they said, My dad told me that's why it helps me knowing that they are not going to be in my life. Forever, you don't mean knowing that I'm gonna leave.
• 22:53
  Lele Pons: Knowing that my life is I have a beautiful, even if I didn't see it, I have a great life ahead.
• 22:57
  Lele Pons: And these people are nothing in my life. It makes it easy to move on. Because if somebody tells you, it's a very, very important people, like, oh, you piss them off? Well, that's it.
• 23:07
  Lele Pons: That's it. That's it. That's it.
• 23:09
  Lele Pons: That's it, you're done, you're done. No, you're not done. Like, learn from this, get stronger.
• 23:12
  Lele Pons: You know, don't listen to them.
• 23:15
  Lele Pons: It's hard. Very hard not to listen to him. Because you're so young. And that is your life, you know, but you have to understand that from something negative, something positive always comes always and you might not even see it until later, but you will see it.
• 23:29
  Lele Pons: That's
• 23:30
  Randall Kaplan: true. So is that the advice you give to people and people know about your struggles? You've talked about them, even though you said you know, you really don't like to talk about them? You have talked about them? I'm sure tons of people reach out to and saying, I struggle with the same thing.
• 23:45
  Randall Kaplan: You're a role model for me.
• 23:45
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. What's your message to all those people, including those people who are suicidal and say, Gosh, you My life is horrible. I can't get through this. I have some of the problems that you have. What? What's the message to those people to keep going?
• 23:58
  Randall Kaplan: So for the people that want to commit
• 24:01
  Lele Pons: suicide? Yeah. Or
• 24:02
  Randall Kaplan: have all the mental health problems and it keeps getting worse, right?
• 24:04
  Randall Kaplan: Because it's not like you just say one day, I want to kill myself. Right? Yeah, you had all these things going on? Yes, of course, you know, five things that things could have really gone south, right. Yeah.
• 24:15
  Lele Pons: Yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna say I never tried to commit suicide, but I'm not gonna say I've never thought about it. I feel like I have many times thought about like, what if, what if, what if, what if, what if, you know, I want to I want to I just never had, you know, um, but I feel like, it is never the answer. You know, it's never the answer. It really is not because I feel like there's ways that first of all, go to therapy, go to therapy, talk to your parents. Tell them what the hell's going on. If they don't support you go to someone else.
• 24:55
  Lele Pons: If those people don't support you go to someone else. There are people in this world World, horrible people. But there's people that want to help you that love you and want to help you. And I think you should really when you're alone, lean on someone. It's so important.
• 25:09
  Lele Pons: And if you still feel alone, Dre, let's see medication wise, like what's going on here?
• 25:15
  Lele Pons: Medication wise, if that doesn't work, what you have to do is physically yoga. Like what it was for yoga, do something that makes you happy. You yourself, you like the beach, you like to watch old movies you like to run you like to do, you know, focus on yourself so much if you love yourself first. If you love it now, it's hard because I still love myself. But I know I don't I don't I can't say I love myself. I'm working on it. It life is a process. Like I'm working on it tomorrow. I guess I love myself today. I might love myself less, you know, for other reasons for whatever's going on in my mind that I'm like, I didn't do this right or everything. But I feel like when you master the thing of like, you know what? You're confident who you are. You're you were doesn't? Oh, Toby. I'm sorry.
• 25:59
  Lele Pons: Here's the thing, so I don't I don't lose him. Can I lose it?
• 26:01
  Lele Pons: I'm just kidding. I don't lose him. He's okay. I'm sorry. He is gonna leave. Okay. Anyways.
• 26:05
  Lele Pons: Yeah, I think I think surrounding yourself with people who you admire and have gone through the same thing that you have gone through, or are going through at the same time, that helps you, that helps you a lot.
• 26:21
  Lele Pons: For example, if I don't believe in myself, if I'm sad and depressed, if I have those, those bad thoughts, I surround myself with people that I admire so much in that and I look up to and I'm not alone. I don't feel alone. I feel like many people who are who feel like that's because there is no AC black, there's no way out. And it's very easy for people to be like your mom and your dad to be like, like listen, like there's there's a way out, there's a way out because it's our mom and dad, you know, Mom and Dad saw like you love that's what you're saying that but if but if you're surrounded by many people you admire people that are going through something, you start talking. It really does help.
• 26:55
  Lele Pons: That is my main thing. Get out there and talk to people that don't make you feel so alone will be the main thing that I will tell you. For
• 27:05
  Randall Kaplan: a long time you kept your issues to yourself.
• 27:09
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. Oh, see the darkest secret? And then you said, All right, I'm going to talk about it. Why was it your darkest secret? And does it feel great to be able to talk about it and share about it and your vulnerability makes you more human?
• 27:27
  Lele Pons: I mean, it was hard.
