Downloaded from YTS.MX
♪♪
[ Chanting in distance ]
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
-♪ Delta is the one for me! ♪
[ Chanting ]
-So I just have a couple of thoughts regarding
this supposed HBO Max documentary on Bama Rush.
-Okay, you guys, we have more tea coming through about,
is someone filming Rush this year?
-I have gotten a couple of reports...
-They haven't went up against this college yet,
and I'm telling you, you don't want to
go up against the University of Alabama.
-Not to be dramatic, but this HBO special
could be the end of Greek life as we know it.
♪♪
[ Chanting in distance ]
♪♪
[ Chanting ]
[ Overlapping chanting ]
-Hey, y'all. -Hey, y'all.
-Hey, welcome to day one of Rush week.
♪♪
-We're getting ready to rush.
Like, look at the people already starting to line up.
♪♪
-[ Screams ]
♪♪
-Love it!
♪♪
-Is anybody else way too old and has too many kids
to be this invested in Bama Rush TikTok?
Like, if Katie does not get the Delta Zeta bid,
she is going to be devastated.
-I've never smoked crystal meth, but this is how I would imagine
one would feel on a 72-hour crystal meth binge.
-This is officially becoming a problem.
-This is me, two days after watching Bama Rush Tok.
[ Chanting ]
-Bama Rush sisterhood day one OOTD.
-Jewelry is from Vivienne Westwood, Tiffany.
You know the vibes.
-Blouse is from --
-We did it. We did it, Joe.
-I have been picking my outfits since January. January.
-And my shoes are Dolce Vita.
-These earrings from -- -Amazon.
-[ Screams ]
-I think I'm gonna be different than everyone else.
-Wish us luck. Roll Tide.
-I'm gonna ask for y'all to pray for me.
♪♪
[ Crowd cheering ]
♪♪
[ Screaming ]
♪♪
-They are doing the Lord's work.
I'm losing it!
-Roll Tide.
[ Women breathing hard ]
♪♪
[ Haunting music playing ]
-Hi!
[ Muffled cheering ]
♪♪
-Got my little finger on it,
and I think it's my acceptance thing,
but I don't really know -- or acceptance or decline
or whatever it is.
[ Exhales deeply ] Really scared.
I'm shaking really bad.
[ Paper tears ]
[ Gasps ]
[ Crying ]
-Pretty emotional day there when we got that, so...
[ Laughs ]
-Oh! -Oh, my gosh!
[ Screams ]
-[ Chuckles ]
-Stops here.
Oh.
Those are all my Alabama T-shirts,
so the obsession is real.
Gotta love it.
I've had these since, some of them, like, freshman year.
-I'm not even 100% sure how she found it,
but once she found it, she was in 100%.
She knew it's where she wanted to be.
She's our first person in the family
to do a full four-year college,
so excited for her for that, too.
-I can tell a million people that I'll be going
to the University of Alabama, and they'll be like,
"You're totally meant to go there.
She's so bubbly and outgoing, like,
she definitely needs to be in a sorority."
Alabama hair ties.
Three people, three different people
decided to give me these for Christmas, 'cause they know.
♪♪
Probably the part of my life that I am most proud of
is my adoption story.
So I was adopted at four days old,
and I started a nonprofit organization
called Fostering Hope where I help foster children
and foster families in the state of Illinois,
and that's something that I'm super proud of,
but that's just a little bit about me.
♪♪
-Let's be honest, I probably would not be going
to the University of Alabama if it did not blow up on TikTok.
Just because I saw it so much, so I looked into the school.
Being in a sorority will kind of help me figure out
who I want to be, help me be surrounded by people
that will always have my back, no matter what.
I've always needed a thing to be a part of, like,
as part of my identity.
It's been really hard for me to find, like,
a sense of, like, you know, self-worth
or, like, pride in something because I feel like
I don't really know who I am, you know?
♪♪
[ Music playing from phone ]
-Not like this.
I remember doing a tequila shot with this DILF.
-You had a fuckin' hard hat on.
-Ally? -Yes?
-I'm so sorry for whatever I did last night.
-You actually weren't that bad. -Was I not?
-Okay, I actually want to be president.
So I'm gonna, like,
work my way up in the governmental system.
I think I'm gonna be, like, a governmental lawyer,
like, something on that track.
I'm not, like, 100% sure what I do to get there yet.
-Can you tell us how many jobs you're working right now?
-I work at a nutrition shop, so, like, Herbalife,
and then I also work at a tanning salon.
Oh, my therapist also called me a workaholic.
I was like, "Whatever, girl. At least I work."
"Hayley --" or for like, Miss USA,
if I, like, won Miss Alabama,
I'd be like, "Hayley Holliday, Miss Alabama."
I did pageants like at 18 months old.
Walking on the stage is the best feeling in the whole wide world.
I get a high off of winning.
[ Chanting in background ]
-We're walking to our retreat.
Oh, my gosh.
Look at our retreat.
I got into my sorority. Like, I was living the dream.
This was, like, everything I've ever wanted.
Like, I was, like, in the sorority with my, like, sisters
and I had friends,
and then I wore the wrong sorority sticker
and got dropped. [ Chuckles ]
♪♪
-For wearing a sticker? -Yes.
