Olivia Jade is learning and growing.
It's been an educational journey for Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli's family amid the fallout from their participation in the infamous college admissions scandal. As the couple continues to serve out their prison sentences, their 21-year-old daughter is trying to move forward.
After speaking out in a bombshell conversation on the Dec. 8 episode of Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk Facebook series, a source tells E! News, "Olivia is vowing to try to do and be better."
"She doesn't think throwing money at a cause is going to be a Band-Aid, and she has realized her privilege," the insider continues. "She's not rushing to make anything look better, but she's putting the time in. She's been down to Watts with her sister, and together they are organizing gifts for the kids there. She's also mentoring kids and sponsoring a few kids per year."
In her tell-all with Jada, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield Norris, the YouTube star admitted that she didn't recognize her privilege prior to her parents' arrests in March 2019. "I know that sounds so silly but in the bubble that I grew up in, I didn't know so much outside of it," Olivia said. "And a lot of kids in that bubble, their parents were donating to schools and doing stuff that advantaged them...It's not fair and it's not right. But it was happening, right? And so when this first came out, I was like, I don't really understand what's wrong with this."
So what comes next for Olivia? According to longtime crisis publicist Howard Bragman, her image is still in need of an overhaul.
"What I would do is get rid of the wardrobe, and I would maybe go off and do something," the CEO of La Brea Media tells E! News exclusively. "Join the Peace Corps or something, do something meaningful for a couple years and get the hell out of town and get away from her privileged life. I would try and do something where it's about other people and not ourselves, quit feeling sorry for herself and her family and really focus on other people."
Bragman also predicts that much of Olivia's successful return to the spotlight is dependent on her parents' course of action.
"This is a marathon, not a sprint," he explains. "It's not about doing one interview and everybody comes back. I think it's a package deal. I think she is implicitly tied to her parents, and I think a lot is going to depend on what happens when her parents get out of prison, when they do their interviews and how much contribution they make. It is all about how society decides to respond."
Back in May, Lori and Mossimo plead guilty to conspiracy charges in connection with securing the fraudulent admission of their kids Olivia, 21, and Bella Giannulli, 22, to the University of Southern California as purported athletic recruits. Over the summer, a federal judge sentenced Lori to two months in prison while Mossimo was sentenced to five months.
As for her participation in the scandal, Olivia said on Red Table Talk that she wasn't "fully aware" of what was going on as she was applying to college but acknowledged that the admissions process was "a lot."
Since the scandal broke, both Olivia and her sister Bella have left USC. "I never went back. I was too embarrassed," she shared. "I shouldn't have been there in the first place, clearly. So there was no point in me trying to go back."
Olivia also shared her hope of changing her image. "The picture that has been painted of me, I feel like that's not who I am," she said on RTT. "I'm not this bratty girl who doesn't want to change anything."