Airam Gallegos Was Born To Be In The Spotlight

If you were the ages 12-14 with a dream of a quincenera , were heavily on Youtube and subscribed to Awesomenesstv, then you’ll have no problem recognizing our guest of the month for February, Airam Gallegos ! You may specifically remember her from her season of My Dream Quinceanera or possibly the show she was in after, Life After Quince. One thing is for sure, Airam is greatly known for many things.

Luckily I had the opportunity to interview her through Zoom and really get to know her as well as what she’s been up to as of lately.

Tell me about yourself, it’s okay to brag !

Okay so I am 23 years old, I just graduated college this past December about a month ago & I graduated with Bachelors degree in communication, and I got a job post grad, super exciting because I’m doing what I wanna do.

I am doing social media marketing & social media management for a skincare company called Adonia Organics and it’s been super super great, I have a lot of creative freedom & basically what my job is running their Tiktoks, Instagrams, all things like that and coming up with creative content for the skincare company. But I literally just started, I think it’s been a week, so I’m just dipping my foot into it but I like it so far. It’s gonna be a challenge but I’m always up for one.

I did Youtube from what was I ? 14? I’ve been doing it for so long. I do wanna go back into Youtube and content creation & stuff but right now I feel like I’m in a weird transition of settling in with my post grad and just feel like I have a lot on the table right now. I just need to regroup & get it together a little bit but I mean social media’s like something that I’ve always loved and that’s why I chose a career path in it.

What made you want to audition for MDQ besides the fact that you saw a commercial for it ?

Umm, honestly I was always so obsessed with social media so I was like AwesomnessTvs number one fan since way before all of this and I was always obsessed with Youtubers and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to be on AwesomnessTv which I never thought would happen. Especially at the time the biggest influencers and all these people were always wanting to work with them & stuff going into their offices, so it was really cool that I was able to be apart of that but I just got a lot of inspiration from other Youtubers & stuff cause I was a little internet kid. I was always on the internet, I think I seriously had a MySpace since I was like 12, I was way too young to be on MySpace but I made sure I was on every social media app. It’s in my blood, I’ve always loved it.

So you already had an idea that you would be out there ?

Yeah I mean obviously when I was so young in the MySpace times, I just obviously loved connecting with other people. But yeah when I was 14 I was so ready for it and I knew the second I got the audition, I was calling AwesomenessTv being, “Hey guys when am I gonna hear back?”. I was so ready.

As you should !

Just a funny time cause I was literally in 8th grade and I was calling them, the producers of AwesomenessTv being like, “Hey I’m in class right now but did I get the part?”

What was your initial reaction to all the attention you were getting from MDQ considering your episodes are one of the most viewed ?

Oh my goodness, I don’t even know

What was your first reaction when a girl came up to you and was like “omg are you Airam?”

I can’t even remember that time cause it was so long ago but I know I was probably so in shock cause this is always something I’ve wanted for myself and I just remember being with my mom & dad in stores, then them getting recognized and then I’m getting recognized and obviously my whole family is put online so their gonna get the attention as well and I feel like I thankfully had my family in my close knit of support and for the show as well they were always around.

Did you ever feel like you got bullied at school or no ?

No actually ! I’m sure people had their fair share of things to say but I was always very outspoken, I was always very, I had a big personality even when I was young. So when this happened, I assumed honestly people weren’t that surprised and all my friends thought it was so cool they were like “I wanna be on the show, I wanna be on it”. All my friends were always very supportive, I had really great people around me which was awesome.

Yeah that’s good because that’s honestly so important to have.

Absolutely, especially when you’re that young you can have so many things go wrong and you can be so messed up with growing up on the internet. Thank goodness I had a good support system.

What was your family’s reaction to getting recognized ?

Even still today, anytime my parents get recognized they think it’s so crazy and it is weird because you don’t know these people at the end of the day, they’re kinda strangers. But they’ve seen me grow up on the internet. So for them it feels like “omg there’s my friend”, but I love when people come up to my family. But they love it, they’re always super super nice & appreciative and they wanna make sure that they also have a good experience meeting them. It was weird though definitely I know at the beginning of time they were like “I was at the store and some girl just came up to me and asked me if I was Airam’s parents” and I was like that’s so weird, that’s so random but super cool. It’s been awesome.