For wearing another sorority sticker.
♪♪
Like, I would rather a guy tell me that I was ugly
than get dropped by a sorority.
[ Laughing ] I was so humbled.
I thought those people were my very best friends.
Like, this was my home, this was where I belonged.
And it does scare me going into, like, next year's Rush.
♪♪
-Oh. -'Sup?
-Oh, probably 9:30 would be better.
-What time are we waking up?
-Huh? -I don't know.
-I've actually been going to class this week.
I'm actually in a really good mood today.
Very rare for me.
I feel like I didn't rush freshman year
because I need to find my place here.
When I first moved here, like, it was just all, like, too much.
But I do regret not rushing. I did feel really left out.
-When did you know you wanted to be in criminal justice?
-Well...
when I was in high school,
I really wanted to be a coroner.
[ Laughing ]
I was very weird.
I got interested in criminal justice
'cause my dad was a police officer.
I was 13 when my dad passed away,
so I was in seventh grade.
♪♪
Yeah.
He would be glad I'm here, but I don't know about rushing.
He has always wanted to keep me
in a little bubble and protect me.
♪♪
-Sororities really started along with co-education.
In 1883, a professor at Harvard
wrote a book called "Sex in Education."
The basis of his argument is that if women studied,
then the blood would go to their brains and not their ovaries,
and that they would shrivel up and -- and the women would die.
♪♪
Imagine it's in this environment
that these women are going to college,
and in the face of that, they're coming together
to form these early sororities.
The emphasis was very much on showing that women
could succeed in higher education.
They were feminists in many ways before that was a word.
♪♪
And into the early 1910s,
more and more women are coming to campus.
The first generation has proven that they're successful.
In the second generation,
the sororities become more focused on parties,
on socializing, and on showing that they are
the best representatives of true womanhood on campus.
The whole notion of Rush came
because they were rushing to show themselves
as the best sororities on campus to attract the best members.
They would meet the trains that the new students
were taking to get to campus,
literally whisking them off and trying to woo and win over
the best members of the new class.
♪♪
-So this is my Rush binder, because I have OCD,
so it's just going to be organized by each sorority,
with each recruitment letter,
and then I'm probably gonna have a mock-up
of my recruitment letter of how I'll send it out
to each person in here as well.
I'm definitely going to do Google slides of my outfits,
and I'm gonna have them pre-planned and packed
in a separate bag,
so that way, if I still need to unpack some stuff
after my parents leave or while I'm rushing,
like, at night time, I can unpack that,
but I want to have all my Rush stuff ready to go.
-When did you know you wanted to be in a sorority at Alabama?
-Yes, so I started watching Gracie O'Connor,
who's on YouTube.
It made me want to go there even more.
She was like, so adorable and fun,
and I was like, that looks like so much fun
and I want that.
-Here it is. It's my final look.
Got this super cute tassel earrings,
bracelets, and the necklace.
-When Bama Rush Tok blew up,
you know, I had plenty of people commenting,
"Don't forget the OG, Gracie O'Connor."
And I'm like, me?
♪♪
At the University of Alabama,
Rush consists of four highly competitive rounds
that give sororities and potential new members
the chance to make the best possible impression
on one another.
And during these rounds,
the sororities vote on their top PNMs,
and the PNMs vote on their top sororities.
They're trying to find the perfect match.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-Basically what happens is there's multiple girls
that gets to talk to one PNM.
That amount of girls will get to vote on her.
If she gets high enough votes or if we like her,
then she'll come back.
-Over the course of the week,
the girls return to fewer and fewer sororities,
whether they were dropped or chose to drop
certain sororities along the way.
-Active members are looking for girls
that we can see futures in
and that are going to, like, literally uphold our chapter
and make us better in all aspects,
whether that be grades or, like,
how we present ourselves to the universe.
If you're not meeting a certain criteria,
you'll kind of just be dropped.
-After the final round, PNMs choose their top sorority
and the sororities select their new pledge class.
-It comes down to, like, crunch time, and no one wants
to make any decisions on anybody's girl,
but someone has to.
And so we're just, like, crying through the process.
Like, it's never easy.
That part sucks.
[ Crying ]
It's way more dramatic than you're thinking it is.
[ Laughing ] Like, it's way...
And I'm not going to tell you how hard it is.
I'm so sorry. I can't.
-This all leads up to Bid Day.
The PNMs meet at Bryant-Denny Stadium
and open envelopes containing the name of the sorority
that they've been invited to join,
and hopefully, it's their top choice.
After the PNMs open their invitations,
they run back to their forever home
with the new sisters in their pledge class.
♪♪
-Rush has gotten so competitive over the past decade
that I really saw a need for our services
and what we do to help prepare girls to go through Rush
and hopefully get them into the house of their dreams.
-I remember when we were going through recruitment at Georgia,
we would all be looking at what Alabama was doing.
Yeah, they're just the trend setters.
And I think that's why so many out-of-state girls
decide to go to the University of Alabama and Rush.
It's just this beast, because Greek life is
everything at Alabama.
-The University of Alabama is the top sorority recruitment
in all of the country, and it's a huge school
with tons of money rolling into it
for their football program.
