Olivia Jade Giannulli, Lori Loughlin and the University Admissions Scandal

Fake water polo players, fake SAT scores and very real allegations of corruption: these are just some of the unusual stories that surfaced this week about a fraud scandal. mbadive admission to a college, in which rich parents were found to have committed fraud. bring their children to elite universities.

The FBI investigation, dubbed "Operation Varsity Blues," culminated in the indictment of 50 people, including Lori Loughlin, the actress best known for her role as Aunt Becky in the film. Full house.

Loughlin is married to Mossimo Giannulli, founder of a multimillion-dollar fashion company called Mossimo, a popular 90s streetwear brand that was sold to Target. They were accused of paying $ 500,000 for their two daughters to be admitted to the University of Southern California. Loughlin has been arrested, but has since been released on bail of one million dollars.

One of the personalities at the center of this scandal is the younger daughter of the couple, Olivia Jade Giannulli. Aged 19, a student at USC since the fall of 2018, he was already well known in some online circles as the influence of social media.

On her YouTube channel, she publishes beauty tutorials and shopping campaigns for her 1.9 million subscribers. On Instagram, she publishes daily outfits and photos of her travels since holidays like Fiji, and on Twitter she answer questions from his disciples about his life. Like most other social media stars, Giannulli also produces a lot of sponsored content.

But now, Giannulli is facing a violent reaction, especially on the platforms on which she once ruled. His Instagram is full of angry comments. Sephora, who paid her to post advertisements on social networks and worked with her to create a makeup palette, just confirmed to Vox that she was going to shoot the product.

Much of Giannulli's criticism is due to the scandal over income inequality and the unfair advantages of affluent families in the United States in terms of university admission. As Libby Nelson wrote for Vox earlier this week, colleges might care about grades, references and extracurricular activities, but alumni children and major donors benefit from a preferential treatment, as well as athletes. Even without illegal intervention, wealthy children such as Giannulli regularly get places in the best universities because they come from families who can afford to pay for music lessons, sports tournaments and tutors.

There is also the fact that Giannulli is an influencer (I sent him a message on Instagram for this story, but I did not get an answer). An influencer now has the power to make a lot of money, to prepare drugs and energy drinks, and even to make their babies famous. Millions of children admire influencers like Giannulli, devouring their beauty tips and their races, while ordering such power is also involved in a university scandal, only aggravates Giannulli's situation.

The famous life of Insta Olivia Jade Giannulli

As for the social media influencers, Giannulli seems almost to be generated by an algorithm. She is skinny, white, beautiful and comes from a famous rich family.

On her YouTube channel, she has ambaded nearly 2 million subscribers by sharing her makeup tips, unveiling her Christmas presents and showing off her favorite jewelry. Like so many Generation Z social media stars, Giannulli's Internet personality is casual and accessible. She will post her morning routine, for example, and bring the camera to her bed before applying makeup. And even though she has a privileged lifestyle, she maintains a humble tone, often telling listeners how much she loves them and is grateful to them.

On Instagram, she publishes glamorous outfits and party shots, but she also shows she's just a teenager and has fun with her friends.

Giannulli has been a social media celebrity since the age of 14 – or at least that's when his footprint begins on YouTube. In recent years, she has attracted many followers and has partnered with Calvin Klein, Lulus, Smile Direct Club, Tresemmé, Marc Jacobs Beauty, GlbadesUSA and Boohoo, among others. She was invited by Chanel to the fashion shows of the French luxury house and posted her message directly on the Instagram account of People magazine.

Giannulli also won some collaborations. In December 2018, she published a fashion line with Australia's e-commerce site Polly Princess. (The collaboration seems to have been recently interrupted, I contacted Polly Princess for comments and did not immediately receive an answer.) Giannulli also had an ongoing partnership with Sephora. she has already posted sponsored photos on Instagram and launched her own makeup palette at the end of last year.

She was very open with her supporters: the school does not matter so much to her; she is tweeted YouTube is his main pbadion rather than sitting in clbad. When Teen Vogue asked her what she was pbadionate about at the beginning of her first year, she said, "I'm very excited to meet new people and edit my content on YouTube to create more college-themed videos!"

In another YouTube video from August 2018, she explains to viewers: "I do not know how many school I plan to attend. But I want to live the experience, for example, days of games, of the party. … I do not really care about school. When the fans criticized her at the time, she posted a video of excuses, explaining to her subscribers that she was sorry to have said "something super." ignorant and stupid, basically, and it totally broke out. that I am not grateful for the college. I'm going to a very beautiful school. … I know it's a privilege, a blessing and I'm very grateful to you. "

Last week, however, on March 8, she went to a radio show and said that she was mainly at the USC because of her parents' wishes.

