Even as a recruited athlete, Lex was intentional about showing his depth in his Stanford application.

Those other passions included: • Building a YouTube channel with his twin brother, Leo • Exploring the outdoors through backpacking and mountain biking • Expressing creativity through drawing, videography, and photography

One of those key passions was Lex and his brother’s YouTube channel. But college has shifted how he approaches it.

Interestingly, the reduced pace has led to more substance. His best videos, he says, are the ones he’s made since coming to Stanford.

When asked about advice for students, Lex returned to a theme he lives by: authenticity.

At the same time, he acknowledged that standing out requires a balance.

• NCAA Division I Cross Country & Track — Competes for Stanford's elite running program while managing a full academic course load. • YouTube Creator (with twin brother Leo)- Built a channel combining elite athletics with high-quality cinematography and storytelling. • Athlete Adventurer — Pursues backpacking and mountain biking as extensions of his athletic drive and outdoor curiosity. • Visual Storyteller — Practices drawing, photography, and videography as the artistic foundation that makes his other work distinctive. These skills enable him to see and capture moments differently, whether filming a workout or documenting a backcountry trip.

🏃 The Braini-ock Braini-ocks bring equal drive to the classroom and the track. They prove that intellect and athleticism can thrive together. For Lex, that balance defined his Stanford choice. “It’s that unique combination of high academics and high athletics you can’t get anywhere else.” His application showed a student who refused to choose between discipline and discovery. 📖 The Narrator Narrators turn experience into story. Through filmmaking and photography, Lex captures what it feels like to chase growth. “If I’m gonna make a video, I’m gonna make it exactly what I want… just because it’s fun to do.” His storytelling lens lets others see not just the miles he runs, but the mindset behind them.

Q: If you could go back and give advice to yourself starting this process over again, what would it be?

Excellence Doesn't Always Require Sacrifice Stanford attracted Lex because it refused the false choice between academics and athletics. He didn't have to compromise one passion to pursue another. The lesson for applicants: don't let conventional wisdom force you into a single lane. The most compelling applications show students who refuse to be just one thing. The Authenticity-Impact Balance Lex's YouTube philosophy mirrors great applications: start with genuine passion, then learn to package it for your audience. Pure authenticity without strategy won't break through the noise. Pure strategy without authenticity rings hollow. The magic happens in the intersection — doing what you love in a way that makes others care. Trust Over Control Lex's final advice, “don’t stress so much”, isn't about lowering standards. It's about recognizing that over-engineering your path often backfires. Stay honest to your intentions, remain committed, and trust that authenticity and effort will create opportunities you can't predict. The best outcomes aren't always the ones you planned.

