Xyla Foxlin

Xyla Foxlin is an American engineer, entrepreneur and YouTuber.

Biography Foxlin grew up in the Boston area and attended Lexington High School. She subsequently moved to Los Angeles in 2020.

In 2017, when she was doxxed and harassed by an anonymous Twitter follower, she subpoenaed Twitter to find the identity of her harasser; it turned out she was a woman and fellow robotics student that Foxlin had once mentored. which features two matching bears; each bear is "stuffed with wireless and Bluetooth technology" so that when it is hugged, it sends a signal to its twin over the Internet so that a person with the other bear will feel it vibrate softly and get a message about the hug. and subsequently published a description for how to build a do it yourself Parihug.

Beauty and the Bolt With a classmate, she launched a 501-c(3) non-profit called Beauty and the Bolt to empower women and minorities to excel in engineering. she was able to build the vehicle after learning that the key design detail is the vehicle speed ratio, which describes the optimal way to transmit power from the wheels to spin the propeller. At Christmas time in 2021, along with Joe Barnard, she launched a seven foot tall Christmas tree 300 feet into the air, with a "rocket stuffed up its ... bottom".

Flying and Pilot Mental Health Advocacy Foxlin has a stated affinity for flying, with her first solo flight at 17 years old and subsequently earning her Private pilot licence. However, when a change in her birth control led to depression, the Federal Aviation Administration revoked the necessary medical certificate of her pilot's license. Foxlin began campaigning for the Mental Health In Aviation Act and argued that the current approach made it less likely for commercial and private pilots to seek mental health care, for fear of endangering their careers. Foxlin's appeal to the FAA was successful in 2025 and she was issued a special medical certificate, and she subsequently flew across the continential United States in her Cessna 140. Also in December 2025, Foxlin was awarded the Sloan Science Prize in Documentary from the Independent Media Initiative and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Foxlin was awarded the Aviation Inspiration Award from the Living Legends of Aviation in January 2026.