• 27:27
  Lele Pons: Because once you let people in, many people will come amazing people, but many bad people will come and try to tear you down, try to use those problems, those mental issues and turn them against you and use them to manipulate you and make you question yourself and use you take advantage of you. And that's why it was hard for me because I knew the minute I opened that box. I let everybody in. And you know, and I guess I guess the reason I feel like the reason why I am the way I am today is not because I love myself in everything. But because I really want to. And because I see the role models near me that they love themselves so much that I want to be like that. And I love myself enough, I guess, to change and be I'll tell you when I'm like, I love my so I want the best. I'm the number one I'm the you know, I'll tell you, but I'm not like that. So
• 28:21
  Randall Kaplan: we all have coping mechanisms. Yeah, I started, I would hide it, I wouldn't talk so much I would kind of stay away. It took me weeks to be able to go to the window at McDonald's. Yeah, and say I want a cheeseburger. And that was how the therapy started. Talk to us about your coping mechanisms and drawing sketches to be able to communicate your parents pizza go into the bathroom.
• 28:46
  Lele Pons: Okay. So, before that one, can we go back to something else? Yes, I'm going to try to say this in like a way that it may not make people feel so sad.
• 28:53
  Lele Pons: How can I say that? I don't like myself all the time. But I love myself enough to get to one two, you know, and to get one to love myself more. So better to say that? Sure. You know what I mean? Because when you say that I love myself. I don't love myself all the time. But I love myself enough to want to love myself in the future more.
• 29:19
  Randall Kaplan: I think that's normal. I think. I don't know many people who love themselves 100% of the time, right? We all do bad things. We all speak out of turn and we unintentionally insult people we maybe will lose or temper when you have like raise your voice or your kids and you feel terrible. When you cut somebody off in a car and I oh my god, I can't believe that I What's that person going through or they cut you off and you're hot and you get mad?
• 29:46
  Lele Pons: Yeah, I feel like especially because I was 16 when I started social media and I let a lot of people and when you start getting bullied, you start believing many things that they're saying. And I'm not someone that really defended my Stop in that moment, I probably will now, but in the moment I was in defending myself, so I just let it in all the negativity. I was like, I guess I'm not I guess I am that my god the all these people are saying this I guess I am I guess I am.
• 30:12
  Lele Pons: However, because of the people that I surround myself with, I did not quit well, so I am very grateful for myself for not quitting, ever. Thank you myself for that.
• 30:22
  Randall Kaplan: When I was a junior in high school, we had to give a speech in English class because he was my teacher. And he pulled me aside he said, You don't have to give your speech Have you don't want to, oh, my God just hit me so hard. I just it was so sad. I mean, I want to cry. And I said, I'm doing it.
• 30:42
  Randall Kaplan: I'm gonna fight it. And I started people, people were laughing. My face was contorting. And it just said, you know, I'm not gonna shy away, I'm going to do it. And I just think you got to deal with your problems. And you got to you can only hide it so much only
• 30:59
  Lele Pons: you but you have to make the decision. No one can I'm telling you about no one can force you to think people can encourage you, people can push you. No one can force you to actually want to like better yourself. I can give you so many. So many, you know how can help you. If you want my help, I'll help you. But it has to come with like you have to first understand that you have a problem. Yeah, that's so important. You know that that's the hard part. But knowing that you have a problem, and then what are you going to do about it? If
• 32:17
  Randall Kaplan: you can't speak, and you stutter and can communicate with people, you have a serious problem?
• 32:23
  Lele Pons: Yeah, I would try. I would draw my problems. Yeah.
• 32:26
  Randall Kaplan: So so talk to it. Well, one thing that I did that I want to share with people is that, and it's something I haven't talked about before, but it's my speech therapist would have a group of people who stuttered clients. Yes. And I sit around on a Wednesday night and you get there. And I remember the first time saying, Oh, my God, you know, it was I really want to do this. I'm so self conscious. And you
• 32:46
  Unknown: went, hell, the I went,
• 32:48
  Randall Kaplan: I went a few times. That's the first step.
• 32:50
  Randall Kaplan: And I got better, I got better seeing other people, I got more confident. And actually, my stuttering was worse than was better. It was still terrible, but it was better than they were 10 people, probably eight people in the room. But when I saw it, it motivated me. We're all working together. It was a team, I wasn't alone. I mean, you hear about stuttering, it's genetic is behavioral. Some people can't get over it. And I worked my ass off reading every night for one hour a day practicing and what I was gonna say, at the driving window. So I think surrounding yourself with people who have the same problem to motivate you is to me, was great. It was really great. I
• 33:30
  Lele Pons: think that's what has helped me, that's what I would tell everybody try to find that community that doesn't make you feel so lonely support groups.
• 33:39
  Randall Kaplan: So that's true.
• 33:39
  Randall Kaplan: If you're suffering from any kind of mental distress, alcohol, drug abuse.
• 33:45
  Lele Pons: Everybody needs it.
• 33:45
  Lele Pons: And it needs to be surrounded by people that make you not feel so alone. I do that are going through the same thing because it gets to loneliness. It's very powerful thing.
• 33:57
  Randall Kaplan: It's huge, huge.
• 33:57
  Randall Kaplan: The statistics that have come out, especially post COVID.