Have you ever had a bad or weird interaction ?

No actually, especially when I was growing up I did little meet & greets and stuff so every single person I met I tried my best to be very intentional. There was times in college at parties girls would come up to me and I’d be like “Oh my god they’re gonna hate me because I’m being a crazy person probably”. But everyone was always super super kind and I always try to make sure that their comfortable, get to know them a little bit but no, thanfully everyone has been awesome.

Did you get recognized a lot in college ?

Yeah on campus I would get recognized often. Not all the time but often and I think it’s because I would post content from Grand Canyon University and a lot of people would see that content & putting a face to it. I got recognized just recently, I was sitting alone in the middle of school’s courtyard and I was doing my makeup going to a jobfair or something some girl came up to me & was like “Oh my gosh are you Airam ?” and she was so so sweet. It’s fun & really cool putting a face to the people because you obviously see number & stuff so it doesn’t really process in your head.

How did it come about meeting all the girls and how did you feel about doing a show with them ?

So about the show, it started with My Dream Quinceanera, we all had our own individual seasons & I think that I was one of the first girls to really be on the show. Once I would see the new girls come in, I always tried to connect with them & support them, even the girls that were before me. I was always really intentional of really being in the community of AwesomenessTv & My Dream Quinceanera and I think the other girls were super intentional as well with it. So when the show came along, when their seasons came along of MDQ we just connected like “Omg we’re all on the show”. I think we hungout like once, we went ice skating & it was really fun because we got to meet each other in person and I think the producers saw that we all had a really good dynamic around each other and that we were friends naturally.

They were like, “Okay wait”. Then I got a text message, super long thing basically from one of our producers saying “This is a shot in the dark but this is what might be happening” and they introduced My Dream Quinceanera reunion, that was the short little season where we did the magazine & the pageant stuff. And that performed pretty well so that’s when we got Life After Quince & it was awesome because I grew up with those girls literally from 14, 15 to around 18,19 years old and we went through so many changes & stuff together. Even still today, I’m intentional, no, I could be better definitely could be better but I really try to connect with the girls even still being, “Hi, how are you?”. I talk to Victoria all the time, I see Shany’s stuff and I really try to interact and keep that beause we were so young, we had such great memories and I feel like those are people I wanna keep in my life. Whether they’re far or close, I just wanna make sure everyone’s okay. But it’s been super cool, they’re great.

And your relationship with Eileen, that’s like a little sister big sister relationship right ?

I love her ! I haven’t gotten to see her in like so long I don’t even remember when the last time was of course with me being in Arizona and she’s been working. She has her own place now but I think she has the most special little place in my heart ever. I’m obssessed with her, I don’t know what it is and her family everything about them, they’re great. They’re seriously the best. Eileen & I have always been on the same page, we just get it, I don’t know what it is when I’m with her we just show up for each other. We understand what we need to do and that’s when I think Eileen & I come back and connect even after a long time of not seeing each other as if we saw each other last week. We go through 6 hours of just catching up and then it’s, “Okay see you soon”. But I do need to reach out to her again because she’s always commenting on my stuff & we’re always interacting like that but I wanna see her next time I go back.

When was the last time you were home/in California ?

I was home for winter break, so right after graduation I went home for three weeks and now I’m out of college so I don’t have those little breaks so now I’m like, “When am I gonna go home?” But I’m going home again next month.

How was the process of filming Life After Quince and did it affect you in a positive or negative way?

