Xyla Foxlin Talks About Aviation, Being a Maker & More on Outside of the Box

A

Christine talks with Zyla Foxlin, an engineer with a passion for aviation and art who also advocates for women. In stem. On this episode of Outside of the

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Box, humans were flying because of the innate human desire to push the boundaries of what we can naturally do. Airplanes are so good at that.

C

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Outside of the Box. And, you know, I could say that I have some episodes that would be dream episodes to record. This is certainly one of them, because everyone who watches the show knows that, like, supporting women in STEM is really important to me, and I think that there's very few who do that better than my guest today, which is YouTuber creator, engineer, like, does all of the amazing things. Zyla Foxlin.

B

Oh, thank you, Ben. Buttering me up just to get the show started. I see how it is.

C

I'm. I'm one of the most honest people you will meet, Zyla, so. So that is truly how I feel. I'm so excited to have you on the show, and it's, you know, kind of a bit of a wild set of circumstances that I just happened to be out in Vegas at BattleBots, and lo and behold, one of my, like, female heroes in STEM happens to be there, which was you. So really excited to have that opportunity and talk to you about so much of what you do. I think one of the things that I'm really curious to hear about, which I'm sure that, you know, you have talked about at some point, but I think it's really cool for my audience to hear is you obviously have, like, a big love of planes and air travel and all of that. First, I want to hear, like, how all of that got started for you, because it seems like that's been a big driving force behind all of the STEM work that you do.

B

Yeah, I think it cracks me up. Have you seen the statistic? Now, that's, like, more kids want to be content creators than astronauts now, which blows my mind, because I am a content creator, and I would so much rather be an astronaut. And that's definitely where it started, is I was one of those kids that was just really into space and really wanted to be an astronaut. And I loved reading about rocket ships and space travel and. And all this stuff, and I realized that to do that, you have to learn to fly airplanes. And so I got really into airplanes. There's a program called Young Eagles that's run through the Experimental Aircraft association, where volunteer pilots take kids up for their very first flight. And so I, like, found a Young Eagles event, and I got my parents to take me and I went up in this airplane and like, that was it. It was game over. I honestly actually kind of forgot about space after that. Not forever, obviously. I still love rocket stuff and space, but I was like, I must do this. This must be what I focus my life on. And so I did.

C

Yeah. Something that blows my mind about air travel is much like BattleBots. Like often in the combat robotics space, we talk about the fact that combat robotics is not like it's still a very young sport. It really hasn't been around that long. And when you think about the grand scheme of inventions and innovations over the course of time, air travel is also not that old. The first flight was a little over 100 years ago. And a lot of people take it for granted that it's just a very normal thing to do now. And I still kind of marvel at that a little bit. What do you think about that?

B

It's interesting because I think so. I really live in the world of vintage aviation. My airplane is from 1946. She turns 80 in two months. And the airplane that I'm building is from 1928. So it's almost 100-year-old design. And it truly is from the dawn of aviation. And so I love airplanes like that because they are not wildly efficient, they're not very fast. It's like humans were flying because of the innate human desire to push the boundaries of what we can naturally do. And airplanes are so good at that. And I go back and forth. I think it's also really cool that aviation is now so commoditized that it's an annoyance. I have felt that even I love aviation. I love airplanes. And I have been like, oh, I don't want to have to fly across the country this week. I don't want to take this meeting on the East Coast. It's an annoying thing. It's a hassle. You go to the airport, go through tsa, all this stuff and the fact that we are no longer worried about it, we're no longer even enthralled by it in most cases. It's just such a normal part of a lot of people's commute says a lot about how far the industry has come. It's a double edged sword, I think, because I would like it if more people were really into air travel and aviation. But it's also cool that it doesn't have to be something you have to be into in order to be accessed for sure.

C

Now, once you decided to build a plane, I mean, that's Like, a massive thing to take on. What was the, like, kind of the thought process that you had to work through to. To do that? I mean, certainly there's lots of examples, there's lots of models out there and things of that nature, but, you know, it's a pretty large task of things that you could build. And it's super cool that that's something that you've decided to do.

B

Thank you. Yeah, I think it was just like one of those bucket list things where, I mean, experimental aviation is so cool. The community is so fascinating and so interesting and so kind and welcoming, but it's also. It's such a great merge of all of the things I love, like building things, designing things, creating things, and aviation. I'm chasing this feeling that a lot of people have described to me, which is like flying something that you built. And the very few people get the chance to experience that feeling, and I'd really like to be one of them.

