Kalani Hilliker spent her teenage years on 'Dance Moms.' Navigating adulthood as an influencer hasn't always been a smooth ride.

"It was definitely crazy," Hilliker told Business Insider, describing what it was like to grow up in a reality TV show environment.

She first appeared on the Lifetime show "Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition," a contest with "Dance Moms" coach Abby Lee Miller as one of the judges, in 2013, and then made her "Dance Moms" debut the following year in season four. Hilliker officially became a cast member at the start of the show's fifth season and stayed until its seventh season, which aired from November 2016 to October 2017, according to IMDb.

Speaking of her time on the show, she told BI: "I think it was definitely really hard, but luckily, all the girls and I, you know, and our moms were all super, super close. So it was nice to know that you always have support no matter what was going on," she said.

Hilliker, who was 17 when the final episodes of the show's seventh season aired, said she initially struggled to process the freedoms of adult life as she was approaching the end of her time at high school.

"I think it was definitely a really hard time because it was like, you go from being on such a schedule and having such a very kind of set life," she said, "to now being on your own and now being an adult, and now kind of being able to do whatever you want to do, and the world is your oyster."

Hilliker added: "I think it can be really scary for a lot of people and it was definitely really scary for me, and for like a good year or two I was really lost in myself and kind of confused on what I really wanted to do."

Although she felt disorientated in the years after "Dance Moms," Hilliker said she has now identified a topic she's really passionate about: mental health.

Earlier this year, she launched her own brand, Kare by Kalani, which sells skincare and wellness products.

She told BI she was inspired to create the brand because of her own experience with managing her mental health.

"I know that a lot of people are so busy in their day-to-day lives, whether you're an athlete whether you have a job, whether you go to school, whatever you're doing, everybody needs time to have some self-care, and everyone needs to have time to relax and really just reset," she said.

Hilliker has previously been outspoken about her mental health journey. She told E! News in an interview published in July that factors such as living in the limelight caused her anxiety while she was on the show, but that she didn't learn how to deal with her feelings until after she left when she was in her 20s.

"I was able to really understand my anxiety more and be able to calm myself down," she told the outlet.

Another passion in Hilliker's life is teaching dance. She told BI she currently teaches classes roughly three days per week to students from the ages of around 6 to 15.

After having a portion of their childhood broadcast on TV, some people might shy away from sharing their lives online, but Hilliker is very active on social media.

Across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, she has almost 13 million followers who watch along as she shares insights into what her life is like now, as well as reflections on her time on "Dance Moms."

In April, she posted the first episode of a YouTube podcast co-hosted with her friend Bella called "Konvos with a K," where the pair spoke about life in their 20s and answered listener questions.

Hilliker told BI she is "super open" to talking about her childhood and the transition from being a teenager to a young adult.

The 23-year-old described being able to decide what she shares about her life on social media as a "luxury."

When she was on "Dance Moms," she said she "didn't really get a choice," of what content or information was put out about her in the episodes.

"I think now I'm kind of able to share my life in a more fun way and a more kind of 'me way' and I think I have a lot more personality now than I even did when I was on the show," she added.

In one TikTok from August 2022, Hilliker addressed a moment where her tampon string was on display during a solo performance, captioning the post, "Quite embarrassing for 16-year-old Kalani over it now."

The video received over 14 million views, and some of her other posts about her time on the show have also gone viral on the app, delighting many "Dance Moms" fans.

Hilliker told BI she doesn't remember everything that happened on "Dance Moms," but it's not the only time she's used her TikTok platform to reflect on her experience. While some of her posts seem neutral, focusing on clips of her dancing, others highlight awkward or less-treasured moments, like going through puberty on the show.

Hilliker told BI that she's chosen to share these reflections with her online audience because she feels viewers didn't always get a chance to see how the cast felt about situations.

Hilliker added that sometimes, "When you're watching a TV show, you don't think of the people as real people, you know, you think of them as a character, and we're all real people and we all have real feelings, especially as kids."

Hilliker had a brush with backlash when she appeared to support Donald Trump's 2020 election campaign in posts on Instagram and X, then known as Twitter.

BI previously reported that Hilliker posted footage of what appeared to be a Trump rally on her Instagram Story, and used the hashtag #Trump202020 in a tweet that read, "No matter who you're voting for use your voice and vote!!! It's your right!!!"

Several people expressed disappointment at the apparent Trump endorsement, and Hilliker's Twitter and Instagram posts sparked further criticism on social media after they were shared on an Instagram drama page at the time, according to prior BI reporting. The post on the drama page appears to no longer be available.

When asked about the situation, Hilliker told BI, "I think that on social media, everyone's able to post whatever they want to post," adding, "Everyone's opinion's their opinion."

"No one should be judged for what they do," she said.

Hilliker has faced other types of negativity online too, including people body shaming her, she said.

"My rant of the night. Going on someone's social page and commenting on their weight/appearance/build is unacceptable," she wrote in an on-screen caption of a post in August 2022.

She told BI she feels that on social media people "can hide behind the screen and say whatever you want. So people say things without really even thinking about the consequences."

She's not the only "Dance Moms" cast to deal with such a response.

In 2022, Nia Sioux, one of Hilliker's castmates, told BI she's received critical comments from people comparing her adult body to the way she looked on the show.

"It's really hard for people to picture me as an adult because they've seen me on TV since I was 9 years old, and people will comment crazy things online like 'you've gained weight,' and I'm like, well I sure hope I have because I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be the same weight I was when I was 12 years old," she said at the time.

Hilliker told BI she looks back on her time on the show as an "amazing experience" even though there were "hard times" that came with it.

But not everyone has had the same experience. Maddie Ziegler in particular, who was portrayed as Miller's favorite dancer on the cast, has been critical of the production of the show and of Miller. Other former cast members have also suggested they had negative experiences in social media posts and interviews over the years.

Discussing her feelings about the negative accounts given about the show by former castmates, she said, "I think that everyone has their own story, and if that's how they feel, that's how they feel, you know, and you can't take away that from them."

Hilliker added that she occasionally speaks with her former castmates, but does not keep in touch with Miller.

"I don't agree with a lot of things that she's done on the show, but I am also super grateful for what she did to me and how she was able to help me get to where I'm at today," she told BI.

Hilliker did not specify in what ways she didn't agree with Miller's actions on the show, but said: "I guess we all make mistakes, I don't know."

Hilliker told BI she is grateful to have fans who have followed her life from her years on "Dance Moms" to the present day.

She also said she wants her social media presence to do good, highlighting body positivity and mental health. She said she wants to have a positive platform because, as she was growing up, "there was lots of negativity with the show."

She added that she wants "everyone to be happy and live a great life. Truly."