My time on Life After Quince was always positive, my producers and the people that were always around all the cast was nothing short of awesome. They were the most beautiful humans, creative, everything. It would get hard sometimes because when you put nine girls in a room together you know your bound to snap at one point or another so I feel that especially when you’re 17, 18 you’re going through all those changes so that part was a little bit tough. It would always get bad when we were on trips because you’re spending an extended amount of time with one another. But no, Life After Quince was always great. It’s really cool because now being 23 years old and going into the job real world, all of those experiences were really awesome for my personal life but now being able to incorporate that in a career world. I have a lot of experience working with Viacom, working with the producers, and knowing what it takes to do content creation. I feel like when I was younger I was always in that, I was never really intentional in learning other things. I always picked up on sound guy & I always picked up on what people were doing so it’s benefitted me so so much. Now saying that from when I was 14 years old to when I was 23, I was always doing some sort of marketing or some sort of content so I was able to take what I did when I was younger and make it my own now and it’s still benefitting me with jobs & stuff because that’s literally how I got my job because you know you have so much experience in the entertainment industry. It’s been great & really cool seeing it all come full circle.

I know the show was scripted, but did the storylines actually affect you in any way & did it affect the relationship you were in at the time ?

When I say it was scripted, we never had to go to a table read for the whole script thing but it was short little scenarios that they would give us and it was like, “Let’s go to breakfast & we’re gonna talk about these certain points”. At the time, again, I’m literally not that much older I’m literally 23 years old so it wasn’t that long ago, but at that time you’re so young and everything affects you. But there was this one time in Miami where I had to pretend that one of the Jovani twins kissed me and my boyfriend at the time was on the facetime & he saw that and he was like, “Oh is there guys there ?” I honestly can’t even remember what that time was like. I don’t think I ever really let things affect me and also my producers were super cool about when I didn’t wanna do something or felt like something was too much, they were really cool being like, “Let’s move on to the next thing so that was always great. I feel like I still knew what was real & what was fake and I think everyone else did too.

How did it feel to be done with LAQ and go back to your “everyday” life? What stayed the same & what changed after the fact ?

So the ending of Life After Quince was really never supposed to end the way it did. It got cut off because of Covid, so the day the world shutdown was the day we were supposed to go film some big shoot or something. We had the whole next season planned but who would’ve known what would’ve happened if there was no Covid. But my life after Life After Quince, I don’t think much has changed. Obviously like the followers & that stuff, the people’s input in my life has definitely stopped a lot which I love because I feel like I was being criticized kinda a lot sometimes. Honestly any criticism I’ll take. But I think was very much myself when I was doing Life After Quince that even after I still, I don’t know I feel like not much has changed. The only thing that’s changed is that I’m not filming. Obviously my relationships & stuff, things change, people come & go but I feel like I remained true to who I was in that time. Obviously my morals & my mentality has changed so dramatically that thank god because I don’t know what I was doing back then. But I feel like majority of the things stayed the same, even when it did end I was still in college and I feel like if I wasn’t in college I would have my world crumbling but I always had college to depend on and have to focus on because I had no other choice but to go to school you know ?

What do you miss more about it & what are you glad is over ?

Good question, I miss filming. I just miss being in front of a camera and working in production. I miss the experiences we had. We went to Mexico, San Diego, Miami, and we went to really really awesome spots so I miss those experiences as well. But I just miss being in it majority of the time, I miss creating and doing all of that. What I’m kinda glad is over is, I don’t know !

Whether it was mean comments everyday or ?

Honestly, cause even the mean comments still I kinda blew them off. Maybe the cringey scenes I had to do sometimes. I hated kissing on camera, I don’t know what it was. That’s the part I’m glad is over because I don’t want to film cringey scenes anymore but sometimes it wasn’t cringey sometimes it was cool. But there was some times where I was like, “This is too much for me.”

And let’s say they brought it back, would you bring your current boyfriend on or keep it a mystery ?

I think I would bring him on still. I never regretted having my relationship online like that. I think I would bring him on, he’s great. I know that everybody that sees him would love him and everyone would literally be obssessed with him. I definitely would still bring him on. He’s great, he really pushes me to be the best version of myself. He is literally God sent I’m so glad. We were best friends since my freshmen year of college, and then my senior year he came on a family vaction with us and I was like “Wait I think I like you” and mind you we had never kissed, we never did anything. Now it’s so funny to look back at those photos when we were little kids and we’re like “You were always standing there right in front of me”. It’s insane.

What made you want to start your first podcast on your Youtube channel ?

