The Audacity of Olivia Jade
By: Mia Hossain
Tags: Scandal, College, California, Cheating, Privilege

When privilege is your only personality trait

Olivia Jade (Image source: Instagram @olivajade)

Olivia Jade has become a household name since the college admission scandal erupted and exposed the rich and famous guilty of cheating their children into elite colleges. Olivia Jade’s parents, Actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, paid $500,000 in bribes to get their daughters into USC and listed as members of the university crew team. While others have also been indicted for participating in bribes, Olivia Jade’s case is the most discussed and perhaps the most infuriating.

Olivia Jade is an influencer and YouTuber who built a name for herself via her family’s fame and wealth. Often seen partying with celebrities and constantly posting manicured and professional selfies and shots to social media, Jade is a typical California elite. She is also entitled, shameless, and remorseless.

Following the the breaking of the scandal, Jade turned off comments on her Instagram posts, stopped uploading YouTube videos, and disappeared from the limelight while her parents were enveloped in legal and media drama.

On July 29th, Jade returned to Instagram with a birthday post for her mother, captioning the snap “one day late. happy birthday. i love you so much. (heart emoji)”

Following this, Jade returned to YouTube on December 1st, posting a video in which she explained why she couldn’t return to posting her usual vlogs and makeup tutorials. “Obviously I’ve been gone for a really long time, and as much as I wish I could talk about all of this — it’s really hard for me to say this, because I know that it’s something that needs to be addressed — it’s just, unfortunately…the reason for that is because I’m legally not allowed to speak on anything going on right now. A part of me is like, Should I come back to YouTube right now? It’s been so long and I actually really, really miss it. I genuinely miss filming and I feel like a huge part of me is just not the same because this is something that I’m really passionate about and something I really like to do.”

After this video, Jade slowly began posting more and more on Instagram, her usual pre-scandal shots of selfies, outfits, and recently, a video of her appearance on Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith. In the video, Jade seemed to try to put all of the blame for the scandal on her parents, stating she hopes her mom can learn from this and move forward. Rather than acknowledging her mistakes, Jade made a case on why she should not be “shamed” and “punished” and deserves a second chance. “”I’m 21, I feel like I deserve a second chance to redeem myself, to show I’ve grown.”

While second chances are important, they need to be earned. Olivia Jade has not earned it. Rather, she has been on the defense since this scandal broke and has tried to play a victim rather than a culprit.

Jade tried to paint herself as an innocent child unaware of her parents actions. Yet, she had no problem posing for photos on rowing machines that were used to make her fraudulent portfolio as a college crew member. In fact, she had never competed in crew in her entire life.

Furthermore, Jade has been vocal about her disdain for school from the beginning. In a now deleted video, Jade stated “”I don’t know how much of school I’m going to attend but I’m going to go in and talk to my deans and everyone and hope I can try and balance it all. But I do want the experience of game day and partying, I don’t really care about school. As you guys all know.“ Jade all but admitted that the only reason she was going to USC was to party and take photos.

This is infuriating not only because of it’s privilege and callousness, but the harm she caused to potential students who actually care about school. USC is a dream school for many young people who dream about earning a USC education and acquiring dream careers that require a degree. Jade took a spot at USC from a deserving young person, shamelessly claiming the spot to party rather than study.

In addition, she has not once acknowledge her privilege or wrongdoing directly. She has made statements saying she recognizes why people are upset and that what she did is wrong, but never once did she acknowledge her own privilege and the consequences of her actions on people who aren’t in her immediate family. Instead, Jade has already begun to try to revive her career as an influencer.

Olivia Jade became the face of privilege and entitlement overnight. Does she deserve this, or does she deserve a second chance? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.