Lori Loughlin’s daughter might be one of YouTube’s fastest rising stars, but breaking into the world of vlogging once took a serious toll on her personal life.
Olivia Jade, 17, revealed in a new video on Thursday how she lost ‘a lot of friends’ when her channel, on which she now has 998,000 subscribers, started gaining attention.
The backlash was such that the teenager became persuaded no one wanted to be her friends and cried herself to sleep for months on end while asking her mother why nobody liked her.
Opening up: Lori Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade, 17, revealed in a new video on Thursday how she lost ‘a lot of friends’ when her channel started gaining attention
Tough: The teenager got emotional as she recounted this hard time in her life and had to wipe her eyes (pictured) before continuing
Before Olivia started her YouTube channel three years ago, she had a ‘really close’ group of friends, which she believed was indestructible.
‘I thought nothing could ever change, nothing could ever happen, they were going to stick by my side forever,’ she said. ‘And the second I started my channel and it started to get out there and whatnot, those friends really left. They just didn’t want to be my friends anymore.’
The experience, she said, left her confused and wondering why people didn’t ‘like’ her even though she wanted to fit in.
Olivia, the daughter of Loughlin, who played Becky on Full House, and of fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, struggled to make decisions about her videos, while other teenagers started bullying her on social occasions.
Parents: Olivia is the daughter of Loughlin (pictured with her), who played Becky on Full House, and of fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli
Happy: Before Olivia (pictured in recent Instagram shots) started her YouTube channel three years ago, she had a ‘really close’ group of friends, which she believed was indestructible
‘There were times when I put all my videos on private, when boys and girls at parties would blast my videos in front of me,’ she recounted. ‘And I was so embarrassed. I was like, “Could life get worse right now?” ‘
A few months after creating her YouTube channel, Olivia started gaining followers, and the backlash continued.
‘When I started to gain my followers, I started to lose my friends,’ she said. ‘Which, coincidence? Not really.’
She couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason for those changes, and wondered in her video if they stemmed from jealousy or if her friends thought that she had changed.
That is when Olivia got close to her current boyfriend, Tyler Greenwald, and was relieved to feel loved and to witness someone else being proud of her.
The teenager got emotional as she recounted this hard time in her life and had to wipe her eyes before continuing.
‘It’s hard when you feel like no one wants to be your friend,’ she said. ‘I get it and I feel like you guys only see one image of me, which is like, “Oh, she has this perfect life, she’s grown up in a celebrity household and she can order stuff online whenever and she doesn’t have any issues.” And I know how blessed I am but I also don’t want people to think I’m some fake human.’
Duo: Through her tough times, Olivia got close to her current boyfriend, Tyler Greenwald (pictured with her) and found comfort in their relationship
Together: The teen explained she was relieved to feel loved and to witness someone else being proud of her when she and Tyler (pictured with her) got closer
Painful: Olivia (pictured as a child with her mother) recounted crying herself to sleep for months on end while asking Loughlin why no one liked her
Olivia candidly opened up about how feeling abandoned by her friends affected her.
‘I’m not going to say I was depressed because that would be self-diagnosing myself basically,’ she said.
‘But I was so sad felt like there was this huge hole in my heart at that time when I had no friends and all I had was a guy that appreciated me, but that wasn’t good enough for me because I wanted my best friends back.’
She encouraged her followers to follow their passions despite what anyone else might say, making it clear that she doesn’t regret continuing to make videos despite the backlash.
‘How did I feel like I genuinely had no purpose?’ she wondered. ‘How did I lie in bed at night, literally every night for probably two and a half years straight, crying myself to sleep, asking my mom why no one liked me?
Olivia also urged her viewers to be supportive of others as they follow their own path.
‘Do you and be you and be you for you and not for anyone else,’ she said, adding later: ‘If you’re going through that or if you feel like one of your friends is going through that, be there for them, and be kind and be a good person.’