2024 Rookie Xandra Pohl Shares Advice for Dealing With Heartbreak

The model, DJ and influencer makes her debut in the 2024 SI Swimsuit Issue.

Xandra Pohl was photographed by Derek Kettela in Belize. Swimsuit by Four Three Seven. Top by Natalia Fedner. / Derek Kettela/Sports Illustrated

Xandra Pohl knows better than anyone that sharing your relationship online can be a double-edged sword. The 23-year-old has built her platform to 1.6 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, where she shares daily life updates and “get ready with me” videos alongside fashion, beauty and lifestyle advice. And, until recently, occasional adorable couple’s content.

Pohl ended a three-year relationship last December and broke the news to her fans in January, embracing vulnerability and a new, uncharted phase of life. Since the breakup, the musician has been focusing on herself more than ever before and making major career moves. The Ohio native who is now based in Miami says, she’s in her “I don’t give a f - - - era” and believes “everything happens for a reason.”

Next month Pohl makes her debut in the 2024 SI Swimsuit Issue, gracing the pages of the 60th anniversary edition. She traveled to Belize to work with photographer Derek Kettela, where she looked vibrant and energetic. While on set Pohl reflected on how much she has grown over the past few months.

“For anyone who’s going through a breakup or going through a big change in their life, if I have any advice whatsoever, it is to focus on yourself, live your life, put yourself first, really feel your emotions, and I’m telling you, good things will happen,” she encourages. “I had a huge change in my life and I took this step of really choosing myself and two weeks later, look where I am … I’m in Belize with Sports Illustrated [Swimsuit] following my dreams. So never give up on yourself and always [put] yourself first. If you were going through something bad, it happened for a reason, and you will learn from it, and you will move on, and you're going to be 10 million times better. I wish I had told myself that at 15.”

Pohl adds that lately she’s been doing what she wants and the results show she’s feeling confident in her own skin. The musician, who was the official DJ of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show at Miami Swim Week last summer, is busy making a name for herself in the male-dominated industry.

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As part of her process of self-discovery, Pohl reveals that she’s been diving into another one of her passions—painting. It’s a cathartic creative outlet.

She opened for KYGO in Ibiza and Diplo in Aspen last year, and has a spot performing at Lollapalooza in Chicago this August. She also launched her own tour last month with 16 stops around the country. 

“I’ve never been like a logical person, I’m low-key delusional. So whenever I feel the need to express creativity or anything, I go and I grab a paintbrush and I have a canvas and I just manically paint,” she explains. “I have paintings all over my apartment of stuff that I’ve made on my own. And people are like, ‘Who made that?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, me, when I was losing my mind.’”

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