A “Quen-naissance” struck campus Thursday evening as internet personality, model and influencer Quenlin Blackwell took center stage at Associated Students’ Titan Talks event.

Cheers erupted before she even entered the room, as masses of students filled the Titan Student Union Pavilion, and was followed by an almost-ear shattering clash of screams and applause as the social media star made her way to the stage.

Quenlin Blackwell – better known as Quen online – got her beginnings on Vine, making silly, six-second videos of herself dancing, improvising scenarios or just talking to the camera.

Though she got her humble start as a Vine star, she has recently taken on some high profile gigs in the past few years – modeling for Victoria’s Secret, starring on the HBO series “I Love LA” and appearing in Charli xcx’s “360” music video.

In a less serious tone than other talks hosted by ASI, like Beyond the Conversation, much of the discussion at the Titan Talks event circled around her career and presence on social media, like her TikTok personas and YouTube channel.

A hit for many attendees was the conversation held surrounding her cooking show on YouTube, “Feeding Starving Celebrities,” where Blackwell hosts big-name media stars and prepares recipes from their cultures.

The event jumped straight into the action with Blackwell detailing her favorite meals on the show and who she hopes to host in the future, revealing that she had almost secured an episode with “Heated Rivalry” star Connor Storrie, but wasn’t able to after the HBO show gained popularity.

“In December, I had the opportunity to have him (Storrie) on the show, and I was going through an internal change, so I didn’t have nobody to run the show,” Blackwell said. “So I was like, ‘Connor, wait five minutes!'”

Despite Blackwell’s light-hearted and comical disposition, she didn’t step out of the spotlight without offering students some words of advice.

Throughout the event, she drove home the point that, despite her current success skyrocketing, she didn’t always feel confident or beautiful in her own skin, but took the phrase “fake it ’til you make it” to heart.

“How I work with myself and my self-confidence is: I lie,” Blackwell said. “I lie until it becomes the truth.”

She said that at a young age, she couldn’t look at herself in the mirror, let alone look someone in the eye while she talked to them, until one day she started telling herself that she successfully did those things all the time.

“I just really lied and became really, actually deliriously delusional, and it all came through,” Blackwell said. “I would be like, ‘Oh my God, I literally am so happy to be me.'”

She also emphasized self-advocacy in her own Gen Z way, letting the audience know that watching the largely controversial 2023 film “Saltburn” made her end her relationship.

“I said, ‘You not obsessed with me enough, he eating the bathwater,’” Blackwell said, referencing a scene in the film.

Though Blackwell’s answers were filled with humor and interjected with ecstatic audience reactions, she continued to provide students with strong advice, especially pertinent coming from someone so close in age to many on campus.

As a prominent internet celebrity, students had questions about her experiences in the industry, especially as a Black, female creator. Her advice: take pride in your roots.

“As a Black woman, I feel like the most powerful thing in the room when I walk in,” Blackwell said. “The way that I look, the way that I speak, the culture I come from, the depth of storytelling…that’s what I navigate the entertainment industry with.”

After a night of laughter, “death-dropping,” model walking and sharing conversation with one of Gen Z’s most “bamous” names, students left the Pavilion with Blackwell’s final message: “Be delusional, anything can happen.”