Olandria Carthen Recounts How Her Mother’s Early Sacrifices Drive Her Own Work Ethic Today — ‘We Never Went Without’ – AfroTech
Olandria Carthen has been working intentionally to build a lasting empire.
Before her fame, Carthen was already setting a new standard within her family. The Decatur, AL, native became the first to graduate from high school and college. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, she earned her bachelor’s degree in logistics, materials, and supply chain management from Tuskegee University in 2022.
It was her mother’s work ethic that was her inspiration to reach the finish line. Her mother, Felicia, gave birth to her first child at 15. She went on to have more children, and to support them, she put her own studies on hold and worked at places such as McDonald’s.
“I always admired her work ethic as we were growing up. Imagine three kids, a single parent, one paycheck … We never went without … Even with me with the college thing, having to figure out how I’m gonna get my education … I had to get creative. I started sending out letters, working for my old landlord, and cleaning out houses for extra cash to be able to pay towards my books and things like that. Seeing how my mom got creative when it came to stretching that dollar, it made me get creative when I found myself in those tough moments,” Carthen told AFROTECH™.
“Shout out to momma Felicia,” she added.
Carthen is attaching herself to another first: entrepreneurship. She worked as an associate sales specialist at Otis Elevator in Houston, TX, after graduating from college. She was inspired by the Black entrepreneurs in the city and found that many times when networking, she was the only one working a nine-to-five. This observation motivated her to own her own business one day and pushed her to meet her daily sales goal until she was better positioned for that chapter.
Carthen officially left her post at Otis Elevator in July 2025 — the same month Season 7 of “Love Island USA” came to an end — to be more intentional with her growing brand and platform that now includes more than 4 million followers across social media.
“First entrepreneur in the family. This is a first because we’re all nine-to-five people, regular town folk … which is fine, but I guess [I’m] the first person to actually step out and bet on myself and my family and show my family, ‘Hey, this could be you too, and I’m willing to help you get there,’” she said.
Carthen’s aspirations are also supported by a team that includes a business manager and a lawyer. She is also signed to the United Talent Agency, Variety reports. At the start, she intentionally kept things lean, working with just a manager and PR team for nearly six months, focused on one goal.
“If you [were] outside of the show, no one really knew who Olandria truly was. I wanted to build Olandria the brand first … I [want to] be on billboards, I [want to] be back on my TV screens, however that looks. Whether that’s a commercial, whether that’s another reality show. Whether that’s me being a part of a movie or a show,” she expressed.
Carthen also teases the launch of her own body care line, which may include items like body oils.
“Even when you guys met me on the screen, I was always shining. I don’t play about being ashy. That’s one thing I don’t play about,” she said. “Definitely in the works of trying to get that off the ground. Be on the lookout.”
As the first in her family to carve this path, Carthen is navigating her journey without a close example to follow. While she credits her parents as strong influences, she noted that she ultimately had to define her own version of a role model. That process, she added, involved reflecting on her core values and writing down what she wanted to build for herself and others. That is why education remains central to her focus. Her first event after exiting the villa was at her alma mater.
“Education has been the driving force behind [anything] and everything that I did, and I [want to] kind of pour that love back into our community and back into the atmosphere,” she said.
Education also remains central in some of her partnerships. She amplified HBCUs in her partnership with Microsoft, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. Now, she is teaming up with McDonald’s “First Job Confessional,” a program that aims to shed light on the value of that first job and how those early experiences can build skills that shape long-term success.
Joy Silmon, a McDonald’s owner-operator, also understands the power of a first job. Her foray into the business dates back to when she was 11 at one of her father’s McDonald’s restaurants in Paterson, NJ, according to information shared with AFROTECH™. The self-proclaimed “Queen of the Drive Thru” earned skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, and customer service, and observed how to run a business, lead with consistency, and the importance of teamwork and investing in employees.
“Those shifts were teaching me more than I realized — the multitasking alone prepared me for every role I took on after college in ways I couldn’t have anticipated,” Silmon told AFROTECH™.
In a full-circle moment, Silmon owns nine McDonald’s restaurants across Austin, TX, and Dallas, TX, which employ 550 employees.
“I get to give my crew that same first job experience that shaped me. That’s what First Job Confessional is all about – proving that where you start can take you further than you ever imagined,” Silmon said.
If you have a first job confessional, McDonald’s would like to hear it. If you are in the following cities, you are encouraged to participate: Pittsburgh, PA (April 23) and Chicago, IL (July 28 – 29).
You can find more information on McDonald’s website.