• 34:00
  Randall Kaplan: Quarantine, the numbers are staggering when you read this 30% of the population reports feelings of loneliness, or are severely lonely. That's, that's crazy. That's 100 plus million people in the United States alone. Imagine a lot of people suffering. Yeah. Alright, so now talk about the sketches. So you made these drawings? What were the drawings? And why did you do them?
• 34:27
  Lele Pons: I didn't really know I didn't really talk when I was little not not stutter. I just actually didn't communicate. I didn't know how to talk really, I don't I don't know. I just didn't really talk, I guess, I wasn't really good at talking I.
• 34:40
  Lele Pons: So I would draw, I would draw what I wanted. If I wanted milk, I would draw and I'll show my Dad, I want milk. If I were about whatever was feeling, I was sure like, what I'm feeling and everything. And like, for a long time, for a very, very long time. I use that to communicate with people.
• 34:57
  Randall Kaplan: So sometimes our struggles, bullying, in this case, lead to amazing things.
• 35:01
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, even if we can't see the forest through the trees, and we think, Gosh, this is just, I hope it ends it may not. And so let's start at the beginning and tell us what vine was before I went away.
• 35:18
  Lele Pons: Yeah, so I didn't I didn't I didn't really have Instagram or Facebook. Everybody had that? You know, on Twitter in a moment. Anything happened.
• 35:23
  Lele Pons: I was so late to everything.
• 35:26
  Lele Pons: Talking about what year we're in right now. In 12 or 13.
• 35:30
  Randall Kaplan: And you're how old? I am. 16 Okay, and there's a platform called Vine.
• 35:34
  Randall Kaplan: Instagram. had really just come out with a brand new logo
• 35:40
  Lele Pons: or something. Yeah.
• 35:40
  Lele Pons: Is there gonna come out like two years ago, Facebook was there while
• 35:46
  Randall Kaplan: MySpace. YouTube was Yeah, nobody knows posting.
• 35:49
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah,
• 35:50
  Lele Pons: it wasn't it wasn't a thing. To be a Social Media Creator that there wasn't word there was no word of Social Media Creator or influencer was not a word yet. Yeah. So I, you know, I didn't really have any friends in school. I had amazing friends, but not in actually that school so much. I had other ones, other schools. But in that school, particularly particularly, I didn't feel lonely. But I loved creating I since I was little, I was writing little skits to tell my mom and my dad what I wanted. I loved creating. And then I used this app, I saw this app, and I loved the continent. And I was like, I want to start this app.
• 36:27
  Lele Pons: I don't know what this app is.
• 36:30
  Lele Pons: Might be good might not be.
• 36:30
  Lele Pons: Nobody knew. It was actually kind of looked bad in my school doing this app. So I started doing videos, cuz I love videos I love. I love love stories that I
• 36:41
  Randall Kaplan: find mine was an app. Yes. Right. And so just yeah, there's people who don't even know why not. So So all in it's not a thing. And yeah, let me
• 36:50
  Lele Pons: vine was the first social media app that actually made social media influencers.
• 36:54
  Lele Pons: YouTube was one thing. But this was like influencers, social media, content creators. second choice, second shorts, IG seconds. And that was the beginning of many things. And I am very lucky that I started when I started. So I didn't like to talk so much on my minds, because I don't really like to talk so much, because I wasn't really good. When I'm in that age. I didn't I don't talk too good. However, I made vines in school of what I was feeling.
• 37:25
  Lele Pons: And I put music on top of it. So it was International. Anyone can see those mind and understand because it's physical. You don't need to know English Spanish in Thailand to understand what I'm doing. And it's physically I am putting music and if you understand it, it's like Charlie Chaplin, you know. So I would do that. And I think that helped me a lot. And I was the only one doing skits or videos in school.
• 37:47
  Lele Pons: During that time.
• 37:52
  Randall Kaplan: Your first vine was in chemistry about a chemistry. Your first fine was about getting an F in chemistry class. Yeah, you're making fun of yourself to get friends.
• 38:03
  Lele Pons: Yeah, no, I was getting I was getting. I just like I, I was always I like to make fun of myself sometimes, too, is a healthy coping mechanism. You know, comedy is a coping mechanism. Many, many comedians are depressed. Many comedians don't, you know, are insecure. So they use comedy, as a way, you know, to bring positivity and I love that. And I laughed at things, you know, that was happening to me, like I sucked at chemistry. Make the best out of it. Make fun of it.
• 38:36
  Lele Pons: But I was not happy.
• 38:39
  Randall Kaplan: So people saw this. Yeah. And they reacted to it. Oh, that was the first.
• 38:42
  Randall Kaplan: Nobody saw that five, five people saw it. I think five people saw it. Yeah. Then Then what prompted you to make another one you just said, Gosh, I like creating the content. I'm gonna, yeah, I'm doing another one. And then we do. It's about two years,
• 38:56
  Lele Pons: took me two years, three years to what to actually become popular, or be on the popular pages. It was called the popular page. I started at 16.
• 39:03
  Lele Pons: And then at 18, I got known. So I posted videos every single day, not for me, because I liked it. And then when you people see that you're authentically liking what you're doing. They're like, that's cool. I like this girl.
