Originally appeared on E! Online
Alix Earle is tear-ing up the dance floor.
As the influencer prepares to set foot on the dance floor one last time for the season 34 finale of “Dancing With the Stars” on Nov. 25, she shared a heartfelt note of gratitude as she detailed what this journey has meant to her.
“[I] just wanted to say thank you guys for all the support,” Earle said through tears in a Nov. 24 TikTok, “because coming onto the show — some people saying I shouldn’t do it — and it was something I wanted to do for myself.”
She added that she’d always watched the show and thought it “would be so crazy to get out there and do that someday,” but knew that joining the cast of season 34 would be scary and a bit of a risk.
“I would be stopping everything else work wise for a few months,” Earle continued. “And I’d be moving out to L.A. I would be apart from my friends, my boyfriend, and basically just changing my everyday life, but it was something I really wanted to do for myself.”
READ ‘DWTS’ Guest Judge Flavor Flav Says Score For Alix Earle Was an Accident
And the 24-year-old — who’s been dating Braxton Berrios for two years — was extremely grateful to her fans, saying, “It’s made me feel so supported that you guys have loved this journey just as much as me.”
Earle noted she was also nervous about switching up what her content looked like, but that she was floored by how much her fans have enjoyed a different side of her.
“I’ve just felt so loved now more than ever,” she gushed. “The edits you guys make and the comments or things you guys post watching the show — it just makes me so happy.”
Being on the show also allowed her to show what else she’s capable of as she felt that “sometimes people don’t take me seriously because I’m always out or posting funny things or not so serious stuff.”
“The show has given me a reason to prove to myself and to you guys that I do work hard,” she continued while crying. “I don’t know, I feel like it’s been able to show me in a new light, which has been nice.”
“DWTS” also gave Earle the opportunity to push herself in new ways, which was made easier by the support from her family and friends. And while she knew it was “all coming to an end” she couldn’t hold back her “happy tears” as she thanked her fans once more.
“I know that this has changed me as a person,” she said, “and I’ll forever be grateful for that.”
“Thank you guys,” she added, “I’m so excited for the show Tuesday. I made so many friends, and I’m excited to see them all kill it out there on Tuesday, too.”
And despite how much she’s loved the experience of “DWTS,” the TikToker has not been shy about how difficult of a time she’s had with the dance routines put together by her partner Val Chmerkovskiy.
“It does just get frustrating sometimes and it’s just unlocking like a different side for me,” she told E! News in September. “I’m so out of my comfort zone doing this stuff.”
Earle shared, “It’s just frustrating when Val does something and it looks so easy and so simple and I’m like, ‘Great, I can do that.’ And then I try it and I’m like, “I look like a scarecrow right now.'”
But every week, she went out there and tried to “one-up myself every week.”
Dylan Efron has a special person cheering him on in the audience of “Dancing with the Stars” this week — his brother Zac Efron.