The girls are, like, glammed to the gods.
It sucks you in.
-Rush at the University of Alabama
traditionally has kind of a bad rap.
It's kind of a cutthroat process.
It's just uniquely, uniquely Alabama,
which doesn't really make much sense, but...
[ Chuckles ]
-I'm still holding out that we're gonna be able
to get into those houses.
What do you think?
-Oh. Probably not.
Getting inside those houses is like, absolutely not.
They're very protective of it, and rightfully so,
because of the misconceptions that people want to expose,
like, these sorority secrets.
♪♪
-Hey, who are you filming for?
Okay, ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to, like, leave.
♪♪
-Tell me more about what you hope
to get out of being in a sorority?
-I've had a really hard time finding someone
that can love me no matter what.
I have, like, my friends from school who love
the, like, crazy fun, sneaking into school at midnight
and jumping in the pool kind of girl.
And then there's my family, who loves the sweet and caring
and, you know, really involved person.
And I feel like no one knows me fully and loves me fully,
and I feel like that's really something
I want with these girls.
♪♪
-[ Laughing ]
You know what? Let's just go.
[ Vocalizing to self ]
-[ Over phone ] Weird? Why you being weird to me?
[ Speaking along ] You said you wanted to get married.
-"When I say that?"
♪ When you had the leg up, up, up, up ♪
-I have a serious question for, like, everyone,
and everyone has to answer this.
If you were a fruit, what kind of fruit would you be and why?
I would be a strawberry.
-Why a strawberry? -I don't know.
I just -- everybody loves strawberries
and I just, like, want to be loved
by everybody, because I low-key, like, see --
Like, I don't like when people don't like me.
-Makayla, what about you?
-A watermelon.
-Why?
-Because I act hard on the outside,
but I'm soft on the inside.
-Aww.
-'Cause, I mean, I moved out at 16, so...
as soon as my dad died, I...
[ Snaps fingers ] ...hit the hay.
-I think that's why we also bond, too,
because we're missing our dads.
-Trauma bond! [ Laughing ]
♪♪
-[ Groans ] This hill!
Dang!
There's some fresh bodies over here.
-Why are we seeing my dad's grave on Halloween?
Why? [ Laughs ]
-Oh, my gosh. Your dad's grave is so pretty.
-My dad loved his job so much.
Everyone talks about how he was the best police.
My dad would even give my mom tickets. [ Chuckles ]
He was serious about the ticket. He liked to mess with her a lot.
My dad was such a jokester.
Like, yeah, so he was, like...I don't know.
[ Crying ]
It just is exhausting having to hold everything in.
-You don't have to. -That's how I was raised.
-I know. I was raised the same way.
But me and Abby are always here for you.
-Yeah. [ Sniffles ]
I'm just a very, like, to myself person
about this kind of stuff.
♪♪
-Whoo! Whoo!
-[ Speaking indistinctly ]
♪♪
[ Music gets louder ]
♪♪
-Hey, y'all.
Alabama recruitment day three, outfit of the day.
Shirt is a personal gift from Jeff Bezos.
Jeans are from an internment camp in San Francisco.
Earrings are a gift from my grandma from beyond the grave.
Bracelets are from Applebee's and shoes are from Target.
You know, something that's ingrained in us
early on is that, yeah, you're a person,
but you're a Sigma Kappa first.
You're a woman, but you're a Sigma Kappa woman first,
and that's a lot of what being in a sorority is.
It's branding.
That's, you know, every single Greek organization.
That's kind of one of the things that we sign on to
when we join one.
♪♪
-♪ ...for a roll call ♪
♪ Queens of the Row, check ♪
♪ Good grades on exams, check ♪
♪ Where them ZTAs at? Yeah ♪
-Should I put on lip gloss? [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. -Okay, ready?
-Does it look bad on camera? -No, it looks pretty.
-[ Lip-syncing ] Oh, no, I lost my pen.
-With social media, with recruitment,
people, like, literally look at you like you are in college
majoring in sorority, almost like a little doll
in your fake University of Alabama world
in your little sorority doing your,
you know, tiny little tasks.
Everyone's putting their best out on social media.
I'm not going to post that,
"Oh, I -- You know, I got a C on my chem test,
even though I studied for 12 hours.
Boo."
-Should we hang it over the balcony right here?
-That's I was thinking. -That's funny.
Like this. -Yeah, look at her.
Three... -I can't see the phone.
-Oh. -I lost something once.
-That's good. That's so funny.
- I lost something once. -[ Laughing ]
-It's so perfect! -I lost my pen.
-People assume what you're gonna be like
as a woman in a sorority. -Yeah.
"Oh, why are you trying so hard?
Like, you should just get a husband."
I'm not only a sorority girl. I'm a woman in a sorority.
-Yeah. -And it's not the same thing.
-Honestly, what makes me mad is that in our sorority,
like, we're so understanding, and it's the people that,
like, hate on us, and they stereotype us --
I'm like, y'all are the mean ones, not us.
Like, we don't do anything. What do we do?
Sit there and eat our chicken sandwiches together?
Like, what? We don't do anything.
We put a lot -- a lot of pressure on ourselves.