• 39:16
  Lele Pons: She's freaking weird. But like, if she's in school, she's talking about school stuff.
• 39:19
  Lele Pons: Nobody else in the app is talking about school stuff. I'll follow her. So I think that started all reality
• 39:28
  Randall Kaplan: TV was just sort of coming out right now. So the Osbornes I think we're out and that was the first really Yeah, social media TV show. X rock and roller. Crazy life. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Lead singer I think of back Sabbath wasn't Ozzy Osbourne used to eat a bad onstage and smashes guitar, but that that series really took off and people said, oh, my gosh, is life of a celebrity. You were doing it for kids your own age. I think that was very unique. Now people take it for granted. But that's, that's a real thing. So you're posting every day. I was posting every single day in school in school. They didn't like you at this point because I liked nobody likes you high school
• 40:15
  Lele Pons: didn't like it. So they my school is amazing. By the way. My school didn't understand because it wasn't a thing to be a Social Media Creator or an influencer. There was they made me delete all of them.
• 40:23
  Randall Kaplan: Catholic school.
• 40:23
  Randall Kaplan: No, I used to go to Catholic school public, private
• 40:28
  Lele Pons: school, but it was my mother's day. Okay. Every is like included everybody. That my elementary school was Catholic school. Okay, and um, this is high school. Okay, so they made me delete all my vines. And then my dad, the biggest supporter my mom was like, this is freedom of speech. This is the way that this is my the way that this is a long time ago. Yeah, this is the way that my daughter communicates. Look at our skit.
• 40:49
  Lele Pons: Like he showed all the pictures.
• 40:49
  Lele Pons: She communicates Through this app, just this is what she's feeling. She's friendzone she's gonna make a video about being friendzone. She's having she's having a bad day in school.
• 40:58
  Lele Pons: She's gonna make a video about having a bad day in school. She doesn't talk. So I think that they saw that and I was furious.
• 41:04
  Lele Pons: And they I recreated all my vines again. So it took me another year to do the whole thing. So yeah, I mean, not everyone understood.
• 41:15
  Randall Kaplan: It took you two years to become popular at some point. No, not even not even popular. Known? No. So what does that mean? How many followers on mine? Did you have to be known?
• 41:25
  Randall Kaplan: 500k 500k At this point, were you making any money? Was there a way to make money on vines?
• 41:30
  Randall Kaplan: Are you just getting no popular?
• 41:33
  Randall Kaplan: No advertising model? No, no?
• 41:33
  Randall Kaplan: No. So you're the first person on vine to get a billion loops.
• 41:36
  Randall Kaplan: What's a loop? So that came
• 41:41
  Lele Pons: out? I was in shock.
• 41:41
  Lele Pons: Billing loops is views. I was the most viewed person in the world on Vine. Why? Because I posted every day. Every day. I know. Like I was in school. I was like the youngest. So yes, I was very happy about that. You were
• 41:55
  Randall Kaplan: still in school?
• 41:55
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. When you got a billion vines? And did someone from mine call you and say, Hey, like,
• 42:01
  Lele Pons: after that everybody, everything came everything, like everything showed up. Everybody wanted, you know, collaborations and everything. So after that, I moved to LA. And then that's when vine was about to die, right? Four years have passed by. So this is very important.
• 42:14
  Lele Pons: You always in your life, have to have a plan a plan B, plan C, Plan D, I'm telling you right now, mine was dying. But when like I started to notice that year, four. So what do you do you migrate you go somewhere else? Okay. I'm gonna do an interview, I'm gonna start doing Instagram a little bit more just just in case. So when that happened, I was able to migrate.
• 42:37
  Lele Pons: I kind of migrated on Instagram.
• 42:41
  Lele Pons: I didn't have as many followers.
• 42:41
  Lele Pons: But I had a couple. So I started doing on answer I started all over again on Instagram. Okay, that's going on Instagram, I love Instagram. But I want to make it just in case, it's got a YouTube just in case, go to tick tock just in case, go again to Instagram or whatever. But you always have to have a plan. If you love what you're doing. You don't want to you don't want to.
• 43:00
  Lele Pons: You don't want anybody to take that away from you.
• 43:05
  Randall Kaplan: So I think a lot of people don't know that. Mine was owned by Twitter. It was bought by Twitter in late 2012 2013. It began in 2013 for$30 million. It was a way that they were going to help expand their platform. And just like that, the usage fell and they decided to shut it down in 2016.
• 43:26
  Randall Kaplan: So you have all these influencers, who at this point are making money. And they have to say, Okay, I really need to, to shift. You had a plan B, I don't think a lot of people out there do have a plan B or Plan C? No,
• 43:39
  Lele Pons: almost no way. I'm just what I'm saying is I try to it's important.
• 43:44
  Randall Kaplan: But you're young. So who told you to have a plan a plan B plan C? Were you were thinking or did your parents tell you about it?
• 43:50
  Lele Pons: I mean, I didn't have call I wasn't going to college I applied I got rejected
• 43:54
  Randall Kaplan: all my colleges.
