OLIVIA PONTON
was only a few months into her stay in Los Angeles, where she’d relocated from her native Florida, when she confessed to her thenagency her lifelong dream. “I really wanted to book Victoria’s Secret for modeling,” she recalls. “And they were kind of like, ‘Hey, if you want to book it, you’ve got to come to New York.’ So, I quite honestly moved a week later.”
Two-plus years on, the 21-yearold has worked with the legacy lingerie brand, as well as Sports Illustrated for their swimsuit issue, and has made New York her home in the process.
The first year was difficult, as she tried to make friends and find a routine amidst the Covid shutdowns. Now, though, she’s in love with the city, having formed a community with other creators at events and turned her attention to furthering her career in fashion.
“I really want to book a Calvin Klein campaign,” she says of her next goal. “I did their Pride campaign last year, but to do a straight up denim campaign with them would be an amazing dream.”
Moving to New York was quite the fashion adjustment for the Naples, Fla., native, who grew up “wearing bikinis 24/7.”
“I always had 200 swimsuits at all points of my life. I’ve had more swimsuits than I’ve had clothing,” she says. “And when I moved to
New York, I was like, ‘Oh, people don’t wear swimsuits. Weird.’”
These days she aims to emulate Emily Ratajkowski’s style and likes following the latest runway shows in Milan and Paris from her phone. “I feel like that on its own has been so educational and fun for me to play into the different roles of the season,” she says.
Ponton’s career began more in a social role than modeling, which continues to be a big part of her appeal. In 2020, she was part of the Hype House in L.A., a collective of TikTokers who lived together and created content. Her relationship with the app, which at 7.7 million followers is her largest platform, continues to evolve with time.
“With TikTok, I think it’s grown bigger than any other app on our telephones. I think it is something that, especially my generation, we use a lot to get our news, to get what’s going on in the world. We get all our information through that. And I think sometimes, I mean, I even take cleanses where I will go off TikTok for three or four days because it’s constant. So much information is thrown at you, and sometimes there are days where I’m like, ‘You know what? I need to just bask in my own imagination and my own world and my own brain. I don’t need the constant information being thrown at me,’” Ponton says.
“I think in the beginning, people were trying to prove that TikTok was important, but I think people now are aware of that. And I would say less is more on TikTok because I feel like there are so many amazing creators on it that you really want to post stuff that is true to you and stuff that makes you genuinely happy, and not post for other people,” she says.
In 2021, Ponton came out as bisexual on social media, which she says has helped her “in amazing ways” when it comes to her role in the public eye.
“I finally also had a community that I could relate to and be involved with more often, and I got connected to a wider range of friends that I could relate to, and we could talk about some of the hardships that are coming along with it,” she says. “I follow a lot of girls who are femme lesbians or they’re a part of the LGBTQ community, and I think it’s fun to be able to bat off things that we’re going through or talk about girls. Yesterday I was at lunch with a friend and it’s just a fun thing to talk about. Like, ‘Oh my gosh, yes.’ When I came out versus when they came out, our coming out stories. And I feel like it’s a very bonding experience with people. I would say I definitely felt a group of loving, appreciative, amazing people were there for me. And that’s what I like to do for other people when they choose to come out.”
In the months ahead, she has plenty of travel plans, including her annual trip to Tahiti to work with the organization Coral Gardeners. The 15 hours it takes to get there is no deterrent, as a hands-on approach is her preferred method of involvement, be it charity or a brand deal.
“I personally just love meeting the back-end people on the brands because that’s when you get to really understand what the brand’s about,” she says. “I love to be on the backend and understand why brands are choosing to do this versus that, and why they’re choosing to work with the people that they are working with.”