I’ve always loved content creation, I definitely think it was that and I was always obssessed with podcasts. I never listen to music, occasionally I will, but I’m always listening to podcasts. Podcast to go to sleep, podcast when I wake up, podcast when I do my makeup, 24/7 there’s a podcast going so I genuinely love podcasting. I feel like I could talk for hours on end which is a blessing & a curse but I don’t know I’ve always loved podcasts & the set up, I loved the connection I was able to make through the screen with other people. Giving people advice, talk about something that might be a little funny, no matter what it be I knew I was making a connection with people so I definitely enjoyed that.

And your new podcast on Yass Mija!, was that your idea or the producers idea and they decided to have you on ?

The producer was the same producer that created LAQ, so he created his own channel and its Yass Mija! and he works with his wife. Literally they are the best producers, Kevin & Kristen literally ever, they make sure that you’re good & you’re safe they genuinely care. But yeah they reached to me and they asked me if I wanted to do it & I said okay, we set everything up and thankfully we did really well, but it had to come to an end because I had to go back to school so it’s hard making time on the weekends especially when I had finals and I had all these things. Maybe now that my schedule’s opened up, we always talk about bringing it back to Yass Mija!. So maybe that’s something I wanna do. Obviously I do wanna bring back my own podcast, I just wanna do so many things that I don’t even know where to start, I get overwhelmed and then I say, “Okay I’m not gonna do it”.

What guest did you wish you had on the podcast but didn’t get the chance to ?

I really wanted Anika & Frida, I love them. Alondra was great, Ana was great. I really wanted Suraya. I wanted her own, we talked about it for a little bit, but I don’t think it ever ended up happening. Majority of my guests I chose so I feel like I had everybody that I really really wanted.

I know you were able to chose them, but who was your favorite to interview ?

My podcast with my parents was really really fun. The podcast with Eileen & Lourdes, or anything with Eileen & Lourdes is great. But yeah probably my mom & dad or Eileen.

What was your experience doing a podcast in a studio, was it any different than your home set up ?

Yes definitely, it was a lot more structered and they did a wonderful job at everything. It was a lot longer days, I was recording like four episodes a day so I was sitting there for hours on end. But again I loved it. I literally loved every second of it. It was different & it was cool because how the podcast happened was my producers interviewed the guest beforehand, they would give me questions and then I would have a raw conversation with them about what points we can & can’t talk about. But they made sure the pre meeting was set up, I came in the day of, re read the cards and then I got to have a real conversation with them.That was awesome too because they made sure everything was really great and handled well.

Do you have any tips or advice for people that wanna go down the same path as you regarding influencing & stuff like that ?

Honestly everyone says this and I also need to follow the rulesbut you need to just post your content. Post your content, post your content and my biggest thing right now is stop looking at the views, stop looking at the numbers. Just posting I want & letting it be out there. Just do it, start today you’re gonna have to start someday. So post your content. If you wanna go into social media marketing, or just post all your content so you can have a portfolio & you can do social media for a company and show them all the work that you’ve been able to do in the past couple of years. So literally posting your content is not gonna hurt if anything it’s gonna help you get a job in the future.

I know we already touched on this in the beginning, but what plans do you have for the future that the people & your fans should know about ?

My biggest think is I wanna hear feedback. What do people wanna see ? Vlogs, podcasts, what it is they wanna see, Tiktoks, and I don’t even know where to start. So I wanna apply myself to somewhere people really want. But again I really wanna get into social media. My podcasting, my Youtube channel, any social media I’ll be on there a lot more now because I won’t be drowning in homework anymore, thank goodness. But exciting things happening, I’m gonna be travelling a lot hopefully this year, my sisters getting married this year which is super cool and I don’t know I just hope I suceed in my job and I think I will. I’m really just focusing on my career now which is crazy because I am a teenager who is a little girl that should not be in an office. This is too serious for me. No it’s great though.

I then ended the Zoom call and thanked her tremendously for her time. If Airam is an example of anything, she’s an example of going after your dreams & working hard for it. Whether it’s going to school to learn about what you wanna do, or simply navigating it your own way that you know in your heart will work. Down below will be Airam’s episodes of My Dream Quincenera, her podcasts and more. I’ll see you next month.