• 43:54
  Randall Kaplan: Why? So I couldn't even get in.
• 43:57
  Lele Pons: I was just not smart.
• 43:57
  Lele Pons: In school. Okay,
• 44:01
  Randall Kaplan: first of all, you're very smart. Let's start there.
• 44:03
  Lele Pons: Chemical chemistry with them. Can't you don't have to be good at
• 44:07
  Randall Kaplan: chemistry to go to college to
• 44:09
  Lele Pons: be you. Remember, it's a GPA thing. Like, it's, it's a whole thing. You can't just like fail in two classes and be good on the other ones.
• 44:16
  Lele Pons: It's not like that, that doesn't work like that. You have to I mean, I don't know how it works now. But before, you have to have at least a seat and like, you know what I mean? Well,
• 44:24
  Randall Kaplan: community college, you really don't need grade point average, right? No, I know.
• 44:28
  Lele Pons: But I was I was like I was because I was doing mine.
• 44:31
  Lele Pons: I left like I didn't want to go to community college. I wanted to I applied to all the things you know, basically your full time job. Yes, it became my full time job. I should have gone to them in the community. But I would have loved to go to college. My God, I don't regret.
• 44:42
  Lele Pons: I would have loved to go into college. I just like applied to the wrong places and got rejected by all of them.
• 44:49
  Randall Kaplan: You can go now they'd love to have you could probably get into Harvard right now. I Harvard, you could get into Harvard, they look at your look at what you're doing.
• 44:56
  Randall Kaplan: You're one of the most successful social media creators ever. But like they like diverse students.
• 45:03
  Lele Pons: Maybe I try to just Yeah, maybe. I don't know.
• 45:06
  Randall Kaplan: Well think about that next year. You ever thought about it? Going back to school?
• 45:08
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, I
• 45:09
  Lele Pons: would love to go to college. I like I don't know.
• 45:13
  Randall Kaplan: But you're taught I tell everybody because I think there's a very important point. What were you going to say? I'm,
• 45:19
  Lele Pons: I'm about to be 28 Can I still go? Yeah, yes,
• 45:23
  Randall Kaplan: you can go. So okay, let's talk about content.
• 45:27
  Randall Kaplan: And I think a lot of people because to be a social media influencer and you're really a creator, but a lot of people say you're an influencer. I think a lot of people kind of use them as as the same. A lot of people do crazy stunts, talking about originality, and how do you keep it real? How do you keep making the content, something that people have not done before and you You see so many people out there trying to have a career like yours. They're copycats.
• 45:55
  Randall Kaplan: How do you do it? And what's your advice to everyone else who says I'm just gonna copy and works for her and it's gonna work for me?
• 46:03
  Lele Pons: Because I mean, no one's gonna be Lily ponds.
• 46:06
  Lele Pons: Father, an architect mom, a doctor coming from Venezuela. No one's gonna have the life that I have no one's gonna have this birthmark being called Live on starting in vine vine died by gone. i You have to think you have to see what has made you different. And stick to that. So I think maybe you can copy everything you want. But to my mind, who that's creating. Are you going to copy my mind? I haven't posted yet. You know, I mean, so I think just being new, my God, I know it's cliche, be yourself. But literally, it's your superpowers. The only thing that makes you difference yourself, you who you are.
• 46:45
  Randall Kaplan: So authenticity, we got to talk about that, right? Because there's so many people who are fake Instagram, my life is amazing. I want to talk about your authenticity.
• 47:00
  Randall Kaplan: And I want to talk about people who have fat shamed you and talked about your Cellulite Cellulite at Coachella, which is fucking outrageous, by the way.
• 47:11
  Lele Pons: Okay, I mean, I mean, that I don't care so much about but i i Yeah, it's insane. It's insane. I, I, I would have cared a long time ago. Remember, as you actually get older, start maturing, right. You really do start maturing, I would have cared more. I cared less. I still care, but I care less so.
• 47:35
  Lele Pons: Satellite, all that stuff. Oh, my God, listen, I rather I rather expose myself and people expose me. So I post my cellulite because I know people will. Because I have it. I'll expose it and I'll embrace it.
• 47:46
  Lele Pons: Okay, cool. We will talk about about, you know, like, sometimes I get bloated a lot. When I eat a lot of posts about it, why not? Literally, why not? What is what is the threat to you? If I had that, you know, and a post that I have bad nails that I'm stopped eating my nails. For example, I posted that I posted.
• 48:04
  Lele Pons: My God. I've always said my nose job the day that I got my nose job and people forget because people are not going to go down in 2013 People like oh, she she's never, she's never. She's never accepted that she had surgery and was like, go down.
• 48:21
  Lele Pons: 2015 I posted the day that I got my notes up on my feed saying thank you so much, doctor, because you're for my new nose job. It's right there. But obviously people you know, they're not gonna go down. So they're like, Oh, look at these pictures from before. And after I we exposed her. What do you think posted those pictures? Me?
• 48:45
  Lele Pons: You know what I mean? So it's like, but it's very rare. So people are like, Oh, she posted that. Why would she?