-Example, right here of my sweet little girls.
-Are you editing us? -Yep.
So, like, let's just say... -Let me look at that.
-...we want to make Lauren's arm smaller.
We can go like this.
We can make it smaller, we can make it smaller.
Let's whiten her teeth a little bit.
And then let's make Kaiya's head big for fun,
just so you guys can see.
Like, just so you can see. -You want to do me dirty?
-Like, a child could do this. -It's so easy.
If you want to make your waist thinner
to make yourself feel better about posting it online,
I understand, but the problem is,
is that these women with millions of followers...
-14-year-old girls are gonna look at that and be like,
"Why don't I look that way?"
-...post that and act like it's real.
-The things that I say to myself and think to myself
about my body, I would never say that to someone else.
-You know, when you're living with other women
and, like, you're around other women all the time
that, you know, I think are very beautiful girls...
You know, I would kill to look like any of my friends.
You know, it's hard to be like, "That's okay
that I don't look like them."
Everyone has, like, their important qualities
that aren't affected
by how prettier you think your friends are
or, like, how you want your hair to look like her hair.
It doesn't change who you are
and who -- like, what people really value you for.
-Okay, great. So there's just a few more questions
and we can, like, go through.
-Well, interim question that has nothing to do with this,
but just out of curiosity... -Yes?
-Nobody in my family is even,
like, bald from just being an older man.
Do you put sunscreen on your head?
-Yes! -Yes, right?
That's what I thought. Yeah. -So much.
So much, because, like,
I could never get skin cancer on my head.
-Yeah, what would you do? -This is my whole thing.
-Right. That's terrible.
-It's actually stressful at the beach.
-I can... Right?
You must have to do a hat, right?
-With summer, yeah, I do hats and I do turbans.
-Mm-hmm.
-Okay, I think I know where I'm going with this.
Between Katie, this smart, beautiful girl,
telling me that she wishes she looked like her friends
or she compares herself to other women
and the endless scrolling of these OOTDs,
it hit me.
I feel like I rushed, too.
And just stay with me on this --
in these OOTDs, these girls are showing us their earrings,
their necklaces, their outfits that they put on
to look like they belong in a sorority.
And I feel like I rushed because I have alopecia
and I wore a wig for 14 years.
I wore a different wig every year.
I wore a mullet, a bowl cut, a blunt cut, a body wave,
a perm -- I wore a layered look.
My Rush looked different.
I was trying to get into the sorority of
all of the girls in the world who have hair,
and it felt like an impossible sorority to get into.
I was going to compete for my position,
and my wig was a secret.
If you found out that I wore a wig,
if you even questioned that I wore a wig,
it would shatter me.
So I know it's not exactly like the Alabama Rush,
but it's like, not that different.
-I think the competition mostly comes from
the rankings of sororities,
trying to get in one of those top or middle-tier houses
and not getting into a bottom house.
-I visited the University of Alabama,
observing the sorority Rush parties.
I probably saw five or six houses.
Rush is a social stratification ritual bar none.
Stratification in the sense
of organizing people and groups of people
into tiers of power, of status, of prestige.
It's a proving ground of competitive femininity
and the contemporary performance of the Southern belle.
-Hey, y'all. -Hey, y'all.
-Do you think I would get into a top-tier house?
-You wouldn't get in with those shoes.
You got to have cute shoes.
[ Both laugh ]
-Who determines the rankings?
-I have no idea, to be honest.
Actually, I'm going to give you my potential thoughts on it.
I think a lot of the times people like to rank --
and by people, I usually mean fraternity boys
or boys in general, I feel like they're like,
"Oh, this house has the hottest girls,
so they're a top house."
Like, "These freshmen are the hottest freshmen,
so they're going to be considered a top house."
♪♪
-The potential new members are trying to get in,
but also, these sororities are trying to get,
like, the best girls.
-For sure. -What does that even mean?
-Yeah, so, the ranking system,
I truly believe it's based on the fraternities.
♪♪
So essentially, they have a social calendar,
and they get to mix with certain sororities,
but it's only a limited amount, and the fraternities want to be
mixing with the hottest sororities, of course,
'cause, you know, they're 20-year-old males.
So that's kind of where the ranking system comes from.
They want to make sure the girls who are wearing their letters
are up to their standards.
♪♪
-The hierarchy of sororities that exist here
really determines how your experience
in the Greek system is going to be.
There are a lot of things that you're entitled to
when you're in a top-tier sorority.
You're entitled to test banks
that are going to help you on your exams.
You're entitled to people in your sorority
that have better connections,
whether their parents are richer or more connected.
You're entitled to a male gaze
that might be a little bit more beneficial to you.
And so, you know, being in a bottom-tier sorority,
I have to understand that at some point, there's nothing
that I can do to change institutionalized rankings.
You know, Sigma Kappa, we've done all the right things,
but we'll never be anything but bottom tier
for at least the next 20, 30 years,
because that's just how it works here.
-You guys, as far as we have heard,
are considered like, a top-tier sorority.
-I -- -I mean, I'm not going to lie.
Like, whenever I tell someone what sorority I'm in,
and they're like, "Oh, wow," that's flattering.
