YouTube influencer Olivia Jade hasn’t posted a video since March 2019, which is when her parents Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli were named in the College Admissions Scandal.
Oliva Jade Giannulli, 20, is back in business — sort of. After a months-long hiatus from her popular YouTube account, the influencer made her return with a brand new video on Sunday, Dec. 1. “It’s Olivia Jade. Welcome back to my YouTube Channel,” she began the two minute video — titled “hi again” — which marked her first since parents Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli were indicted for their roles in the university admissions scandal. Olivia informed her 1.9 million subscribers that she’s “legally not allowed to speak on anything” pertaining to her family’s legal drama “as much as I wish I could talk about all of this…there’s no point in me just talking for 10 minutes to the camera about how I wish I could say something when I really can’t, so I’m gonna leave it at that.”
Prior to the news breaking last spring, Olivia was enrolled full-time at the prestigious University of Southern California in addition to managing her successful career as a social media influencer. The brunette regularly posted a slew of beauty and fashion related videos to her popular channel, including makeup tutorials, her dorm room makeover and what she received for Christmas. Building on the success of her channel, she regularly did sponsored posts with brands and even collaborated with Sephora on her very own eye shadow palette. She added that she had been debating returning to the platform for several months and “missed” her followers and the YouTube community. “Though I’m terrified to make this video and to come back, I know that I also want to start taking smaller steps in the right direction,” she continued, thanking her followers for their patience if they had “struck around for nine months just waiting.”
Olivia kept her look low-key for the video, which has already been viewed by 400,000 people, opting to go make-up free as she wore a pink leopard print t-shirt. “This is the best I can do and I want to move on with my life,” Olivia continued, sitting on a bedroom floor. “It’s so hard because I’m not trying to make this about me or how I’ve been because that’s not the point of this.” She concluded the short update with a message that read “Thank you for watching. I’ll see you soon,” and teasing that she is “really excited to start filming again and to start uploading.” It’s unclear if she will continue to create similar content to what she produced prior to the scandal, or shift her editorial focus.
Lori and Mossimo were shockingly indicted in the scandal on Mar. 12, after details surfaced that they allegedly paid $500,000 to have Olivia and her sister Isabella Rose, 21, falsely designated as crew recruits for USC. Though neither ever participated in the sport, they were apparently photoshopped into images that showed otherwise. Called Operation Varsity Blues, the investigation also named numerous others involved in similar schemes — including Felicity Huffman, who just completed her two-week prison sentence for the same scandal — and Mossimo and Lori aren’t out of the woods just yet. The U.S. Department of Justice announced that the pair “conspired to commit federal program bribery by bribing employees of the University of Southern California to facilitate their children’s admission” on Oct. 22, confirming this is yet another charge. Lori and Mossimo have already plead not guilty to the existing charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and face up to 40 years in prison. Olivia and her sister Isabella have not been charged in the scandal, however, they are no longer enrolled at USC.