Alexie Olivo Is Learning That Success Means Choosing Her Own Direction

Some careers begin with a plan. Others begin with a willingness to embrace the unexpected. Alexie Olivo’s journey reflects the latter. While her path has taken her from Division I athletics to modeling and acting, the story isn’t defined by how quickly opportunities arrived. It’s defined by how intentionally she’s learning to navigate them. Throughout our conversation, Alexie speaks with a quiet self-awareness about ambition, identity, and the discipline of staying connected to who she is while building the life she hopes to create. Rather than measuring success by visibility alone, she’s discovering that the most meaningful direction is the one that remains true to her values. In an industry that often rewards certainty, Alexie reminds us that growth is rarely about having all the answers—it’s about having the courage to keep becoming the person you’re meant to be.

GREAY:

There is a difference between building a career and building an identity. At this stage of your life, how do you know when you’re investing in one versus the other?

Alexie Olivo:

I think for our generation, especially when your career lives online and in the public eye, the two get tangled really fast. But I’ve noticed the difference feels like this: when I’m building my career, I’m thinking about what’s next and how I can achieve it. When I’m building my identity, I’m asking why I want it and how it will make me feel.

The goal matters, but the reason behind it matters more. I’m learning to not only write my goals down, but to understand why I want them. When I can answer that, the career and the identity stop competing—they start pointing in the same direction.

GREAY:

Your generation inherited a world where personal growth often happens in public. Has being visible made self-discovery more difficult, or has it forced you to become more intentional about who you are?

Alexie Olivo:

Being visible is a blessing and a curse. It opens up so many doors and exciting opportunities, but it also invites people to comment on your life before you’ve fully figured it out yourself.

At 23, I’m still finding myself and learning what my purpose is, and doing that while people are watching adds a layer that I think is unique to our generation.

What it’s forced me to do is become more intentional about my environment. You are a product of who you surround yourself with, so I keep my close circle very small and I’m careful about who I share things with.

GREAY:

When opportunities begin arriving, people often start projecting versions of who they think you should become. How do you recognize your own voice amid all that noise?

Alexie Olivo:

This is something I genuinely struggle with. When opportunities start coming in, everyone has an opinion about which ones you should take, and it’s easy to confuse other people’s excitement for your own. Social media makes it worse because it creates the illusion that there’s one correct path to success, and if you’re not on it, you’re behind.

What keeps me grounded is being extremely selective about whose voice I actually let in. I have a small group of people I trust, and when I go to them, I’m not looking for validation, I’m listening to their perspective. I think recognizing your own voice is less about drowning out the noise and more about knowing exactly whose input is worth weighing.

GREAY:

Many young people are taught to chase relevance. Few are taught how to sustain a meaningful life. What conversations are you having with yourself about the future beyond the next opportunity?

Alexie Olivo:

I set very high standards for myself, and the honest answer is that I have to be intentional about this or the cycle of chasing the next thing takes over on its own.

Every month I sit down and create a vision board that has small, specific goals like brands I want to collaborate with, or bigger personal ones depending on where I am. Then every year I map out where I want to be in one, five, and ten years.

That structure is what keeps me from just chasing relevance. I believe relevance is useful, but only if you know what you’re using it for. For me it’s a stepping stone, not the destination. The bird’s-eye view has to come first, otherwise every opportunity just becomes noise.

GREAY:

Has there been a moment in your career when saying “no” taught you more about yourself than saying “yes”?

Alexie Olivo:

Splitting my time between Los Angeles and New York means I’m turning down opportunities constantly because it’s physically impossible to be everywhere, and that was a hard thing to accept at first.

I used to dwell on what I was missing, but I’ve had to learn to shift my mindset.

What saying no has actually taught me is what I want to say yes to. When you stop trying to seize everything, the things that genuinely excite you become a lot clearer. I’ve started being more intentional about romanticizing the life I’m actually living rather than fixating on the one I’m not. Even the smaller opportunities I do show up for feel more meaningful because I chose them. That’s when saying no stopped feeling like a loss.

GREAY:

What part of your personality do you think the public understands the least?

Alexie Olivo:

I think it’s easy to watch me on Netflix or scroll my Instagram and assume you know who I am, but what’s online is maybe one percent of my actual life. It’s a highlight reel, and highlight reels are selective.