-I think it's hard.
We kind of have to tiptoe around this question,
because we would be naive to deny that lots of people
recognize us as a top tier -- "top tier" house.
-But do I think there are other great sororities?
Absolutely. -Absolutely.
♪♪
[ Dog barking in distance ]
[ Engine shuts off ]
♪♪
-So this is basically the Shelby Taj Mahal.
That's what my family calls it.
But these are awards from dance competitions.
I volunteer with children with special needs and we race,
and the girl that I raced with got first place.
Look, I got the Super Style award in fifth grade.
I think Rush is a week-long adrenaline rush like no other.
The Olympics, that's what we should call it from now on.
I definitely think it's a sport. Definitely.
So this is my pageant binder.
This is my life when I competed in pageants,
so it's kind of why I wanted to do
the sorority Rush binder for myself.
I will have kind of the similar things in here for Rush.
I'll definitely have a motivation tab of just
a ton of quotes and stuff for me to look at.
I like the paper copy because I like to be able to feel it
and really look at it,
'cause sometimes when you're in the moment
and you're stressed out and you're worried,
you forget all the things that you've been taught.
I feel like I fit in perfectly with the way that they dress --
not because I've chosen to be that way,
but just because, like, that's who I am.
I don't think you want to wear anything that's too scandalous,
or as we call it, scandy.
You don't want to, like, have a bad reputation for yourself.
You want to keep it the three C's --
classy, calm, and cool.
♪♪
-The biggest thing is that, because it started so early on,
like, maybe 1800s -- 1898.
Zeta Tau Alpha was established in 1898.
There's kind of like
those really old-timey, strict rules
of what the group is.
-You have a lot of rules you have to follow,
which, some of them I really agree with.
Some of them are like,
"Oh, are you kidding me right now?"
-We are not allowed to drink in our letters whatsoever.
-I don't think in any of the sorority houses,
you can have alcohol. -Why is that, do you know?
-It must be a Panhellenic rule,
because fraternities are always allowed,
and the amount of alcohol in that house is disgusting.
[ Laughs ]
-Another rule that I just thought was really dumb --
no wet hair in the house on the first floor.
-I know there was one house
that my roommate was in freshman year.
She told me that they literally could not leave the dorm
unless they had two out of three done,
which was either you had to have your hair done,
makeup done, or outfit on.
-All it takes is one person to know what chapter you're in
and like, to reach out to somebody,
and you can be in trouble the next day.
♪♪
-Like, as far as our rules, we have just
the longest COC in the entire universe,
our code of conduct.
The ones I usually get in trouble for
are like, disrespecting a sister,
which is such a subjective thing,
and really makes our standards process
kind of a joke sometimes.
So essentially, what happens is you go to the standards meeting.
There are six girls that like to play judge
and they like to reiterate that
you're innocent until proven guilty,
but you're -- you're guilty
until you prove yourself innocent.
Is that my standards? [ Laughs ]
"Specify the issue or concern."
"Member had a video of her
wearing her Sigma Kappa letters" --
misspelled.
"The video seemed to put Sigma Kappa
and Greek life in a negative light."
And since coming here,
I've changed in ways that I don't fucking like.
Roll Tide, though.
Did I lie? Did I lie? Did I lie? I didn't lie.
I wasn't talking shit about Sigma Kappa
or like, the Greek life.
I was saying that, like, the culture at Alabama
is fucking weird.
And you know what? It is. So die mad.
-♪ This is my ministry, lightweight-type chemistry ♪
♪ Going to Italy, like it, you feeling me? ♪
♪ Playing with my racks, a nigga attacks ♪
♪ Fuck with me crucially, you catchin' disa ♪
♪ Playing with my racks, a nigga attacks ♪
♪ Fuck with me crucially, you catchin' disa ♪
-Are you serious?
They're literally wearing someone else's sticker.
And I got in trouble for wearing another sticker?
Are you kidding me right now?
♪♪
I just felt like they were looking for a reason to drop me.
Other girls went upstairs in fraternity houses.
Other girls slept at fraternity houses,
and they're still in the sorority.
♪♪
I know who tattled on me. I'm not going to say.
And it's fine, like, you know, I just wish nothing
but happiness for her and I hope she's having, like,
the best life in DZ as she can.
♪♪
-I've been meeting every week with a sorority consultant.
Her name's Sloan, and she's the best.
I love her, and I feel like
I would be absolutely lost without her.
-You have to remember who's recruiting you --
19-year-olds, 20-year-olds, and 21-year-olds.
-Yeah. -Do they...
Are they looking for you to talk about a specific topic?
No. No, they're not. -Yeah.
-So what they are looking for you
is just to stay away from five topics.
And they're called the five B's, and that --
I don't know who came up with that,
but it's just a great way for you to, like,
kind of remember.
So, Boys.
It just means fraternity boys
and talking about like, swaps or mixers or anything like that.
But if they bring it up, it's okay to talk about it,
just you don't want to, like, initiate that conversation
and be like, "What fraternities do you guys hang out with?"
The next one is Booze. Just don't talk about alcohol.
Bible.
All they mean is like, asking about their religion,
what church they go to or anything like that
puts someone in a corner.
