A favorite voice of the St. Louis airwaves has traded her mic for a small screen and a wider audience. After 15 years on 105.7 the Point, Ashley “Lux” Elzinga says she’ll be a full-time social media content creator for medical marijuana brands.
“Medical marijuana has saved my life,” she told St. Louis on the Air. “Seeing what it's done for me health-wise, and for my family and others, I just thought, ‘Oh man, I'm so lit up by this.’ And when I went to the radio station, I started to feel just a little bit less lit up.
“When you start to feel this passion for something you should truly follow it,” she added. “That's your body telling you that you're ready for something else.”
Using cannabis allowed Elzinga to discontinue use of pharmaceutical drugs like Xanax, which she said gave her memory fog.
“I hated being on it. I felt very loopy,” she said. “I wasn't present in moments, and now I can be present all the time.”
Elzinga’s parents also use medical cannabis. Her father, who lives with post-traumatic stress disorder, uses marijuana to curb seizures that were causing memory loss. Her mother uses it to alleviate rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.
“Consistent and proper usage … saved their lives,” she said.
Now Elzinga hopes to spread that awareness around Missouri. And with more than 29,000 followers on Instagram and 54,000 on Facebook, she has a sizable audience for her new role as a full-time cannabis and lifestyle influencer — a term that, she admitted, makes her “cringe.”
“The word sounds so gnarly … but in reality, what I want to do as an influencer and a content creator mostly is help people get the information they need,” she said. “The fact that I get to be a voice to bring that information to people educationally … I'm so stoked. I can't wait.”
Although you might miss her late-afternoon alt-rock jams, Elzinga promises that Woof Wednesdays aren’t going anywhere — and you’ll still be able to hear her voice over loudspeakers at St. Louis Ambush games. She is also looking forward to connecting with people in the hours outside of drive time.
“Online is 24/7, it's not the 2 to 7 [p.m. shift], so I'm on there all the time, which can be a little consuming,” she said. “But the community that's out there is truly beautiful. When you reach out, and you get into each other's minds, and you allow for going past the surface.”
Related Event
What: Blaze Missouri
When: June 3 and 4
Where: Union Station, 1820 Market St., St. Louis, MO 63103
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Emily Woodbury, Kayla Drake, Danny Wicentowski and Alex Heuer. Avery Rogers is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