What people don’t see is how much of my life is intentionally quiet. I spend a lot of time on the things that don’t photograph well: movement, journaling, being outside, and disconnecting from my phone.

My health and how I feel day to day is something I take seriously, and most of that happens completely off camera. I think people assume someone in my position is constantly picture perfect. I’m actually pretty protective of the time when I’m not.

GREAY:

As you’ve moved through modeling, entertainment, and public-facing work, what have you learned about the relationship between confidence and vulnerability?

Alexie Olivo:

Nothing in modeling or entertainment is easy, and I don’t think people realize how much vulnerability the job actually requires. I face rejection almost daily. Every audition, every casting, every pitch is you putting yourself out there with no guarantee of anything in return.

What I’ve learned is that confidence and vulnerability are intertwined. The days I feel most confident are usually the ones right after I’ve been told no and showed up anyway. I’ve trained myself to frame it as being one no closer to a yes, because the alternative is letting it accumulate into something that stops you. This industry will break you down if you let it.

GREAY:

Every industry has its own definition of success. What definition are you trying to build for yourself?

Alexie Olivo:

My definition of success is being able to do what I love alongside people who make me happy.

I try to frame the idea of success as more holistic. Success to me is being healthy, experiencing growth, and having people around me who I genuinely love. That’s the version of success I’m building toward.

Career achievements matter, but they’re only one piece of it. I don’t want to win professionally and feel empty everywhere else.

GREAY:

What is something you believe today that you don’t think you would have believed three years ago?

Alexie Olivo:

Three years ago I was playing Division I Beach Volleyball and working toward a Finance degree. If someone had told me I’d be a professional model on a Netflix show being interviewed for a digital magazine, I would have laughed at them.

What I believe now that I wouldn’t have then is that the most important thing you can do is stay open. I had a very clear picture of what my life was supposed to look like, and it looked nothing like this.

Letting go of that rigid plan wasn’t failure—it was the door opening. I think three years ago I believed certainty was something to chase. Now I think it’s actually what holds you back.

GREAY:

You’ve experienced modeling, digital culture, and television during a period when attention has become its own form of currency. How do you stay connected to who you are when so much of the world encourages people to perform who they are?

Alexie Olivo:

I think the pressure to perform yourself is real and it’s constant. When your life exists online, there’s always an incentive to sell a version of yourself rather than just be it. I’ve had to find ways to stay anchored to the truest version of myself.

One thing that actually works for me is having a running list in my Notes app called “Things That Make Me Feel Better.” Whenever I feel disconnected from myself, I go to it and pick something.

Lately that’s been journaling. I’ll use a guided prompt from the Activations app and just write, whether it’s three lines of gratitude or a full brain dump. Nobody sees it except for myself, and that’s why it works.

GREAY:

When this chapter of your life is over and a new one begins, what do you hope you carry forward—and what do you hope you’ve outgrown?

Alexie Olivo:

Every chapter I’ve lived so far has asked me to let go of something I thought I needed. The athlete identity, the straight-line career plan, the idea that I had to have it figured out.

What I hope to carry forward is the willingness to keep doing that and to walk into whatever comes next without needing it to look a certain way.

What I hope to outgrow is the fear of being misunderstood. I’ve spent too much energy trying to make sure people see me correctly, and that’s exhausting. The goal is to care so much about who I actually am that what people assume stops mattering as much.

I’m not there yet—but I’m closer than I was.

By the end of our conversation, it becomes clear that Alexie Olivo isn’t trying to arrive at a finished version of herself. She’s learning to trust the process of becoming. Throughout the interview, she returns to the same quiet principles—protecting her peace, embracing uncertainty, staying curious, and making choices that reflect her values rather than outside expectations. There is a confidence in that perspective, not because it promises certainty, but because it embraces growth as something that never truly ends. As her career continues to evolve, the opportunities will undoubtedly become larger, but the foundation she’s building feels rooted in something more lasting. Success, as Alexie sees it, isn’t simply about reaching the next milestone. It’s about becoming someone you’re proud to be long before the world decides you’ve made it.

Creative Director / Stylist Aric L Johnson @aricljohnson

Words Kyra Greene @noteasybingreen

Photography Hannah Rozelle @hannahrozelle_

Makeup Julieta Bellina @julietabellina