• 48:51
  Randall Kaplan: Did she take the picture? Download? 2018 the post of the nose jell
• 48:56
  Lele Pons: O which one? My?
• 48:56
  Lele Pons: Yeah, I didn't. I did not take that down.
• 48:59
  Randall Kaplan: You didn't take it down. Okay. Oh, which
• 49:00
  Lele Pons: one? I mean, the one of 2015 is still there. Which one of the?
• 49:04
  Randall Kaplan: I think you posted the one in 2013. And I think in 2018, you took that down and you've got some criticism online for you taking it down. And
• 49:13
  Lele Pons: really, I don't remember. But I know I posted it. If you I mean, it's going to be a video because you can post a post up. I posted I honestly know I put no I don't think if I delete it's probably because that picture was wrong. But there are many breaking pictures of before and after. Even this year, I posted before and after breach. Every year I post one every single year,
• 49:39
  Randall Kaplan: I think and I want to hit this point as well, because a lot of women I know.
• 49:42
  Randall Kaplan: Well, Fin their bodies will take away the cellulite. And I'm not making judgment. Men and women.
• 49:54
  Randall Kaplan: I don't know men who do this, but I know a lot of women who do this. In fact, if I had to guess the percentage of people again, I 55 Yeah, talking about women now. Yeah, some even in college.
• 50:07
  Randall Kaplan: I have a bunch of interns and you can see them kind of filling themselves out. Yeah. And taking away yeah, fat slimming their bodies down. I think it's so important for you as a role model to show that and say it's acceptable, my body isn't perfect, it's acceptable that I have it.
• 50:25
  Lele Pons: I think the message I think the message that I want to give is for those people who take away Saturday have surgery, you know, all that other lipo.
• 50:32
  Lele Pons: It is your body. You can do whatever you want to your body.
• 50:37
  Lele Pons: You want to be skinny you whatever you want. It's your body. You know what I mean? And that's something I do. However, if I like my salad, I'll post it and if I don't like it, and if I want to do surgery on my nose or anything, I will say it I didn't like it. I'm doing. I like my soul. Like, I don't know, it makes I like him. I don't know, I do. I do like, like my nose job. I like my cellulite. I like that I have a little belly when I when I eat a little bit. So I when it comes to that stuff I like, you know,
• 51:06
  Randall Kaplan: how many of your photos are untouched, completely untouched, completely
• 51:11
  Lele Pons: untouched. All my videos are untouched, let me tell you that. And all of them.
• 51:14
  Lele Pons: All my videos aren't touched. So you can see, you can see everything from me. picture wise, um, you know what, picture wise, and I'm telling you that you can ask anybody. When someone takes a picture of me they're like, Is this okay to post post it? I actually don't care. However, it depends, for example, um, if you're with a friend, and she wants to fix it, I'll fix myself too. But I don't think myself to anyone recognize me, you know, but it'll be like, Okay, I'm gonna put like a filter like to make my skin glow more glowing. You know?
• 51:49
  Lele Pons: Sometimes when I post a picture I'll put in my hair is like a mess. I'll put my hair a little bit more up so it looks more full. Stuff like that. But I've never I've never touched.
• 52:04
  Randall Kaplan: None. Gotta say it.
• 52:07
  Lele Pons: I have actually never touched my. My eyes or my boobs.
• 52:12
  Lele Pons: Yeah, I've never really when it comes to like pictures and stuff. I don't think I have definitely on my boobs.
• 52:17
  Randall Kaplan: But you're proud of your body?
• 52:20
  Lele Pons: Yeah, yeah, I'm proud of my body. I like you seem like you're not sure, sometimes.
• 52:23
  Lele Pons: Sometimes I am. And sometimes I'm not. I mean, I'm proud when it's when it's healthy. I'm not proud when I'm not healthy. And when I say I'm not healthy, I'm like, I'm eating McDonald's five times a day. Like, that's when I'm not proud. But I'm proud when I'm actually like working out and doing this. I don't need to be skinny not for sure. I don't want to I don't need to be skinny. But I do want to be so healthy and like, toned and fit.
• 52:43
  Lele Pons: And like you can tell that I'm actually working out. So I and you can tell the difference between a normal body and a fake body? For sure. And I feel like now people for sure can see it.
• 52:54
  Lele Pons: Maybe if I'm losing gain and gaining weight and losing weight and getting him to go. I haven't done anything yet. So I might do it. I don't know. What's your
• 53:03
  Randall Kaplan: message to everybody out there? Who does change all their photos? They're not real. They want to make themselves look perfect. They take out the wrinkles, they put a little tan on their skin?
• 53:17
  Lele Pons: Why would I tell those people honestly, thing is like, that's complicated, because that has to do with how they're feeling in that moment.
• 53:23
  Lele Pons: You know, and you don't know what they're going through? Why are they doing that? Why are they fixing? I don't know. So if that makes them happy. I say it's better to be natural. But I can't see that because I did my job, you know, and I liked it.