"My parents really wanted me to go because they did not both go to university," she said. "I'm so happy that they send me away. It seems so terrible. They did not do it! … I like that. It's also cool to create content from a whole other aspect, such as in school. "

Some of the current criticisms relate to the fact that Giannulli did not even benefit from his place at USC, but rather from his influential career. An Instagram commentator lamented that "poor children struggling to go to schools like USC to change their future, lose it to someone who only pays to attend the holidays." Another wrote : "The $ 500,000 your employees paid for you and your sister entering USC could have provided 15 full scholarships for low-income students in a public school. Your lack of depth and flippancy are an insult to hard-working and law-abiding children. Get a degree in kardashian studies?

It should be noted that being a social media star is a real profession. This may seem like easy and foolish work, but it takes time, effort and a certain degree of authenticity to become an effective influencer. And to his credit, Giannulli seems to be dedicated to the job. She has clearly spent a lot of time on her YouTube channel and has posted all the required posts on Instagram to meet her obligations to her partners while maintaining her audience's commitment. As Giannulli said in her videos, the angry responses she frequently encounters on the Internet are undoubtedly amplified because she is a celebrity.

Nevertheless, his cavalier attitude toward the school does not really help him in the eyes of critics. According to the Department of Justice, her parents paid bribes so that "their two daughters designated as recruits in the USC crew – even if they did not attend." to the crew – thus facilitating their admission to the USC.

According to court documents, his father allegedly took an "action photo" of Giannulli on an indoor rower, which he then used as a profile picture to become a member of the LA Marina Club. . This paper has been submitted to William Rick Singer, the presumed mastermind of the program, who is leading the academic advisory activity at his center, Edge College & Career Network. The photo and membership at the LA Marina Club were compiled by Singer, who pleaded for Olivia Jade to present her candidacy to the USC as an athlete in November 2017, while She was not part of the team.

Giannulli now faces reactions from angry fans

It is not clear whether Giannulli knew that she had been accepted into USC in allegedly fraudulent circumstances.

But part of its popularity on social media is – or was – related to its perceived relativity. At the time, a fan commented on her video about her university style at the time: "I find it so cool that she's in college as a normal teenager living with a roommate and not behaving as if she were too good. Olivia has always been so humble and that's why I love her so much. (The comments section of Giannulli's YouTube account has been closed). In a radio interview, she said, "It's the coolest thing to find MS girls, like," I apply to college now, what did you do? ""

Any attention to Giannulli's YouTube videos will probably bring him some money from the ads. But fans now take it to Giannulli, angry that she took advantage of her parents' crimes. The comments section of the Olivia Jade x Sephora Bronze & Illuminate Collection page, for example, is full of comments, some of which make fun of the young social media star.

Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images

"I like using this product on days when I want to use my privilege to delete and steal more deserving individuals. Totally resistant to sweat, lasts all the practice of my crew, which I do not really participate, "wrote one. "I thought it would give me the glow of" just-crewed "training," hours spent rowing on the lake. " It turned out that all of this was only a sham!

Others are less humorous about it.

"Olivia, your family is an eloquent example of what is breaking in this country. I hope that they will throw you the book. Shame, "reads a comment. "Palette makes you look like a fake cheater whose family dissects honest children from other schools. Olivia should not affect anything! His mother should not be a paid actress from Hallmark !, wrote another person.

Many Sephora buyers have vowed to boycott the beauty brand until it abandons its collaboration with Giannulli.

"I pity anyone who bought or bought this item and further into the pockets of this little spoiled girl. Sephora, if you had half the spirit, you would cut all ties with this family and throw those palettes into the basket of discounts. What an embarrbadment, "wrote a speaker.

"I will not buy anything from Sephora until this product is removed from the website / shelves. Maybe this girl did not know what had happened, but she seems to have the same right as they come. Please do not support someone who does not understand or care about the value of hard work and education, "reads one.

On Thursday, March 14, Sephora told me in an e-mail that "after careful consideration of recent developments, we made the decision to immediately terminate the partnership between Sephora Collection and Olivia Jade." Page their website has since been removed.

Giannulli's Instagram comment section is also flooded with angry comments, but some fans reject it, claiming that even though her parents have committed a crime, Giannulli is just a teenager and many comments are unnecessarily cruel.

"Everyone needs to be quiet," wrote a Instagrammer. "This girl is only 19 years old and, although she is legally an adult, she is still only a child. Remember, you are 19 years old and you may not have wanted to go to university because you just came out of school. Moreover, how does everyone know that this girl knows what her parents did for her?

"Duuuudeeee every picture people go on it. I feel so bad that it's actually intimidating, "wrote another sympathizer. "I hope she's strong enough to cope with it."

Regarding USC, the college said in a statement that it was reviewing applications from students whose parents were involved in the scandal and that it would "make informed and appropriate decisions once these examinations are over."

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