What you need to know
For Bobby Althoff, being in front of the camera for a lingerie campaign wasn’t part of the plan.
“I definitely never saw myself doing a lingerie shoot,” the 28-year-old podcaster exclusively tells PEOPLE while discussing her new partnership with Adore Me, where she stars in the intimate apparel brand’s 2026 Valentine’s Day collection. “I was so nervous about it.”
Although nervous, Althoff said the collaboration felt like a perfect fit. “I just looked at the work they had done before, I was familiar with the brand, and it felt right,” she explains. “So I thought, ‘You know what? Let’s try this.'”
Adore Me
Ms. Althoff admitted that the work pushed her outside of her comfort zone. “It was so cute and so different from me,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t necessarily look at what I wear on a regular basis, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the pieces were.”
That initial discomfort is what makes the campaign so relatable, she says. “If I can wear lingerie and look somewhat OK wearing it, other people can see themselves wearing it, too,” Althoff says. “Because I don’t feel like I represent lingerie.”
Her message to women is simple. “You just put it on,” she says. “And even if you think you’re going to feel sick when you put it on, it will when you try it on…you might be surprised.”
The collection, which will be available on AdoreMe.com on December 30th, includes bras, lingerie, sleepwear and panties, and is designed to cover the entire season from Valentine’s Day to Galentine’s Day. Fitting into Adore Me’s affordable price range, the lingerie set retails for under $70 and comes in sizes 30A-46DDD and XS-4X. This year’s theme, “Leave a Trace with a Kiss,” features a bold and flirty style with a red and pink color scheme and kiss motifs throughout.
The campaign also aligns with the influencer’s longstanding openness about body image and cosmetic surgery, which she acknowledges can be uncomfortable but needs to be discussed honestly.
Before the shoot, she recalls feeling particularly anxious after recently receiving Botox injections in her chin. “It affected my smile, and I couldn’t smile at all,” she says. “I felt like I was going crazy and couldn’t laugh. But I feel like[the photos]turned out really, really good.”
Althoff says the transparency is intentional. “Before social media and everything else, I always saw people who looked perfect and thought they were just born that way,” she explains. “I think a lot of people, especially in Los Angeles, just get the job done.”
“I think one thing that will have an effect is that it will make people more content with the way they were born and content with what they already have, because look how wrong that is. And it definitely makes people feel more comfortable with their natural appearance. It helped me understand more, because before I even touched my face, I looked back at pictures of myself and was like, “Oh, I don’t know why I was so upset about the way I looked, why I wanted to change this, because I liked the way I looked.”
“And I think people look at me and think, ‘Okay, maybe I’m not going.’ Or I hope they look at me and think, ‘Maybe I won’t touch my face,’ because honestly, that could go so wrong and you honestly look good before you do something like that.”
In addition to scrutiny over her appearance, Althoff has also dealt with online scrutiny, which she actively distances herself from. “I read all the comment sections about me,” she says. “And now, if you see something, you just scroll past it.”
She credits therapy and advice from the public for helping her change. “I went through a lot of therapy,” Althoff says. “A lot of people who are celebrities have reached out to me and they’re like, ‘You should definitely stop reading comments. It’s not healthy.’
Althoff rose to fame after launching The Really Good Podcast, where her deadpan humor and intentionally awkward interview style went viral. Since then, she has interviewed guests such as Drake, Lil Yachty, Mark Cuban, Rick Glassman, and Fanny Marco.
Looking ahead to 2026, Althoff says being confident means being kinder to yourself. “I don’t really look in the mirror or criticize my appearance,” she says. It’s ultimately a matter of perspective, she added. “I want to touch the grass and realize that I don’t have to sit there and criticize every little part of myself.”