• 53:36
  Lele Pons: So I think it's very complex. I mean, it's a good thing. It's a bad thing. I think that if you want to social media is mean.
• 53:41
  Lele Pons: And if you want to fix yourself a little bit, because you know how evil it is. Do it if it's going to keep you you know, sane and calm before you post do it.
• 53:55
  Lele Pons: Now, I've gotten to the point that everybody knows everything about me that now I can post whatever I want untouched. You know who I am, you know how my body is? That's it, you know?
• 54:04
  Lele Pons: But for those people that don't feel are not there quite yet.
• 54:07
  Lele Pons: It's different.
• 54:08
  Randall Kaplan: All right, we got to tell you why the haters.
• 54:09
  Randall Kaplan: Yes, there's so many haters out there. Social media is so easy to take potshots at people, right? Yeah. Where are these people showing up in front of you saying the same thing? I mean, it's just so easy. Yeah.
• 54:18
  Randall Kaplan: So talk to us about the haters.
• 54:22
  Randall Kaplan: What do you think about them?
• 54:22
  Randall Kaplan: And have they influenced anything that you've ever done, including your mindset?
• 54:29
  Lele Pons: Honestly, I have to I have to say thank you. To them.
• 54:34
  Lele Pons: I really do.
• 54:35
  Randall Kaplan: Thank you to the haters. No.
• 54:38
  Lele Pons: Let me explain why.
• 54:38
  Lele Pons: When everything in your life is yes, yes, yes, yes, you're perfect. You're this you're this you are living in a very unrealistic world. The haters kind of make up like, maybe this is there's a different criticize, but they're criticizing you. Hey, I don't think that what you did is good.
• 54:55
  Lele Pons: I think you look at that. Maybe they're right in that sense. For example, you have to take it all in whatever the there's a hater.
• 55:01
  Lele Pons: It depends. If you're like, oh, this person has to die. That's different. But if there's a hater that you know, might give you criticism, or you're like, you're not going to be perfect, not everyone's going to love you. And it's the truth done. So for those people that have hated me, one they've made me stronger. 100% one they made me is they given me a very realistic world, because they're not everything is butterflies and not everything is gonna be in you're not perfect, because if you are, then you think, you know, you're not living here.
• 55:30
  Lele Pons: And then the haters have made me so eager. So yeah, so eager to prove them to prove myself right and wrong, that I become the way the person that I have become.
• 55:45
  Lele Pons: Like they've pushed me to actually be better. Just like the people that have loved me. I I pushed me, you have to take the negativity and the hate and turn it into something positive.
• 56:00
  Lele Pons: If someone is telling me, You're not funny, you're not busy.
• 56:02
  Lele Pons: You're never gonna go anywhere.
• 56:02
  Lele Pons: You're a failure. Okay? I'm going to try harder for myself.
• 56:07
  Lele Pons: You're maybe you're not, maybe you're right, I need to change some stuff. I need to frickin go harder than ever now. Thank you, you know, and then there's other people that are like, they love me like, Oh, I'm so proud of you. I'm so happy. Okay, prove them right as well. So I think it's, it can go many ways. You know, it does go many ways. So I say thank you to the haters, for making me stronger. Making me live a realistic world and pushing myself to want to prove them wrong. So yeah, would you be where you are without the hater, I probably wouldn't be working as much as like, harder, you know, same for me. So you know, when like, in movies everywhere, when someone's like, you can do something, you can do this or you're this, you're your failure. What do you want to do you? If you're strong enough, you want to do exactly the opposite? One for yourself.
• 56:50
  Lele Pons: Yeah. One for yourself, you should do for yourself, but that might actually push you
• 56:56
  Randall Kaplan: more. Oh, it motivates.
• 56:59
  Lele Pons: You? It does. It does. But in the beginning, when I was younger, that did not motivate me. You learn as you mature, to use that to your favor. When
• 57:09
  Randall Kaplan: someone tells me I can't do something or it's impossible. Anything is possible. If you set your mind to something, it just fuels my fire and it makes me just want to do it. And and even if you're the only one out there, people say to me sometimes, you know, no one's ever done that before.
• 57:24
  Randall Kaplan: They made it as a criticism. And I say, Gosh, I'm onto something here. I take it as a compliment.
• 57:27
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah.
• 57:30
  Lele Pons: Yeah, I know. People have said everything to me. And you know what it's become to a point that when they say everything to you, they've just become like, at 543 lies above about at three to live you don't even know. Like, I don't? I don't remember and I've never in my life. Maybe I will. But I've never made a I've never met a hater in person. Never.
• 57:53
  Randall Kaplan: Because they don't have the fucking guts to come up to and say something negative to
• 57:57
  Lele Pons: your face. When you meet me in person. I am literally in sweatpants supernatural with my dog. What is the threat? You know? Like, like, I'm just so chill. Like, I'm like, I'm awkward too. But what is like you don't have a thing to to harness it to screen to protect yourself with Yeah, face to face now. You know? So I think to me, they haven't too many people they have in person.
• 58:23
  Lele Pons: Obviously. There's a lot of haters. I go in and confront you know, like Logan, Paul and everything, you know, but to me, no.
