The Golden Globes were last night, and among the celebrities and dignitaries in attendance was former Love Island star-turned-successful influencer Olandria Carthen. Pictures of her outfit on the red carpet made the rounds, and a fervent but reductive conversation began about why she was at the annual event.
Carthen has been on a remarkable run since leaving Love Island and participating in the Season 7 reunion show in August. She's maintained a level of relevance even after the show stopped being discussed in the cultural zeitgeist. She has achieved many opportunities and awards and has appeared at several very distinguished events.
Yet, her detractors don't understand why she's been invited to these specific events. The conversation around her access to these opportunities is often attributed solely to her being “attractive.”
“Why is she there? She's just the girl from the last season of Love Island!”
“She's just successful because she's pretty!”
While many people are coming to Carthen’s defense, as she's built a significant fan base, some are playing into the narrative that she's just there because she's pretty. A lot of people are saying, “Well, she can just be there because she's pretty; we've seen these other non-Black celebrities and influencers do it.”
What I believe is that people, while well-intentioned, often play into dangerous narratives and give them life to defeat an argument point when they're not true. Olandria is not just famous because she's pretty, whether it's said in support of her ascension or as a pejorative by hateful people empowered by the venomous nature of social media. Olandria's rise is due to clear, meticulous planning, a leaning into advocacy, and an understanding that you don't have to jump at every opportunity to maintain relevance.
Success based on intention
She and her team are very intentional. She's not hopping at every opportunity. I'm not saying anything different than anybody else who has been a fan of Carthen or who has been supporting her. She's not hopping at every campaign. She's not hopping on every influencer trend. She's being very intentional about the opportunities she's a part of and the places she goes.
The reason why it seems like she's everywhere is that the opportunities she selects put her in front of a lot of people who might not have ever seen Love Island, or might not even know what Love Island is. These are the places you are at; these are the places you're watching. These are what's coming on your social media feed. So, she and her team are picking a lot of intentional opportunities so that you see her and wonder, “Well, how is she here? Why is she here?” It's because she and her team are being very strategic.
She’s also leaned into HBCU life and culture, being an alumna of Tuskegee University. She leaned into advocacy for education, making her a hero to an audience of college students and alumni who are also viewers, consumers, and social media users. A lot of people don't know this, but in the HBCU community, there is a culture across different niches around our nation. There are cultures and subcultures, and within those cultures, there are different economies, especially creator economies.
One of the biggest niches and subcultures is HBCU life. When you are a successful and gainful HBCU alumna, you get a level of acclaim and opportunity that you might not get in other niches. In only six months, Carthen has found herself amongst the most notable celebrity alumni in Black college life and is receiving opportunities in the HBCU space specifically because of it.
Among these notable HBCU alumni who are booked for events and panels and often honored are the expected luminaries: Terrence J, Lance Gross, Megan Thee Stallion, Anthony Anderson, Taraji P. Henson, and DJ Envy of The Breakfast Club. Each and every one of these names has had a long career and has earned their acclaim, wealth, resources, and massive brands. Olandria made her way onto this same list in only half a year.
And her leaning into higher education advocacy, specifically HBCU advocacy, places her in a unique position, given the direction of the country and public policy. That made her stand out, even amongst other reality TV stars who boast higher education. Even if Olandria were to fall out of the gaze of mainstream culture, she still would have support and opportunities in the HBCU space. That foundation is pivotal, and her nurturing of it eclipses the argument that she's just successful because she's attractive.
‘Pretty' as a pejorative
What's so interesting is that Olandria was a contestant on the past season of Love Island. Love Island is a show that is meant to feature the most attractive people you can find. There are a bunch of attractive people in this world and in this nation, but these few people—like the original cast members and the bombshells, the “Casa Boys” and the “Casa Girls”—are the most attractive people they could find who were also deemed to be good on TV. There were a lot of attractive women on Love Island throughout Season 7. Olandria was not the only one. So, if her success is predicated on her beauty, why does it seem as if she's the most prominent alumna of this past season through these past six months?
This isn't to knock any of the women featured on the show. It's to dismantle the use of “pretty” and “attractive” as insults meant to diminish Carthen's success. It allows us to frame it in a different lens. The argument itself is rooted in a level of misogyny. It's also an adherence to the notion that there is one singular path to fame and acclaim. The detractors believe that Carthen hasn't gone through the “process” to achieve the “reward” of the platform and opportunity bestowed upon her.
That's the mindset and narrative we're actually fighting against. Once we realize that, we construct the right counterargument that rejects Olandria being “pretty” or “attractive” as the sole basis of her success thus far.
