I wish I had a mug of like steaming hot tea to be more dramatic but I think a Coke Zero is just gonna have to do Hey everybody I’m Gracie and today I am sitting down to spill all the tea that I have for you on the Bama Rush documentary coming out on HBO Max on May 23rd you’re either like oh my gosh I can’t believe that you’re in it or
You’re like who the heck even are you so if you don’t know who I am let me just quickly introduce myself hi I’m Gracie O’Connor and I was a pie five at the University of Alabama for all four years I got my start on social media and with
Everything that I’m doing by posting Alabama Rush Vlogs on YouTube most my say and consider me as the OG Bama Rush girl and I feel so honored to be called that and that is why I am in the hashtag Bama Rush documentary coming out I will
Say right off the bat I have not seen the full documentary yet I think that I’m going to be getting a little bit of a preview before all of y’all get to see it but all I can say right now is based off what I know that happened while I
Was filming with them and based on the trailer so although I know who I am as a person and what I said vaguely at least to the camera crew you never know how something is going to be edited when it’s not in your hands so I’m anticipating this documentary as well
But without further Ado let’s spill some tea on what is going to go down with this Alabama Rush dog like I said I was an active member of my sorority for all four years so I know the ins and outs of being a sorority girl at the University
Of Alabama I also got my start on social media by posting Alabama Rush Vlogs like I said I just had so much fun documenting and filming my life and had no idea that it could turn into my full-time job that being said I started freshman year I also vlogged recruitment
Sophomore year junior year virtually and then Senior Year I did not participate in recruitment because I was out of the country working on some stuff during fall break in 2021 I got a couple of phone voicemails and some emails from people saying that there was going to be
An Alabama Rush documentary I thought that these were prank calls I didn’t think this was real I had no clue what was going on but I did agree to hop on the phone with somebody just to see see what they had to say I also have a
Management company so I talked to them I was like can you help me confirm if this is legit or not I want to know more of what they’re going to be doing with this coming from somebody who’s super passionate about sorority Recruitment and I loved my four-year experience in
My sorority I really wanted to make sure that this was something that I wanted to be in lo and behold a couple of weeks later I met with them in person in Tuscaloosa at a coffee shop we sat down we had a conversation because I said I
Want to talk this over before I sign any sort of paperwork or agree to anything my goal was not to expose Alabama sororities my personality my brand is my livelihood I did not want to destroy my career by being in something super crazy and also at the time I still was an
Active member in our sorority and when you are an active member in a sorority I’m not sure if it’s every sorority but at least Pie Five we were not allowed to talk to the media if it was something that was going to be coming out you refer them back to your chapter
President so not only that but I did not want to get in trouble with my own sorority so I talked with Rachel for like an hour and a half and I was like I freaking love her and would trust her with my life then I questioned is that
Something she wanted me to believe so that I would film or do I think that that’s the truth and then we talked on the phone two more times and I had just decided no no that’s who she is as a person I trust her let’s do this I want
To tell my story I’ve been telling stories and sharing my life on social media for almost five years now and I can tell you this felt like I was sitting down to film a sit-down YouTube video like now I will say knowing what I look like and the privileged position
That I’m in I did tell Rachel hey I have a couple of topics I would like to not cover I’m not educated they have not happened to me that is not my position to cover so let’s not talk about some of these things that I have here on a list
I’m not necessarily going to share all of those because I don’t even talk about them in the dock anyway and I’m sure they found somebody to accurately answer those questions for them but I knew who I was and what I felt comfortable and knowledgeable talking about on camera
Well I was so nervous I said what do I even wear I was wearing a merch sweatshirt and running shorts the first time they ever came into my apartment this was also still fall of 2021 when kovid was really still a thing so we took coven test sitting outside of my
Apartment to make sure that I didn’t have kovitz that the whole film crew could come in I definitely have some behind the scenes photos and videos because I just thought wow this is a really cool experience it’s just something I want to say man I did that
And I’m a part of that in total I filmed four different times with this film crew three times we’re in Tuscaloosa two were interviews one was like kind of following me around Tuscaloosa and then and what most people know that happened but didn’t know what it was for I was
Flown out to LA for a couple of days this past fall in 2022 to go film a couple of extra things in the studio I will say and I know this that trailer is more dramatic than the actual documentary this documentary is a long-form documentary but you know they
