A former high school classmate of Olivia Jade Giannulli said she knew the Instagram-famous beauty vlogger’s acceptance to the University of Southern California was too good to be true.
Harlow Brooks said she was dubious when she learned that both Olivia Jade and her older sister, Isabella Rose, got into the competitive university.
“I remember hearing that Olivia had also gotten into USC and I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s kind of crazy because USC is very extremely hard to get into.’ So not only one sister — both of them,” Brooks, who is now a high school senior, said in a video that’s garnered more than 2.9 million views.
Brooks — who is also a YouTube sensation — went to an unidentified “super-elite,” expensive private school with both Giannulli sisters in Los Angeles. Though she no longer attends the school, Brooks recalled how “insane” the academic expectations were.
“The work is literally harder than college. It is insane what these students go through to go to these schools because their parents think that they need to. Because they want them to go to Yale and Harvard and USC,” Brooks said.
She added that she was baffled by how Olivia Jade could juggle her gig as a social media influencer on top of hours of schoolwork.
“It made me think, ‘How is she doing this?’ … I was like, ‘How does she travel for YouTube? How does she have time to make YouTube videos? An arrangement with the school or something?'” said Brooks. “It just kind of didn’t make sense to me.”
Olivia Jade’s parents — “Full House” star Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli — were among 50 ensnared in the sweeping college cheating scandal. They’re accused of paying $500,000 to get both their daughters into USC as competitive rowing recruits — even though neither was an athlete.
Both girls, who’ve come under intense scrutiny amid the charges, decided to drop out of USC.
In one of her YouTube videos, Olivia Jade admitted she didn’t “really care about school” but wanted the experience of “partying.”