Who Is Harlow Brooks? New Details About Olivia Jade's Classmate Who's Spilling The Tea On Her Sham USC Admission
She didn't hold back about her former classmate.
instagram As the college admissions bribery scandal continues to unfold, we’re learning new things every day about just how deep the scheme went. Called “Operation Varsity Blues,” the investigation found that between 2011 and 2018, parents paid more than $25 million to William Rick Singer in an effort to get their children into top universities, bribing college officials, faking test scores, and using other forms of fraud.
So far, 50 people have been charged, including Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, allegedly paid upwards of $500,000 in bribes to get her two daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella, into the University of Southern California. At the time she was charged, Olivia Jade was vacationing on a yacht owned by Rick Caruso, a billionaire and head of the USC Board of Trustees.
Olivia received backlash after posting a video to YouTube, saying she didn’t care about school and was only attending college to party. “I don’t know how much of school I’m gonna attend... But I’m gonna go in and talk to my deans and everyone, and hope that I can try and balance it all. But I do want the experience of like game days, partying... I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know,” she said.
And according to one of her former classmates, Harlow Brooks, Olivia’s privileged and spoiled attitude isn’t that shocking. But who is Harlow Brooks?
The lifestyle and beauty YouTube star spoke out shortly after the news broke that Loughlin and Giannulli paid half a million dollars to make it appear like Olivia was on the rowing team and could win an athletic scholarship. Brooks attended high school with Olivia and Isabella.
In the video, she said, “When this whole cheating scandal came out, I’m not going to say I was surprised because we are in that world,” and added that she wanted to “share a little bit of my tea.” But in a second video, she claimed she only attended high school with Olivia and her sister for a week, eventually leaving because it “wasn’t a good fit.”
Brooks is now a senior in high school and said she moved to LA during her junior year to attend the same private school as the Giannulli sisters.
“I remember when I was touring the school I saw a picture of Olivia Jade’s sister actually on the wall with the seniors and it was like, ‘Congratulations Bella for getting into USC!’ And I was like, ‘Wow... USC is super hard to get into.’ Then I remember hearing later 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, but both of them,” she recalled.
Brooks also questioned how Olivia could focus on school and run a YouTube channel at the same time.
“I would have to get up at 6 AM every morning and I would leave school at 4 PM, and then I would have six hours of homework. It made me think, ‘How is she doing this? How does she travel for YouTube? How does she have time to make YouTube videos? An arrangement with the school or something?’ It just didn’t make sense to me. These schools, your life is literally, 100 percent school,” she said.
In a video from 2018, Olivia laughed about how she was “never at school.” In the video, she documented her last day of high school. “I’m, like, excited to go... do the school prank. But I’m also literally never at school that I think my class doesn’t even — and maybe they forget I go there!” She then laughed and said, “I’m just kidding!”
Olivia has since apologized for the remarks she made about only wanting to attend college to party: “I said something super ignorant and stupid, basically. And it totally came across that I’m ungrateful for college; I’m going to a really nice school. And it just kind of made it seem like I don’t care, I just want to brush it off. I’m just gonna be successful at YouTube and not have to worry about school. I’m really disappointed in myself.”
Well, it looks like Brooks was onto something when she wondered how Olivia could juggle school, YouTube, and still make it into USC. But it just further proves that privilege and money can get you anything.
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.