Charles Hicks: I'm doing excellent! Okay, cool. One of the questions I like the most, to kind of get inside the applicant's head a little bit, is why Stanford? But also how Stanford — meaning, was that somewhere you always knew you wanted to go, or did you look at a bunch of schools and then decide during the process? Lex Young: Yeah, I think for me, I always knew Stanford was a high option, something I really wanted, but it wasn't always the only option. I ended up falling onto Stanford as my pick because to me, Stanford's a school for dreamers. It's the school where you go because you think you can do it all, especially if you're an athlete. It's kind of a unique situation of high academic, high athletic that I don't think you can get anywhere else. And really, the only way I wasn't going to Stanford is if when I took my visit and met the coaches and hung around, if it wasn't what I thought it was gonna be. But yeah, it's pretty great. Charles Hicks: That's awesome. And actually, to elaborate on that a little bit, because you are one of the first people I've interviewed that's been on campus for a while, how has the experience kind of measured up to what you thought Stanford was as a high school student? Lex Young: Yeah, that's a good question. I think it's pretty similar in some ways, and then also different in others. It's definitely a lot of work, which I anticipated. You're gonna get a great degree, but it comes at the cost of a lot of time and effort. But it's also time and effort you want to spend doing those things, because that effort is kind of why the degree is so valuable — because you're putting so much into it. I think I couldn't have anticipated how fun and nice it is to live on a campus like this. Living in a place where you can bike everywhere you need — anything you need, you can bike there. The dining halls, you know, you have food right next to your dorm, you have food options all around. It's just the convenience of living here and the beauty of the place that we get to live. It's a far more beautiful place than I would have anticipated. I knew it was nice, but I don't think there's another campus, there's no other campus I'd rather live on. Charles Hicks: That's valid. I can relate, for sure. Awesome. And then kind of switching gears onto your application a little bit. You obviously applied as an athlete, and I know that's a unique experience, applying from the perspective of an athlete, knowing that admissions was going to know that about you already. Was there anything else you really tried to focus on in your application to kind of stand out beyond that? Lex Young: Yeah, definitely. Because I was applying as an athlete, I tried to make sure that I didn't just direct my entire application around that. I didn't want my application to just be, you know, like a classic prompt: imagine your life without one thing that's critical to it. So I didn't write about life without running. I wanted to write about something different. I'm not sure what I actually chose — oh, my plan. But yeah, I tried to focus on other parts of my life that bring me passion and joy, so I was talking about the YouTube channel that me and Leo, my twin, run. I was talking about endeavors with the outdoors, like backpacking or mountain biking, or talking about the other art stuff I like to do, like my drawing or my videography and photography. Yeah, I tried to focus on the other things that kind of separate me besides just the athletic side. Charles Hicks: That's awesome. And a personal question from my own experience that I think would be actually really interesting is, obviously you had a really big YouTube channel before you got to Stanford — how has the experience been kind of keeping that up with all the additional rigor that you're having to deal with now? Lex Young: Yeah, I think it's a lot harder to do the channel in college. We had a lot less work in high school, so in high school it was like, I would come home and maybe have like half an hour or an hour of homework to do, because I would get most of it done in class or stuff like that. So now it's a lot harder to do the YouTube channel, but I also think the videos that we make have more substance and are more valuable. In high school we did it as, like, it was fun to do and we enjoyed doing it, but we were trying to do a video every single week. And now it's like, there's no way I'd be able to do a video every week, so if I'm gonna make a video, I'm gonna make it exactly what I want to make it. It's not gonna be made with any ulterior motives. I don't need to do it for the money, I don't need to do it for the views. I'm just kind of doing it for the reason I started doing it, just because it's fun to do, which I think produces the best videos. So my favorite videos are still the videos I've made in college so far. Charles Hicks: Oh, that's awesome. Wow, that's actually a phenomenal answer that ties really well into a common theme I've seen in a lot of these interviews, which is authentic passions. I think kind of like what you're touching on with YouTube can apply to applications where people can feel these pressures to maybe create or dig into passions they might not actually love, just to have something on the application. As someone who's maybe found a way, you know, using the YouTube channel as an example, to really keep in touch with what that means to you, is there maybe any advice you would give to a high school student trying to stay authentic with their passions and make sure they don't do things for the wrong reasons, application-wise? Lex Young: Yeah, I think it's tricky, but I think you kind of nailed it by just talking about the authenticity. It's really easy to get distracted by ulterior motives and to think, oh, I'm gonna do this because it's gonna look good. And sometimes that works out, but I've always been a fan of trying to do things as authentically and driven by passion as possible. All my interests are always things that I just genuinely enjoy and have fun with, and if I can get good at that and then take it to a point where maybe I can monetize it, or start to have it in a position where it becomes portfolio-worthy, then that's a bonus. But I always want everything to start as something that I enjoy, because maybe it's idealistic, but I think if I can find a job eventually that I love working, really love doing, then it's gonna feel great and I'm gonna be a lot more satisfied and sleep more sound at night. Charles Hicks: Totally! And honestly, I kind of like to think about it backwards in a little bit of a different way, if I could ask it kind of flipped. Imagine if we had a high school student who maybe had those passions that were authentic and they really cared about this stuff, but maybe they're having trouble turning it into something, you know, taking that action. I can tell that you're someone who has no trouble doing that at all, so I would love to know if you had any advice on that end of things as well. Like how do you turn that love for something into something real? Lex Young: Yeah, I think a lot of it, especially if you're gonna try and turn it into something real on social media — say that specifically — but in most cases, I think it just depends on what you're good at, looking at that and kind of asking what do I do differently than the rest of the people, or what separates me. So for us with the YouTube channel, we are good at videography and photography, but there's a lot of people who are really good at that. And I think what set us apart was that we are also really good at running. So when we combined those two, that was like the secret sauce — we were able to film it so well as we're also performing so well. So yeah, I would try and — and that's an easy situation because it was like we were so good that it made it, you know, there was a lot of wind on our back. But I think generally, if you can find some way to stay true to what you're trying to do, but then maybe lean into one part of it that makes you stand out a little bit more. Because, you know, it's very authentic for me to make the videos about running because I love running and I like the videos. But if I was being 100% authentic to what I wanted, I'd probably just be making daily vlogs of me biking around campus and looking at cool buildings, and then going for a run, and then hanging out with my friends. But I have to tailor it to a certain extent. There is a degree of compromise in order to make it more monetizable. Charles Hicks: Yeah, it's almost like more "attention monetizable" than financial. That's really important for applications too — it is an attention economy. Admissions officers are scanning hundreds of essays, just like a YouTube user scrolling through videos, and something has to stand out. That's an honest concession: you do have to compromise a little, keeping passion authentic but packaging it so it jumps off the page. Last question — I always wrap up with this one. Obviously you were really successful in your running, your application, and now you're thriving at Stanford. But if you could do this whole process over again, what advice would you give yourself just starting out? Lex Young: Hmm. Oh, that's tough. Charles Hicks: Everyone pauses on this one. Yeah. Lex Young: Yeah. I might need a minute to think about this one. Charles Hicks: No, take your time. I'm curious, because everyone always thinks really hard here. Lex Young: I think the biggest thing I would say is — it's so much easier said than done — but try not to stress it so much. Because it can be a really stressful process, not just applying, but also when you first get into school and you're adjusting. It's hard to trust it's going to work out. But maybe it won't always work out exactly how you want, and you wouldn't even want it to, because that would take the fun away. Just trust that if you stay honest to your intentions and to yourself, and committed, it will kind of find its way.