The next one is Bucks, so, money.
So you don't want to be like, "Does your dad own a yacht
off of the South of France?" or anything like that.
Or you don't want to bring that stuff up as well.
And the last one is Biden is what they're probably
referring to now, and all it means is, politics.
And again, you're more than welcome to talk about diversity
and Black Lives Matter and if you're, you know,
a political science major or anything like that,
going to law school, Elle Woods, whatever.
But you just don't want to ask them specific questions
about their political affiliation.
So, "What are your thoughts on inflation?
What are your thoughts on Biden?
Do you think Donald Trump should have won the election?"
It just puts people in a corner and it makes them uncomfortable.
-Yeah. -That's all it is.
♪♪
-So my experience was pretty typical,
and I definitely had my ups and downs.
I got dropped by a sorority I loved on Pref,
and I was really devastated.
I was literally crying
in the Miller Learning Center at Georgia,
and I wiped the mascara from under my eyes and said,
okay, I'm going to give these two sororities one more chance,
and Pref completely changed my mind on the sorority
I ended up joining.
I met this incredible woman, and she was just so fun.
Like, it was the first time during sorority recruitment
where I didn't put pressure on myself
and I was just able to open up and talk to her
and she was so fun.
Luckily, they liked me enough
to make sure that I was on the Bid Day list.
-What's giving me anxiety is my anxiety,
'cause I'm like, what if I, like, break down?
Like, what if I have a panic attack?
What if I start to get really nervous
or I mess something up
and, like, it causes me to, like, totally,
you know, spiral?
So I'm on medication and stuff, but just,
do you have any tips to make me, like, less anxious?
And I think the main thing that will cause like, anxiety
is if like, I think I messed up or if I say the wrong thing
and I get really like... you know, just, like, nervous
and have a panic attack.
Do you have any, like, tips on how to, like, not freak out?
-Great question. So we'll have a ton of practice.
-Okay. -We'll figure out your answers
and practice your conversations,
so you will be hitting your points.
-Yeah. -Good.
But also, the members are there to reassure you.
You'll know if you had a good conversation.
-Uh-huh. Yeah. -Also, I'm a phone call away.
♪♪
-I have always been, like, an anxious person.
I would be so anxious
that I would cry myself to sleep every night.
I always kind of struggled, like, with my body
and, like, with feeling confident.
These girls would make fun of me
every single day in the locker room,
like, about my body and make comments while I'm changing,
you know, comments about, like,
not eating, like, I shouldn't eat or if I, you know --
wear this, then I look fat, or stuff like that.
And [Voice breaking] it sent me
into a really bad relationship with food.
So for like a full year,
I was living with, like, an eating disorder.
And I hope by the time I'm in college,
I will be in a lot better place, mentally.
-Isabelle reminded me that the locker room
is a terrifying place for a girl.
In the summer between fifth grade and sixth grade
at day camp, this girl --
let's call her Sally Steinberg --
cornered me in the locker room,
and she said, "I know you're wearing a wig."
And I said, "No, I'm not."
And then she said, "Yes, you are."
And it was devastating, and it was frightening.
I was mortified.
It felt like she was saying,
"You're not one of us, and you'll never be,
and I know."
♪♪
-So I, like --
So you know how I was talking about my eating disorder?
-Yeah. -For years -- If I can ask --
Can I ask you a question? -Sure.
-Okay, so for years, did you, like,
stand in the mirror for, like, hours and just, like,
look at yourself and like... I do that all the --
And like, even if I pass a mirror now, I'm like --
And I, like, have cellulite on my legs now
from working out and stretch marks, and I'm like -- [ Sighs ]
But, like, they're so beautiful because it shows, like,
I'm overcoming something and growing.
♪♪
I'm just jealous of your hip flexors.
It's like, my quads and stuff
are bigger now 'cause like, they've got,
like, all the muscles flowing into them.
[ Sighs ]
[ Groans ]
I'll show you the before and after.
-Yeah, show us.
-Okay, that was a bad video, but it's fine.
-How much do you think it has to do with looks?
-Great question.
This is something I have thought
about for years, to be completely honest,
how much looks matters during sorority recruitment.
And I think it matters to a certain extent.
Again, you have to be "pretty enough" to get in.
I would say they only really, truly matter at round one.
♪♪
Just from talking to women all over the country,
I have realized there's four main steps
that really help women stand out.
First one is all about getting your name out there,
because you want people talking about you
before sorority recruitment starts.
The second step I always take my clients through is mindset,
because sorority recruitment is an emotional journey.
You immediately get in your head.
What happened? Am I not pretty enough?
Am I not cool enough?
Like, why did these sororities drop me?
The third step is the most important one,
I believe, is small talk.
We figure out your answers to the questions through a formula
because there really just is a simple formula.
And the last step is optimization strategy,
which is just playing the game.
Sorority recruitment's a game -- you have to know how to play it
to keep sororities interested in you.
If you're getting an average score,
you're not getting invited back.
Some girls get their second choice.
Some girls have been dropped so much in the process,
and they just settled.
And some girls, they get calls right before Bid Day, like,
saying, "You've been dropped from sorority recruitment."
Which is hard.