• 58:30
  Randall Kaplan: Let's go back to a another traumatic moment in your life, which turned into a very good thing. At some point.
• 58:37
  Randall Kaplan: Your dad came out as gay. Yeah.
• 58:37
  Randall Kaplan: And you were very surprised. I
• 58:41
  Lele Pons: didn't know what gay was.
• 58:43
  Randall Kaplan: So talk to us about nine. Talk to us about when you find out what you thought about it. At some point.
• 58:47
  Randall Kaplan: You saw your dad in bed with another man.
• 58:50
  Lele Pons: Yes, that's how I found out I saw my dad with the with with with a man. You walked
• 58:56
  Randall Kaplan: into the bedroom. He's in bed with him and my cousin's communion. Out here cousins communion cousins community. So you have people at your house and he's in bed with my
• 59:04
  Lele Pons: dad separated with my mom. My mom's side. We were I went to my dad's house to pick up something and that's Yeah, okay. Yeah. So my, my cousin from the other side did knock
• 59:13
  Randall Kaplan: on the door.
• 59:13
  Randall Kaplan: Just kind of thought he wasn't home. Yeah.
• 59:16
  Lele Pons: Because right next to each other. Okay. He lived right next to it. So I could just walk to my dad's house. So that day, I guess I was about five. He didn't listen, I guess. But I opened the door. And then it was very traumatic, like physically now mentally. When I found out that my dad was gay, the first thing I did was I was very, like, very confused. I was like, did you get when you met my mom, like, I have so many questions.
• 59:40
  Lele Pons: But then, like, give me like a week and I was like, I want to know exactly what that means.
• 59:43
  Lele Pons: You know what's going on? I was eight. I was nine. I didn't know anything. Of course, you know, child and like, but I was I love my dad so much. I want to know, I wanted to know, because I in my school, I was bullied so much. And I was just like, because I'm deaf. I was different. I was like, Okay, how's your story? Like? How did you cope? Like, how are you like, You're so happy not with everything. My dad told me and we were best friends. Like he for me. He makes me feel not so alone. Yeah,
• 1:00:09
  Randall Kaplan: did you? What did your dad tell you when you ask them? Why did you marry my mom if you knew you're gay? Oh,
• 1:00:16
  Lele Pons: I know why. That's a story for him to tell. But you know. And remember something right now? It's the world.
• 1:00:26
  Lele Pons: Hopefully it's more open, you know, way more open, wait, more open,
• 1:00:30
  Randall Kaplan: legal, same sex marriages coming out is not a big deal anymore. And the more people go
• 1:00:37
  Lele Pons: back 27 years ago, go back 27 years ago with a family it had Venezuela. Different is different. It just it was different. You know, it was it.
• 1:00:48
  Lele Pons: Yeah. It was very different back then. And I understand him. I understand, you know, if it was basically like in that moment, be hated or be, you know, bullied and, you know, push out in your, from your friend, your family. I mean, he didn't know that they were going to accept it. But still, in that moment in that world 27 years ago, how was that? How was being gay perceived? Was it a good thing or a bad thing? Was it seemed something as I, as I like, Oh, my God grows, you know? Yeah, it probably was 27 years ago, it was in where we lived in a small town. Yes, it was. So I think that he really wanted a family.
• 1:01:32
  Lele Pons: He really want a family when you want a family want kids? There nowadays, there's ways nowadays there's ways there weren't any ways before. And I'm so happy and grateful that he wanted me so badly. That he like lied about himself.
• 1:01:54
  Randall Kaplan: I'm sure the support and the love you gave him and the acceptance made him just feel so good. Inside. Yeah.
• 1:02:05
  Randall Kaplan: And he's still your best friend.
• 1:02:05
  Randall Kaplan: I mean, essentially.
• 1:02:15
  Lele Pons: That's water. Yeah.
• 1:02:21
  Randall Kaplan: I'll take my period.
• 1:02:26
  Lele Pons: Yeah, no, I love I love my dad. Like he like to have me. He'd made a few sacrifices. He put it like me first. You know, like, Yeah. He wouldn't be that bad. I'm happy.
• 1:02:46
  Randall Kaplan: Ah, makes me cry.
• 1:02:49
  Lele Pons: But like, that's the role models that I have. This is why I keep on going.
• 1:02:52
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. I mean, that's amazing. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:02:58
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. I mean, you're, you're a role model for so many things.
• 1:03:03
  Randall Kaplan: And just to be able to talk about that and show emotion. I think it's just a great thing.
• 1:03:06
  Randall Kaplan: Thank you. Thank you for listening to part one of my amazing podcast with Lele Pons, one of the most important and influential social content creators in the world. We had a lot of incredible moments on the show, we cried together, we talked about some of the craziest things she's done, like jumping into the ocean with a bunch of sharks and a bunch of meat in the water. We talked about her struggles with OCD, Tourette's, attention deficit disorder, and how she overcame those, and how she became an incredible inspiration of role model for others around the world. Be sure to tune in to part two of my amazing podcast with Leila next week.