Olivia returns after college scandal
Social media star is back on YouTube after parents were arrested for bribing authorities for admissions
Social media star Olivia Jade Giannulli on Sunday posted her first YouTube video since the arrest of her parents, actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, made her one of the most visible figures in the college admissions scandal. “Welcome back to my YouTube channel, obviously I’ve been gone for a really long time,” Jade says in the twominute video posted to her account that has nearly 2 million subscribers.
She says she debated for months whether to return to her channel, which focused on fashion, beauty and videodiary entries about her life. “I’m terrified to make this video and come back,” Jade says, “but I want to start taking smaller steps in the right direction.”
Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of paying $500,000 (Dh1.83 million) to have their two daughters labelled as recruits to the USC crew team so they could gain admission to the school, even though neither participated in the sport.
In her new video, Jade says she stayed away from social media because she is legally prohibited from talking about the scandal, and it seemed pointless to appear and ignore it. “If I can’t talk about it, is there a point in coming back and not being able to saying anything?” Jade says.
Jade said the pull of social media was too strong to stay away. “I actually really, really miss it,” she says. “I feel like a huge part of me is not the same because this is something that I’m really passionate about and something I really like to do.
... I’m really excited to start filming again and start uploading again.”