♪♪
-Do I look Southern?
Definitely there, they don't like girls
who look "too Northern."
I look very Northern.
Like, that's not going to change that much.
-Okay, I saved this one for last because, oh, it is so unique,
and I love to be unique,
and this is definitely just a great, unique dress.
-Tomorrow I'm gonna go pick up
my sorority dress for my sorority,
and I'm rushing my sorority.
-What sorority do you want to be in?
-The sorority I want to be in is to not --
to not be discussed, because that brings bad luck
if I tell you guys.
Those boys are fine.
That one -- not the one with the long things,
but the mixed one with the curly hair.
-No, bro. -What?
-When we rush, it's gonna be like...
real crazy.
Hey. Hey! Hey, hey! Hey!
♪♪
-If you thought Alabama Rush was crazy,
just wait until you hear about The Machine.
-Burglary, cross burning, vandalism.
-You are deep into it that you have found out
about The Machine.
Congratulations.
♪♪
-Have you guys heard of this thing, "The Machine"?
Do you know about that?
-For...? For sororities?
-No, it's like, for all Greek life in Alabama
and it's on the Internet, and I was like, what is this?
-I don't think I know.
[ Laughing ]
-Like, I don't think it's an actual thing.
-We always get asked this.
-People ask us this all the --
Because it is on social media.
-All my friends from home think...
-They're like, ooh. -Yeah.
♪♪
-What's the deal with The Machine?
-No, I can't talk about that.
-Can't talk about it. -Yeah.
-It'd ruin, like, a lot of stuff for us.
-Even our life, honestly?
-Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. -It's deep.
♪♪
-Mnh-mnh.
We would never get into a sorority again.
-No. Danger. -Okay.
-I'm John Archibald.
I've been a journalist in Alabama for --
God -- 36 years now,
and I got my start at the University of Alabama
because of The Machine.
♪♪
It's a secret society.
I believe that the phrase was,
"little is known, and what is known is secret."
Something very similar to that.
-So The Machine is the Greek system.
They go synonymous, they're hand in hand.
It's the exact same thing.
They control everything on this campus.
So if there's an election, The Machine's rigging it.
If there's a Homecoming queen, it's The Machine candidate.
You're going to look at awards and different jobs and networks,
it's all going to The Machine kids that run their own thing.
Even the most trivial things like football seats,
it's going to The Machine kids.
Every Greek house that's a member of The Machine
each have Machine representatives.
These representatives form a council that meets
in fraternity basements to discuss student politics,
and then they report back to their house
and their student politicians within those houses
and tell them how to vote.
-You know, I wish that I could say that I had never
gotten involved with The Machine in the first place,
but like, I did.
I really did try to be a good Machine senator,
But at the end of the day,
something just felt really dark and ugly about it.
We slowly make our way over to the Kappa Alpha house,
and we go downstairs into the basement,
and I kind of peer in and can see
this circle of people standing around
in this kind of like dingy, smelly fraternity basement.
I'm asking myself, "What have I got myself into?"
Because I'm like, number one,
why are we meeting in a basement?
Number two, why are we meeting at, you know,
10:00, 11:00 at night on a Tuesday?
What are we hiding?
The individual leading the meeting,
he was like, "This is just an opportunity for you
to see each other's faces.
This is, like, the group of people
you're going to be working with."
Up until that point, I didn't understand
that I was essentially going to be a figurehead
that was going to do what my Machine rep told me to do.
And, you know, every time I did something
that she wanted me to do,
I always received positive feedback.
I always received praise.
In that moment, I felt like I was doing something good,
but I really wasn't doing anything at all
except, you know, being a puppet.
I think it's ridiculous that sororities require you to send
a screenshot of your voting receipt, right?
Others want the e-mail of your voting receipt, like,
and if you don't send that in, some sororities fine you.
My sorority reacted very negatively to the article,
because The Machine is the Greek system.
I think it was perceived as me going against my own sisterhood
and my own sorority.
-Only a handful of independent candidates
have successfully gone against The Machine and beat them.
The university actually had to shut down
the Student Government Association from 1993 until 1996
because of The Machine's alleged activities.
♪♪
-The Machine systematically made sure that a minority group
on campus of "elite people" who got special treatment,
who lived in special homes,
who came from the most affluent and powerful families,
got an advantage on everyone else.
It's a way better teacher of how to do
nefarious things for power
than you could ever get in a political science class.
But I think it's a threat to people's hopes and dreams
that they may not be able to fit into the crowd
in maybe the tax bracket they want to fit into.
I think the danger is not belonging,
it's not being one of the chosen people.
♪♪
-[ Singsong voice ] Okay.
Little update for you guys. I'm so excited.
We are 139 days from me
attending the University of Alabama and rushing.
It is so nice to see, like, an actual copy
in my hand of my sorority résumé.
I've had three different people proof it.
I need to tweak a few things.
I'm going to bring this light pink down.
And then I also have my headshot.
I probably look my best in this photo.
It's honestly been really therapeutic doing this résumé
and just creating this.
I've been super stressed out with school
and just life in general and my anxiety has been really bad,
so honestly, what's been pushing me through each day
is reminding myself that I get to go to the school
that I've wanted to go to since my freshman year,
and I also get to rush
and meet a bunch of new people.
