Olivia Jade Giannulli is officially back on YouTube with a daily vlog after a year-long hiatus following her involvement in the Operation Varsity Blues college admissions scandal and has once again managed to remind us that she’s still incredibly privileged.
For those unfamiliar, Olivia – daughter of Full House star Lori Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli – had a pretty promising influencer career going for her before her parents were charged with conspiring to commit fraud to get her and her sister into prestigious universities.
But if you thought that fraudulently attending UCLA under a rowing scholarship and taking a position from someone who actually deserved it was the kind of thing you’d be punished for, think again because Olivia Jade seems to be doing just fine, actually.
Olivia, 21, marked her return to the platform with what I can only assume was her attempt at a relatable daily vlog. Sadly, it didn’t involve visiting dad in prison.
Her first video back was a YouTuber staple: the daily vlog. It’s a perfect way to connect with your audience and prove that you, a multi-millionaire, are just like them (only much wealthier).
Throughout her video, she takes us through a normal day in her life, which includes painting her nails, eating a salad and teaching the audience how to, uhh… cook rice.
Interestingly, Olivia has downsized from her parents $9.5 million mansion to an apartment that is still probably worth a small fortune. But, you know, ~relatable~.
The whole video is an interesting juxtaposition to her old content, which included glamourous house tours and “luxury” Christmas hauls. But despite trying her hardest to live a down-to-Earth plebian life, Olivia Jade still manages to remind us that she’s still rich, and still *very* out of touch.
The whole video takes place in her shiny new apartment, where she gets to comfortably isolate during the pandemic, rather than having to get a normal job like most people.
Olivia fumbles her way around addressing the scandal without *actually* addressing it properly, and says she’s donating an undisclosed amount of advertising revenue to an undisclosed charity, but I’ll let you be the judge of whether or not that’s enough to counteract her actions.
Despite everything that has happened, and the fact that both of her parents are literally in jail right now, Olivia still boasts a whopping 1.86 million followers, with the video clocking over 115,000 views within a few hours of being posted.
Perhaps I’m being too cynical, but the idea of watching Olivia galavant her shiny new apartment and live a far more luxurious life than the people who actually deserved to a scholarship to a prestigious school just doesn’t sit right with me.
I understand that she’s only young and I don’t think she should be forced to live a life of misery because of a mistake that was largely her parents’ fault. But in saying that, I also don’t think she should be milking an influencer career when she has clearly proven to be a bad influence and basically the poster child of white privilege.
Less than two years after the college admissions scandal first broke, Olivia has returned to YouTube to continue her successful influencer career like nothing has happened.
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but it truly feels like the lesson here is that it’s okay to do the wrong thing if you’re privileged enough to get out of it without any real consequences.
