Can Olivia Jade waltz her way back into people's good graces?
The 21-year-old beauty influencer will be part of the cast for the upcoming 30th season of Dancing With the Stars, a source close to her confirmed to E! News on Wednesday, Sept. 1, adding that the YouTuber has no dance experience. The insider also said that Dancing With the Stars is one way that she is taking her life into her own hands, learning from past mistakes and challenging herself in new areas.
Olivia has sought to redeem her public image after coming under scrutiny for her mom Lori Loughlin and dad Mossimo Giannulli's role in the 2019 college admissions scandal, for which they served time in prison.
ABC has not commented on Olivia's casting on Dancing With the Stars season 30, on which she will compete against celebrity contestants including Kenya Moore from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Olympic gymnastics champion Suni Lee and pop star JoJo Siwa.
After her parents' indictment, Olivia lost partnerships with brands, including Sephora, and she was criticized and ridiculed on social media. She stepped away from YouTube for about eight months, returning to the platform in December 2019. She currently has more than 1.8 million subscribers.
In December 2020, Olivia broke her silence about her parents' involvement in the scandal. In an interview on Jada Pinkett Smith's family talk show Red Table Talk, she dubbed herself a "poster child of white privilege" and apologized "for contributing to the social inequality."
"There is no justifying or excusing what happened because what happened was wrong. And I think every single person in my family can be like, that was messed up. That was a big mistake," Olivia said, adding, "But I think what's so important to me is like to learn from the mistake. Not to now be shamed and punished and never given a second chance. I'm 21, I feel like I deserve a second chance to redeem myself, to show I've grown."
In March, Olivia talked in a TikTok video about life after the scandal. She recalled a lesson a "very inspirational woman" taught her.
"We were talking about being publicly shamed and I was like, 'Well, my situation doesn't even compare, I'm not even going to start to compare it to yours,'" Olivia recalled. "And she looked at me and said, ‘Olivia, it doesn't matter if I'm drowning in 60 ft. of water and you're drowning in 30, we're both still drowning.'"
She continued, "I think about that quote every day because it's so true and such a bigger message to our world right now. I think we're all very quick to judge. I think we're all very quick to put people down."