Drew Afualo Knows Exactly How She Got Here

Drew Afualo has never been one to blend in with the crowd. “When I was in fifth grade, we had to do this wax museum project where you had to pick someone you admire throughout history. I didn’t admire this person, but I really wanted to be King George III,” she says. “I was the only girl who cross-dressed. My teacher called my mom, and my mom was like, ‘Is it against the rules? No? Then just let her do it.’” The social media star has been living life by her own rulebook ever since.

With 8.2 million followers on TikTok and honors including Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and The Hollywood Reporter’s 50 Most Influential Influencers, the 29-year-old has earned some bragging rights since she started posting online in 2020. Sitting across from me in the Elite Daily offices, she seems refreshingly humble. “I’ve had quite a few [accolades], which sounds braggy, but it is true,” she says, before quickly adding a sweet, “Sorry. Just kidding.”

Her proudest moment thus far: publishing her self-help manual and memoir Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve, which earned her a spot on The New York Times bestsellers list and is available in an extended paperback edition on Aug. 26. “I can make fun of men until the cows come home, but there’s a deeper message to what I do, which I think misses people,” Afualo.

Her online brand is characterized by outspokenly calling out misogyny and responding to hate comments, but the book shows her in a different light, by touching on topics like her decision not to have kids and how she reacted when her older sister Deison, 32, came out to her.

“I was really nervous about how people were going to react, so to get a positive response [to the book] was a dream come true,” she says. “I am the first Samoan woman ever to make the bestsellers list. So yeah, I’ll cry.”

Afualo first started creating content in 2020 with brazen clapbacks — like a 2024 TikTok that has racked up 7.8 million views, where she quipped, “You think I’m going to take the opinion of men who look like they really enjoy car photoshoots seriously?.” Since then, her sharp wit has landed her two podcasts (Two Idiot Girls and The Comments Section), red-carpet hosting gigs (Michelle Yeoh is a barbecue chip gal, who knew?), and another book deal (more on that later). And while it’s an adjustment to go from being “aggressively normal” to a public figure seemingly overnight, she knows exactly how she got here.

Even if I did feel emotional about something, I’ll cry in the privacy of my own home. That could be me being a Virgo or mentally ill.

Afualo grew up in Santa Ana, California, and as a middle child, the author says she’s “needed attention forever” and always felt that would lead her to a career. It also helps that there have always been people in her corner. “[My parents] never dulled my shine,” Afualo says. “My silliest, most insane whimsies and fantasies, if my parents could entertain them, they would.”

Whether it was her mom helping to curate that aforementioned King George III costume or using a work bonus to book a Vegas trip and limo ride for her and Deison to go to a Jonas Brothers concert, she credits her family for her ability to dream big — and her comebacks: “Roasting is a love language of ours.”

That closeness with her family is why they work so well together. In fact, she used to work in a cubicle right next to her sister Deison at their family’s financial services company after getting fired from her job as a digital media coordinator for the NFL. Eventually, she made her way to TikTok posting under her personal account, and the rest is history.

Now that Afualo is a full-time content creator, her mom, Noelle, is her manager, and her sister (whom she lovingly calls her “emotional support animal”) co-hosts the Two Idiot Girls podcast. Afualo says her loved ones keep her grounded when living life online gets tough.

Earlier this year, Afualo announced she was taking a social media break. In an emotional post, she said she felt the pressure to be “the perfect content creator, the perfect influencer, the perfect ally, the perfect activist, the perfect feminist,” and admitted that the feeling was “suffocating.” Six weeks later, she returned to posting after the thought of doing so stopped making her “feel sick,” she says.

“People on the Internet will talk about you as if you’re an imaginary character from a movie when we’re real people with real lives,” Afualo says. “Even if I did feel emotional about something, I’ll cry in the privacy of my own home. That could be me being a Virgo or mentally ill, I don’t know which.”

Afualo says weekly therapy is an integral part of her routine. “I’ve unpacked a lot of my own internalized biases, like internalized fatphobia, racism, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny,” she says. “I have a very, very strong and convicted sense of self, and no one is going to shake that.”

Along with her village of supportive family members, she’s made genuine friendships with other creators who can relate and have also helped Afualo adjust to the limelight. Sure, you’ve seen her podcast clips with Brittany Broski and Caleb Hearon (“my sisters,” she says immediately when referencing them) go viral, but their connection goes far beyond content collabs. Along with Broski and Hearon, Tefi Pessoa has also been a guiding light for her — “She’s cuckoo bananas in a wonderful, beautiful way” — and has helped Afualo navigate the constant noise that comes with the job.

I was entertaining a huge wedding, then I was like, ‘Nah, that makes me want to die.’

But one thing about Afualo is that she contains, well, multitudes. As she speaks so highly of the people in her life, I watch her doodle giant spirals on a piece of cardstock below the words “F*CK MEN” in big bubble letters. Her left hand, adorned with her sparkly, cushion-cut diamond engagement ring, holds the paper steady.

In September 2024, she shared that she and her partner of seven years, Pili Tanuvasa, a fitness coach, got engaged. And while she knows influencer culture and the wedding industrial complex can create a content gold mine, that’s just not the journey for her. “I was entertaining a huge wedding, then I was like, ‘Nah, that makes me want to die,’” she says. Seriously, don’t expect a wedding series on her platform. “If I do share stuff [about wedding planning], cool. If not, I’ll just let y’all know — ‘Hey, I got married, by the way.’”

After all, Afualo has a lot going on at the moment. She headlined Betches Media’s “Women Aren’t Funny” comedy show in June, just released her extended paperback that includes a foreword reflecting on the positive reaction to its first release last summer, and has an upcoming fiction book (though exact details are under wraps for now). She also wants to get into acting sooner rather than later — but she gets why some people may not like the TikTok-to-Hollywood pipeline.

“I’m on TikTok telling people to suck my wiener and then at the same time I’m like ‘You should let me in Hollywood,’ so I get [the hesitation],” Afualo says. “But the Internet is a vehicle that has platformed people that would never otherwise be given a chance.” She takes inspiration from the careers of Ilana Glazer, Issa Rae, and Quinta Brunson.

Until that big break, she’s ready to keep doing what she’s doing. Haters, beware. “Look forward to seeing more of me, unfortunately, wherever it may be,” she says. “Expect me to be annoying forever.”