Want to do the trailers that you watch it but let me tell you I’m going to be watching it we’re all going to be watching it because I’m sure there’s some crazy stuff that I don’t even know about that’s in that dock but when it comes to me here’s what I did they
Approached me because I was the OG Bama Rush girl this is what they explained to me when they said hey we want to meet you you are the OG Bama Rush girl we love your content we love your personality will you be in this documentary I said okay well what do you
Want me to talk about out the more I thought about it the more I thought yeah absolutely I turned my sorority experience into my full-time job through the power of social media if I didn’t go to Alabama and if I didn’t rush a sorority at Alabama I would not have the
Job that I have right now which is literally my favorite thing in the entire world by the way so for me it was a really cool place to talk about my experience from Sorority Girl to full-time job I will say that kind of stuff is boring it’s not tea that I
Really spilled it was more of just my story and how I came into being a sorority girl having nobody else in my family ever been in a sorority of course I was asked questions things regarding the machine I was asked a bunch of different things but let me just say I
Commented on everything that I felt comfortable and knowledgeable commenting on they also asked me to explain the tier system which I believe will be featured in the dock again I’m not sure how I’m featured in the doc about that or how it’s edited or pieced together but there is a invisible tier system
That everybody thinks that they have figured out with old row and new row and what fraternity boys think about you and what alumni think about you here’s my my piece of advice and if this is not in the dock I want you to take this away
Okay let this be the takeaway from me you better think that the sorority that you’re in is the number one sorority on campus I don’t care where you stand in rankings or what anybody else thinks you better be joining the sorority that you say I don’t care what you say pie five
Is the number one sorority at the University of Alabama not everybody will agree with me on that but that makes you have the best experience ever of course everybody wants to think that their sorority is number one you don’t want to be like I’m in the bottom house and not
That rankings even mean one single thing especially when you are a sorority girl in these houses you’re not like walking around being like Oh man the ranking system nobody cares but there are plenty of things that even go into these rankings there’s grades there’s involvement there’s looks people just
Like to rank on different things and different houses will fall in different rankings based on different categories not every house has cookie cutter girls and you’re just really not going to get a good generalization when there’s 400 plus girls in a chapter they’re not all the same and so it’s really difficult to
Do that anyway that’s just my soapbox making sure that I edit this correctly and that you know how I feel about the ranking system but we’ll see what comes out of my mouth in that documentary for the second time that the film crew came over to my apartment we sat on my couch
And we talked about a couple more things again my purpose in this documentary and why I really agreed to do this was because I wanted to show them that you can have a positive experience a lot of people have negative experiences with sororities a lot of people have positive
Experience with sororities for me personally I think that life is what you make it and I made my sorority experience a positive one I will say this as a social media influencer whatever you want to call me I think I had a great balance of sorority life and
Work life because I know some other people are like oh come with me to this event and then while I sit in the corner and edit my videos or other things like that I felt like I was really a participant in my sorority no tea no
Shade to anybody else you can run your business the way that you want but I was an active member of my sorority I served in my sorority I was on the panhellenic council I had friends in my house I had friends in other houses I truly loved the panhellenic community at Alabama you
Guys oh my gosh a whole other thing my freshman year of roommate is also in this Doc and neither of us knew that we were in it until we met each other on a zoom call and I was like Brian what are you doing here and she’s like Gracie
What are you doing here so we’re both in the dark and that is absolutely insane that is my freshman year roommate from Perez where you shared a bathroom and we have been bonding over this entire experience the past couple of weeks so just goes to show that there are friends
All over the row this documentary has just been such a hush-hush topic on campus that you don’t think to ask hey are you in this or hey have you heard about this because people did not want to talk about it like I said when you’re
An active in a sorority or at least as a pipe to fight Alabama you are not allowed to speak on behalf of the chapter to the media but because I was assured that this documentary was coming out after I graduated from the University of Alabama I decided to