C

And I think that's so important to tie into kind of the whole thing with women in stem, because, I mean, most of what I cover on this show heavily focuses on combat robotics. Of course, I spread out to different things now and again, but that was something for me that, you know, when the challenge presented itself, why not build my own robot? Even though I have zero experience doing that. But it was just something that I said. I feel like I need to do this to understand all of the people that I talk to and what their process is. And I want to do it because I'm a woman. And this is something that traditionally women don't do. Was that part of it for you? With a lot of these things to say, like, hey, I'm gonna do this because I want to show, you know, girls out there this is something that

B

they can do, I am gonna say no. Actually, I think it's a happy side effect, but I don't think it's the. The primary motivation. When I was in high school, I did. I did First Robotics, which is like how I got into robotics and how I ended up in BattleBots and how we met. And I was the only girl on the team for a while, sometimes there was one other girl. And the girls on my team didn't build on the robot because that was not the culture. Every single person. When I was freshman, every underclassman got assigned a mentor, whether in hardware or software or whatever they wanted to be doing with an upperclassman, except for me. And I got assigned bake sale duties. So then I ran all the bake sales for two years. And that was just. That was so normal. I think first has some pretty inherent problems baked into it that caused this. But I started. By the time I was a junior and a senior, I started getting pretty angry about this, and it was top of mind. Why wasn't I given the same opportunities as the guys? Why wasn't I? Women in STEM is something we need to be talking about, and it's still something that needs to be talked about. But I just started complaining about it a lot, and it became a really big part of my personality. And at some point, I realized that I was spending more time thinking about that than I was making myself a better engineer. And so when I went to college, I was like, okay, I'm done with that. I'm putting it aside. The way to actually fix this is to just go out and be the best engineer that I can be and to create a little bit more space in the world for me and the women around me. And so I really was like, okay, my focus is going to shift and I'm just going to do. Do the thing. I have to do the thing. Like, I need. If I want a pedal pedestal to stand on, then I need to build it. And. And then. So I started building it, and then I was like, actually, this is a lot. This is. This is really fulfilling to me. I really enjoy this. Like, I'm building the airplane because I want to build the airplane because it's my childhood dream, a project that I wanted to do, and I fear, especially with a project of this magnitude and external motivation won't carry you all the way through. Like, it has to be truly something because you want it. Does that make sense?

C

That makes complete sense.

B

I was like, oh, no. I don't know if I'm accurately describing, but I feel like I don't want this to come off as, like, I don't care about women in stem, which is entirely not the case. More just that, like, I think it has to be intrinsic. Yeah. Yeah.

C

And that's. That's actually. That's very true because it's twofolded. Right. Like, you can care about this external thing, but that's not the thing that's driving you to do it like that. Like you said, it's a. It's a really nice side effect because it does kind of promote those things, but you're not doing it solely for that reason.

B

Right, Right. Yeah, exactly. I think there is. It's pushing. I always think of it as, like, pushing forward. You do that for yourself. Building this airplane is Pushing my own skill set. But I do think it's also important to also look backwards and reach a handout for the people coming behind you. And I think that's where more of the women in STEM aspect comes into play, is turning back and leaving ladders up instead of pulling them out behind you or stuff like that.

C

Yeah, for sure. And I mean, you've obviously been involved with some, I think, really important programs. One that I became aware of pretty recently was the Princesses with Power Tools program. And I think that that's amazing. As someone who has a you gotta get you a princess dress, like, you know, just can't wait to get her hands on that stuff. I think that it's. It's great because until you introduce that as an option and say, like, hey, be. You know, learn to use these things yourself and learn that it's like a really cool thing to get into, I think that it's a great program. So talk a little bit more about those initiatives.

B

Yeah. So when I was in towards the end of college, I founded this nonprofit

C

called Beauty and the Bolt.

B

And our goal was to, like, lower the barrier to entry for girls and minorities in STEM and the trades. Like, mostly through hands on learning and hands on opportunities. And one of our big programs was called Princesses with Power Tools, where we would send these volunteer princesses out to events. We would go to Maker Faires, town fairs, county fairs, kind of just any event that we could find with a large group of people and teach kids how to use a hand drill for the first time. And it's so interesting how empowering something as simple as drilling 10 holes can be, because there's this mental block for a lot of people. And I. A lot of the ways that people raise their kids as well, that, that's. Leave that for somebody else. And particularly for daughters. Like, one of the. One of my favorite stories to tell with this was we were at an event and this mom was like pulling her two kids along, like one. Any chance she had a son and a daughter. And the daughter points over at our booth and was like, mom, I want to go do that. And so she looks over and she reads the sign and it says, like, learn to use a power tool. And she was like, oh, honey, like, leave that for your brother. And the daughter is like, no, I want to go meet Ariel. Ariel is my favorite princess. And there's like this. Now there's this kind of this war going on, the daughter in the mom's head where it's sort of like, okay, we've raised this girl to love princesses and leave tarot tools for the her brother. But now the worlds are colliding, right? The worlds are clashing. And so they ended up coming over, and all three of them did the activity. The mom learned to use a hand drill for the first time, the daughter and the brother. And I think that's what, like, that was what the program was trying to accomplish, was breaking down these mental barriers, not only for the kids, but also for their parents. So that program, I ran it for a couple of years, and then in 2020, when I started my own YouTube channel, Reinvented Magazine, took over the program. And they honestly have been doing a way better job running it than I did, I think. The program's taught over 20,000 kids how to use their first power tool now and still going. So if you want to. If you want to volunteer or are interested, go to reinvented magazine.org I believe.

