Olivia Jade Giannulli wants people to know that privilege and circumstances don’t prevent anyone from the pain of feeling publicly shamed.
The daughter of Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli took to TikTok Friday, two years after her parents were accused of paying a third party to fake athletic credentials to get both her and her sister into the University of Southern California, and she shared a lesson an “inspirational woman” taught her.
"A very inspirational woman once told me ... we were talking about being in the public and being publicly shamed,” the 21-year-old explained in the clip. “I was like, 'Well, my situation doesn't even compare, I'm not even going to start to compare it to yours.'”
Without making any mention of the college admissions scandal directly, or what the other person was dealing with herself, the social media star offered up the woman’s wisdom.
"She looked at me and said, 'Olivia, it doesn't matter if I'm drowning in 60 feet of water and you're drowning in 30. We're both still drowning,'" Giannulli, who simply goes by Olivia Jade online, said the woman told her.
She believes it’s a lesson everyone could stand to learn these days.
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"I think about that quote every day because I think it's so true and it's such a bigger message to our world right now," she continued. "I think we're all very quick to judge. I think we're all very quick to put people down. I just want people to remember, like, if your feelings are hurting, if they're valid to you, they're valid, and it doesn't matter if someone's going through worse.”
Both of Giannulli’s parents received prison sentences for their roles in the admissions scheme — with her mother serving two months last year, and her father in the middle of his own five-month sentence.
While Giannulli herself didn’t face any legal consequences, she lost lucrative partnerships with brands, including Sephora, and she contended with backlash on social media.
In her TikTok clip, she added, “You're allowed to have a hard time in this world, but that doesn't take away from somebody else, and that shouldn't take away from you. We're all human beings."
Her post received nearly 2,000 responses. Many of the replies were far from supportive.
But mixed among the harsh comments were uplifting responses, with some fans saying Giannulli shouldn’t be judged for her parents' actions.
In December of last year, Giannulli spoke publicly about the scandal on Jada Pinkett smith’s “Red Table Talk.”
"What happened was wrong,” she said at the time. “I think every single person in my family can be like, 'That was messed up. That was a big mistake. But I think what's so important to me is to learn from the mistake, not to now be shamed and punished and never given a second chance.”