Participate you may be clicking off this video going oh my gosh so she’s not going to tell us all of her Secrets no I would never betray my Sisterhood like that and when it comes to secrets that’s like generational stuff that you keep with your Sisterhood it’s nothing crazy
It’s no hazing it’s nothing wild but it’s just something that is sacred to Sisterhood so that being said if you are going on camera to talk about things that are sacred to your Sisterhood and thousands and thousands and thousands of women across the country in Generations you probably shouldn’t have been in a
Sorority to start with that’s terrible you know that’s just my opinion on it but I took my membership in my sorority very seriously and also because I really enjoyed it I did have a good time and don’t get me wrong there are highs and lows to being in a sorority there are
Some things that I really didn’t like things that I didn’t like handled by certain members of our chapter but they are long gone and long graduated and then you look back and you go I was being dramatic or it wasn’t that serious at least in my personal experience and
My personal opinion nothing really happened in my sorority that rattled me or that I think personally like really rattled our sorority as a chapter again you can have experiences like that and that probably did happen in other houses but I can only speak from my personal
Experience I would never want to talk on somebody else’s this is just what happened in mine so here’s what I know this documentary is less than two hours long it’s gonna come out on the 23rd and it’s gonna be amazing the overarching theme is just women and how we are
Growing up in this time and going through sorority Recruitment and pressures that you feel especially at a large Greek life system like the University of Alabama I know for me it was a struggle there’s a lot of comparison in the game when it comes to
What you look like and what you act like compared to everyone else and so I’m not sure what other stories that other participants in this documentary shared I didn’t even know who was in it until really like a week and a half before the trailer came out but it’s hard and I
Know a lot of people have stories to tell and I’m sure after this documentary comes out there’s going to be a lot of other girls making videos I’m sure on Tick Tock explaining their sorority experience the ones who weren’t asked to be in this documentary or didn’t have a
Platform to share it on and I’m nervous for this doc to come out I have no idea truly what the full thing is going to look like if it’s gonna make me look like a dumb blonde or a privileged girl so I’m just gonna acknowledge that now
Although I am not a dumb blonde I just do know that I fortunately had a very positive sorority experience I did not reveal any secrets of my sorority and I just really shared what it is to be a woman in the sorority system when it does come to rankings and explaining the
System of how Rush works with all of the different rounds and basically an overarching theme of what rush is if there is a place to go through sorority recruitment to be at the number one Greek life School in the country it is the University of Alabama and I am so
Proud to have gone there all four years and to have graduated with both my bachelor’s and masters from that University so all in all it should be a great watch I’m really excited I’m anticipating it just as much as anyone else but I know who I am and what I am
And I will not have my name be slandered on social media saying that I betrayed my sister so let it be known here that I really was in this documentary as the OG Bama Rush girl and just to share a little bit of my experience of how I
Turn that sorority experience into a full-time job on social media and of course also to provide context clues and different things when it comes to rush by basically explaining what Sisterhood round is and what rankings are and what different things are basically anything you probably could find on the internet
So maybe this video wasn’t exactly spilling all the tea but it is letting you know all that I know about the documentary if you guys are interested I’ll link up here and at the end of the video my playlist for freshman year or sorority experiences different things
Like that you can check out a bunch of different things on my channel I’m honestly scared to go back and watch my recruitment video from freshman year because I feel like I would cringe so much but if I was 18 years old and heading back off to college again I
Would say without a doubt I would still do it all the same and end up in pi Beta Phi truly I do believe that that being said there’s the T there’s everything that I know about this Bama Rush documentary that’s coming up I will say
They haven’t told us a ton of stuff like I wish that I knew more I was calling I was like hey can you just like let me know if I should be scared should I be worried like please let me know because some other girls are freaking me out
Right now but at the end of the day I signed away anything that I said on camera to that documentary crew back in the fall of 2021 so we’re just gonna have to see when it comes out that was my senior year of college so I was definitely still a relevant Sorority
Girl at that point and now we’re just gonna have to wait and see what it does so May 23rd I’ll be watching with you guys on the max streaming platform and uh wish me luck I love you guys so much I hope you have a great rest of your day
And we’ll talk soon bye
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