Most people might recognize Olandria Carthen from her Love Island days. The contestant was on Season 7 of ‘Love Island USA’ and became a beloved star of the franchise for her style (her bikinis were to die for!), storyline, and being open about representing dark-skinned women on television. Olandria redefined what reality TV stardom could look like with her Southern charisma, keep it a buck attitude, and the support from her Ola Dolls.
Before the Villa
Before her days of soaking up the sun in Fiji, Carthen was a lifestyle influencer. She had an apartment series updating fans on her decorating her first post-grad apartment. Her content also included milestones like documenting her move from Decatur, Alabama, to Houston, Texas, as she had a new job opportunity at Otis Elevator Co working in sales while focusing on graduating from Tuskegee University. The Atlanta native graduated from Tuskegee University as a first-generation student in 2022, earning a degree in Supply Chain Management.
After moving to Houston for her new job, she wasn’t having much luck in her romantic life. Love Island USA reached out to Carthen three times before she accepted their offer. The rest is history.
Olandria After Love Island
Olandria by Jacob Webster. https://t.co/YzGtzeTdLe
— Fashion CloneIt (@fashioncloneit) September 20, 2025
Since her time on ‘Love Island’ has concluded, Carthen has not slowed down one bit. She has been adding one thing after another to her resume: model, creator, and most recently musician! Nowadays she still creates content, but it’s more focused on fashion, beauty, and travel. Right after her time on reality TV, she focused on speaking engagements, education, and broadening her platform rather than being a full-time content creator. In terms of Carthen’s views on education, she told Cosmopolitan, “In our society, where you could be a streamer or a content creator and make millions of dollars, no one wants to go to school anymore. I’m still young, I’m hot, and I’ve got influence, so I’m going to these colleges, having sold-out talking sessions for students. I want to have different avenues that I can tap into. I want to do it all.”
Speaking of education, one of Carthen’s speaking engagements was at Harvard Business School, and she won an award at their Undergraduate Women in Business Annual Gala.
The Atlanta native was quickly dubbed “Bama Barbie,” aka the Barbie doll hailing from Atlanta. Carthen explains her attachment to the name to Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam, saying, “For me, Barbie has always represented the possibility of achieving anything—she can be anything. Combined with ‘Bama,’ it became a reminder of where I came from, and of the little girl who dared to dream big.”
Olandria brings Barbie energy in blue, giving a glimpse inside the Coachella Barbie pop-up in a new Instagram story. https://t.co/NUiAcLkzRk
— OlandriaCrave (@CarthenCrave) April 10, 2026
Everything changed for the Tuskegee graduate when she appeared at the CFDA Fashion Awards. Sure, she was building relationships with brands and attending public events before to position herself in the industry. However, this was the moment when the industry took her seriously for her fashion sense. However, if you ask Carthen, it was the VMAs that broke her into the fashion world. “That’s when I knew it could be a turning point in my career because I started to be a part of a different conversation,” she told Cosmopolitan.
https://x.com/PopSpectator/status/1985505176728273237
As a model, Carthen has been on Sports Illustrated, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and many more front pages of major magazines. She walked in New York Fashion Week, styled by The Reismans. She has been spotted at events like the Golden Globes, which makes sense as she has said she wants to become an actress one day. Besides her modeling, she has worked with brands like NYX Cosmetics, Aveeno, and Sergio Hudson.
Notable Collabs
PaintedbyEsther x Olandria – The MAC Skinfinish Colourstruck Blush collection, driven by a celebrity favorite makeup artist, Ngozi Esther Edeme, went viral for its vibrant pigment and blush blindness technique on deeper skin tones. It was a high-profile MAC Cosmetics campaign. In MAC’s publication, MACzine, Esther calls Carthen her muse. The campaign focused on “transition” or gradient blush, which means using multiple contrasting shades instead of just one to create an airbrushed, dimensional blush effect. Olandria is no stranger when it comes to blush – it’s become her signature. “I love blush — shout out to Esther — I truly feel like it brings out my features, and I really want a lotta women with deep, dark skin tones to not be scared to put blush on. It’s beautiful, and it highlights our beauty that we already have within,” Olandria said.
Olandria for Poppi via drinkpoppi
#OlandriaxPoppi https://t.co/BLyhGWd5qS
— Olandria Info| Fan Account🎀 (@olandriainfo) June 1, 2026
Poppi – No one has ever made wanting a prebiotic soda look so good. She stars in the brand’s core summer advertisements, lounging on the beach beside the pool in a metallic swimsuit. The Bama Barbie was the face of Poppi’s summer campaign promoting its new Punch Pop flavor in a “Love Island” themed can. The limited edition flavor was so popular that it got dubbed “Poppilandria.”
The entire Olandria x Brandon Blackwood collaboration has sold out in under 15 minutes! https://t.co/5xihAkZ5A2
— Olandria Base (@olandriabase_) May 27, 2026
Olandria x Brandon Blackwood collection – The handbags in colors pastel pink and black were chic and sleek. They were so popular that fans crashed the site on release day and the handbags sold out within 10 minutes. “Brandon’s bags have been part of my entire journey starting with Love Island,” Olandria tells ELLE. “For one, I love supporting Black designers as is. And I’m all about supporting those who supported me when no one wanted to,” Carthen told ELLE. Some of Love Island’s stars’ famous friends got their hands on the bag too, including actress Gabrielle Union.
Future Plans
If you thought the Bama Barbie was slowing down, you would have another thing coming! In the future, the entrepreneur wants to be an executive producer. When talking to Cosmopolitan, she says she would return to reality TV again, but this time, she would want a part behind the scenes: “In the reality space, Black women aren’t always put in the best light. I want to have control over my narrative because people are already trying to put me in a box or make me out to be the character that they wanted me to be.”
Besides reality TV, Carthen hopes to build on her household name and on what she has already done. In her words, “I want to own multiple businesses and properties and have my own scholarship fund.” It’s clear that the Bama Barbie’s future is only going up from here.
Have you heard of Olandria before? Let us know in the comments!
