Vine-turned-YouTube superstar Lele Pons discussed her creative process and responded to frequent criticisms in an interview on WNYC’s Note To Self podcast.
Even though her brand of humor traffics in broad tropes — like puberty, boys, and school — and slapstick acting, Pons insists that her actual personality is more extreme than the characters she portrays. “I am crazier than the one that you see [on YouTube and Instagram],” she says. “I’m basically like how all the girls are, but a little more loud about it.” Pons also rejects the notion that her comedy promotes stereotypes — that Latina women tend to be fiery, for instance, or that beautiful women are prone to ditziness. “What I do for social media is someone that I am — I’m not saying that everybody is like me.”
The 21-year-old, who counts 23 million Instagram followers and 9 million YouTube subscribers, also said that she edits all her own videos. While there is a team at Shots Studios that helps her with the sketches, “I like editing,” Pons says. “People think I don’t edit, but I do edit. I have [the video] on my mind, so no one can see what I have on my mind. So when I edit it, it’s like I already edited in my mind. Nobody else can do it.”
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You can check out the interview, where Pons also discusses why she has given a handful of fans her phone number (if they’re getting bullied), how she deals with online hate (“I think I’m one of the ones that has the most…I’ve never responded”), where she sees herself in a decade (“I want to get married”), and her secret appreciation for TED Talks, right here.