C

Yeah, for sure. Check that out. I had already. I volunteered. I was like.

B

I was just like, we got to get to address.

C

Yep, exactly. Exactly. I'm curious, like, because you've done a lot of different projects and things like that, especially through your YouTube channel, is there a favorite one that you have, like, one that you really enjoyed in particular?

B

Man, it's kind of like picking a favorite kid. I would say it depends on the day, and it really depends on the context in which you're asking, because. So I would say my favorite project that I use all the time is my teardrop camper, just because, like, I love going camping. So it's. It's probably the project that has seen the most use. But then I have. Building my canoe is a favorite because it was the first time and only time I've ever worked with family. And so the time I got to spend with my uncle was so precious to me that the experience of building the canoe was like. That was what made it my favorite. It's also a great canoe, and I love canoeing. But now I live in the desert, so I don't get to use it very often. But then I have projects. Like my level two certification rocket was. The project itself was not groundbreaking. I think it wasn't. But I met so many of my closest friends through building that project and going out to the launch site and launching that. It changed my life as I know it in some really positive ways, just through the people I got to meet through it. I guess there's so many contexts in which a project can be a favorite that. But I do think it's interesting. The through line for my favorite projects is always the people that I got to work with and meet.

C

Yeah, I think that's a really great answer, to be honest. One other thing that I wanted to touch on, because I think it's so important, obviously, I followed what you do for a while, and one of the things that most is important to me is that you have been just a really big advocate for mental health. And it's interesting that, like, I think in the STEM space, people who are in engineering, people who are makers, people who are creators, that is such an important thing to those folks, because so many creatives are the ones that, like, are overachievers and struggle with those problems and don't know how to ask for help. And, you know, I think it's really important for people to understand that no matter, like, how good you are at that thing that you do or, you know, how strong you feel you are, that it's always important to do that and to make sure that you're taking care of yourself first and foremost so that you can do those amazing things that you're doing.

B

Yes. Yeah, it's a. It's a hard lesson to learn. It's a really hard lesson to learn.

C

And I mean, you. I think you've done a really good job of, you know, getting that out there and communicating that. Why do you think that that's, like, such an important thing for people to understand and to recognize?

B

I think every niche sort of has culture that comes with it. I think engineering and entrepreneurship and being a creator, like so many, have also a culture of who's sleeping the least, who's working the most, who's, like, hustling the hardest, and what a toxic spiral to end up in. And it just shoots yourself in the foot. And, like, I've gotten caught up in that plenty of times. I've watched other people get caught up in that plenty of times. And it's so interesting. I used to have a sticky note on my desk that I was, like, talking to my therapist about this, and she said it, and I was like, I need to write that down. And I just, like, stuck it right there. But she said it was something like, boredom is the key to creativity. Like, if you're not letting yourself rest and get bored and then you're not going to, your brain doesn't have space to start thinking and doing new things. And, like, you know, if you. If you don't regularly schedule maintenance, it will schedule itself. And that very much applies to human beings as well.

C

Yes. People are not unlike machines. They also need maintenance and rest. So, yes, it is. It is an important thing. Just in case people have been, you know, living in a hole and don't know where to find your content. Where can they check out your content and see what you're up to?

B

I am everywhere at xylafoxland. So X, Y, L, A, F, O, X, L, I, N. Hard to spell, but I think we're finally getting to the point where if you start, if you make an attempt, Google will figure it out for you. So I'm Yellowfoxland on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all the places. Yeah. If you like building stuff, come join the party.

C

For sure. Then just quick a last question along those lines. Is there anything upcoming that you're working on or anything that you're excited about or that people should look forward to?

B

I have a video coming out. By the time this comes out, it'll probably be out where I made an entirely wooden dress that's Met Gala inspired. I think every so often I find myself coming back to fashion projects because they're sort of absurdly feminine. And I really love that. I think it's. Sometimes I lose myself in, like, the airplanes and the rockets and the culture that comes with all those things. And it's really nice to take a step back and be like, I'm going to use all the skills I've learned from. I mean, this project, it took airplane building, boat building, rocket building. It's scraps from. All of. It's got scraps from building my airplane. It's got scraps from building boats, instruments rock like rockets. It's all in this. In this project, which is just a beautiful wooden dress. It's fun to take all those skills and just let yourself get creative with it.

C

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Well, I am so thankful to have gotten the time to talk to you about this because, I mean, if folks don't already know the stuff that you're doing, I think they need to watch. My daughter's already asked me to let her watch her YouTube.

B

So are you saying you're not letting your daughter watch. Watch my YouTube already? I. I usually bleep out swears. Don't worry.

C

Yeah. So if you're not already checking out Zyla, please make sure that you check Zyla out and, you know, follow and, you know, you know, comment and engage and all of that good stuff. So, yes. And if you're watching this show, please make sure that you, like, subscribe, share, engage, all of that stuff with this as well so that we can keep promoting out what all of these folks are doing, you know, the wonderful things they're doing in stem. And thank you for watching. And we'll see everybody next time on the show. Sam.