The fascination with following sorority hopefuls at the University of Alabama has evolved into an entertainment empire. (Photo illustration: Quinn Lemmers for Yahoo News; photo: Brynn Anderson/AP)A woman with fresh blond highlights, dazzlingly white teeth and an impossibly perfect tan shows off her preppy butter-yellow and light-blue outfit in her dorm room, addressing TikTok in a singsongy voice as her wrists full of bracelets jangle around. She's Izzy Darnell, the Cooper Flagg of RushTok - a top prospect in an increasingly commercialized process."Hey, girlfriends! So, today is day four of Alabama Rush ... and I would like to just show you guys my outfit for the day!" She takes a step back, breaking character and dropping into her natural register. "I'm so sorry. Someone hit me for that."RushTok is a corner of the internet that reemerges every year in August as thousands of young women attend several days of themed events as part of the sorority recruitment process, logging their outfits and outcomes on TikTok for all to see. It took off at the University of Alabama in 2021 and has now expanded to include current sorority members hoping to recruit new students for their sisterhood at schools across the country.
Darnell is an influencer whose career began in high school, sharing videos of classic rites of passage like prom and football games. Now an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Alabama, she has 1.1 million followers on the social media platform alone. She's also a bit of a RushTok nepo baby, elevating her status among recruiters as a potential return-on-investment.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe same year RushTok took off, the NCAA adopted an interim policy allowing athletes to monetize their publicity rights, starting a wave of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals and turning young talent into small businesses. Jake from Boston, an online personality known as the "Gossip Girl of Boston sports," says the same business opportunity should be extended to the potential new members (PNMs) of sororities.
The secretive rush process, which pushes young women to compete with their classmates to appear wonderfully interesting and cheerful through sweltering temperatures and brutally long days for a chance to join a sisterhood, has been described as "psychological warfare" and "the Hunger Games for college girls." Many of its participants are discouraged from speaking with the media about their experiences directly.
Thanks to social media, it's an online reality show now in its fifth season. Since then, RushTok has expanded far beyond Alabama, driven billions of views, launched dozens of influencer careers and created an advertising boom for brands and universities. It inspired at least one documentary, a TV series, a podcast and a book.
Izzy's sister, Kylan Darnell, was one of the first and most successful potential new members to attain massive social media stardom by sharing what she wore and experienced during the University of Alabama's recruitment process. Though Izzy's desire ahead of rush was to create an identity separate from her sister, things didn't go according to plan. Kylan made headlines when she opted out of rush to protect her mental health. Izzy inadvertently followed in Kylan's footsteps when she withdrew from the process before matching with a sorority on the final day.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementRush may have introduced the world to the Darnell sisters, but they have a bright future online regardless of what Greek letters they wear or don't. Other budding content creators are hoping for the same outcome when they graduate, but the strategizing about how they might be able to create a monetizable brand for themselves starts long before they set foot on campus.'Start-ups moving into a talent incubator'Women might be joining Greek life to make connections for their futures, but they also see influencing as a valid career option. They shouldn't just be accepting brand deals - they should be thinking about them all the time.
Jake, like many other RushTok enthusiasts, likens the yearly trend to a reality TV show that desperately needs to be monetized."We need to shift the perception of these being 18-year-olds who are new and fresh and young, versus these being the equivalent of start-ups moving into a talent incubator," he tells Yahoo.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementJake commentates on rush content on TikTok as if it's a sport and he's a radio host. Sports and rush go hand in hand - Alabama was the original epicenter of RushTok because its football program has been dominant for 20 years. That's the major marketing vehicle for any big school - Alabama's regular Saturday games show onlookers how cool it is to be in attendance, and sorority influencers offer the same experience on social media for Friday nights out and Sunday mornings. That's why Izzy is compared to Flagg; she was the face of the sport, so to speak."She might not b