About
Olivia Ponton is an American model, content creator, and LGBTQ+ advocate whose sunny personality has earned her millions of followers and a growing list of fashion credits. Born on May 30, 2002, in Naples, Florida, she first drew a global audience during the pandemic with playful dance clips and body-positive monologues on TikTok. In 2022 the online success translated to a breakout moment on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit runway, and by 2025 she was a two-time SI model, IMG talent, and regular face for brands such as SKIMS, Ralph Lauren, and Victoria’s Secret PINK. Ponton openly identifies as pansexual and uses her platforms to amplify queer voices, saying that visibility online “catapulted” both her confidence and career.
Today her combined audience tops 11 million, and her life unfolds like an ongoing vlog—from photo-shoot prep in New York to house-hunting adventures in Miami. While the modeling calendar keeps her on the road, she remains an enthusiastic DIY filmmaker, often grabbing a phone mid-glam session to record mini tutorials or spontaneous Q&A’s. Fans say the candor is her secret sauce: she shows early-call-time grogginess and red-carpet polish in equal measure.
Before Fame
Ponton grew up on Florida’s Gulf Coast, soaking up a childhood of beach days, paddle-boarding, and high-school athletics. At Naples High School she ran the 200- and 400-meter dash and occasionally filled relay slots, clocking a sub-28-second 200 as a sophomore. Early Instagram posts in 2016 were mostly snapshots with teammates or sunset-lit beach scenes. That low-stakes start gave her the confidence to experiment on TikTok in early 2020; a mix of dance trends and comedic skits pushed her follower count past one million before graduation.
College brochures arrived, but the momentum online—and encouragement from friends already in Los Angeles—made a gap-year gamble feel reasonable. She flew west, signed with Wilhelmina Models in 2020, and soon found herself filming inside the original Hype House alongside Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae. The casual cameos helped her channel grow even faster, and brand inquiries followed.
Trivia
- Sports Illustrated Rookie to Regular. Ponton debuted in Montenegro for SI Swim’s 2022 issue and returned in 2024 and 2025, calling the franchise “a second family.”
- Track-Star Mentality. She credits sprint training for today’s gym discipline, joking that nothing on a set is harder than Florida summer conditioning.
- Digital DIY. All of her short-form edits—from color grading to captions—are still done on her own phone because she “loves the creative control.”
- Favorite Comfort Food. Homemade mac-and-cheese, a recipe she learned from her dad during hurricane-season power outages.
- Pride Month Ambassador. After coming out publicly in 2021, she partnered with the Trevor Project for suicide-prevention campaigns aimed at queer teens.
- Miami Apartment Tour. A late-2024 TikTok of her unfurnished condo (“just vibes and an air mattress”) collected 6 million views in a weekend.
Family Life
Olivia is the younger daughter of Richard and Diane Ponton, longtime Naples residents who describe themselves as “supportive but practical.” Diane, a chief learning officer at a local nonprofit, appears in several of Olivia’s videos—often offering calming advice before big castings. Richard is a builder who keeps framed screenshots of her first viral post on the family fridge.
The Pontons stayed close even after Olivia’s cross-country move; she calls her mom during travel delays and, in December 2024, rang her first when she discovered a burglary at Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s Ohio home. (Diane phoned 911 while Olivia waited outside.) Olivia also keeps strong ties with an older sister who prefers life off-camera but occasionally photographs brand campaigns when budgets are lean.
Associated With
- Joe Burrow. Dating speculation flared after Ponton and the NFL star were spotted together at the 2025 Miami Grand Prix and again during Met Gala week in New York. Olivia has stayed “no-comment,” but the two continue to appear at overlapping events.
- Charli D’Amelio & Addison Rae. Early collabs inside the Hype House shaped her sense of on-camera timing and helped her understand algorithm rhythms.
- Emily Ratajkowski. Ponton often names Ratajkowski as a career blueprint for combining modeling, business ownership, and advocacy.
- Sports Illustrated Family. She credits editor MJ Day and photographer Amanda Pratt for turning each shoot into “a confidence workshop,” and calls fellow SI rookies like Brooks Nader her built-in travel buddies.
- The LGBTQ+ Community. Beyond fashion, Ponton is associated with queer social-media voices such as Fletcher and Gigi Goode, frequently trading duet videos that blend humor with earnest mental-health check-ins.