On the days when I feel super lonely at home,
that's what I think about constantly, is how I get to
go to a new school and meet new people.
So if you're feeling down right now,
just think of the future and think of the positive,
'cause that's what I've been doing.
Just an update for y'all. [ Laughing ]
[ Up-tempo music playing ]
♪♪
-♪ Hey ♪
♪ Am I normal enough? ♪
-So why do you think you need a Rush consultant?
-Just 'cause I didn't have anyone in my family
that's been through the Rush process,
so going to her would help, like, get all my stuff in order.
So when I walk in the house, you know, like in
the open house or whatever, and you meet them and like,
I'm talking, having a conversation
and then I run out of, like, things to say
and I'm just staring back at them, like,
what am I supposed to do?
-I can help you be prepared for that awkwardness,
and so you're not going to have it.
Somebody else can be awkward. You're not gonna be awkward.
Just sayin'.
So does that answer your question?
That make you feel a little bit better?
-Mm-hmm. Yeah.
-So we do résumé and pictures,
and then we start working on your recommendations.
I used to be a professional photographer,
so I can shoot a few pictures of you today if you want.
Look up at me. [ Camera shutter clicking ]
I really want to do one with you
laying with your feet crossed behind you.
Hold on.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
♪♪
I've lived one of their worst nightmares.
I can still smell the smells of the dorm room.
I remember this girl was sitting,
leaning against the wall, reading a book, like,
while she was waiting to find out.
And I was like,
"How can anybody be that confident
that they're getting in the sorority?"
This girl got into a sorority and I didn't,
and I was just weeping for hours.
I was embarrassed. What did I do? Am I ugly?
What is it about me that I can't be getting ready
to go to a social tonight?
I went back through Rush my sophomore year
and got my first choice,
but it has made me uniquely understand
the feelings that these girls are having.
I can recall that feeling just like it was yesterday.
From that experience, that's why I started this business.
Now do, like, a really big smile.
[ Camera shutter clicking ]
[ Birds chirping ]
[ Clicking continues ]
God, you are so perfect for this.
Hold on, one second.
[ Camera beeps, shutter clicks ]
-Everyone here thinks I'm everything but Black.
Like, I'm white and Black. They think I'm everything.
Like, this one guy thought -- Like, he was --
He swore that I was just white and just really, really tan.
-Tan. -Yeah.
I was like, can you not tell, like, I'm mixed?
Everyone here just look at you if you have any color in you.
It's just, like, really awkward, I guess.
I feel like a black sheep.
If I'm too white, then I'm whitewashed,
but if I act too Black, then...
I'm not white enough.
Like, what am I supposed to be?
'Cause I'm both races. Why can't I just act myself?
I'm not acting a race. You can't act a race.
I'm just split in two, my whole life.
I'm just gonna be split. Society's dumb.
So at the University of Alabama, the Panhellenic sorority
are historically like, white,
and the Divine 9 here
is historically a Black sorority.
-What's the difference between
Black sororities and the white sororities?
-I don't really know much about the Black sororities
that much,
because I haven't actually looked into it,
because I just wanted to be in the other one.
♪♪
-To be in a D9 sorority, I feel like there is
a tie to history that you need to have.
Even had I become more comfortable
with who I was in a racial sense,
I still feel like I wouldn't fit in there,
because I was raised by white people.
I think that they would have accepted me,
but I wouldn't have accepted myself enough
to get the sorority experience
that I would have been happy with.
So in my sorority, I haven't had any overt racist experiences,
but I have had some weird things
that people feel empowered to say to me.
I was at chapter for formal chapter.
So we have to be, you know, in business casual, essentially,
and I... there were a group of girls,
and there was one girl in my sorority that,
she is [sighs] --
she -- she wants so badly to be progressive
and to be like "woke" or whatever.
She goes, "Oh, my God, Rian, your hair is curly."
I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, I haven't...
I didn't straighten it."
She goes, "Did your relaxer wash out?"
I'm like, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God."
Like, what does that even mean? Like, what...?
It's that she, like, wants to, like, flex that
she, like, has an understanding of Black culture
and she, like, knows what a relaxer is,
but, like, bestie girl.
What?
The same girl, probably every time that I, like,
sit down and I talk to her, she's like, "Remind me.
Which one of your parents is white?"
I'm like, "It's still my mom. It is still my mom.
Every single time that you will ask me,
it's still my mom."
She's not getting any darker. Like what?
♪♪
-So I attended the University of Alabama
from the fall of 1983 through the spring of 1987.
I started law school in '87 and graduated in '90,
so I was there for two tours.
♪♪
So you would think that progress would be made more quickly,
that it wouldn't take until the year 2013
to integrate the sororities,
but when you think about the history
of the sororities themselves
and the history of the state of Alabama
and just the undercurrent of racism
that has been so prominent in our history,
it really doesn't surprise me that it took that long.
I didn't necessarily see it as an option or a choice
to rush Panhellenic.
I didn't see any women that look like me in those organizations.
-It's a busy time at Alabama. It's time for sorority Rush.
Girls brimming with excitement at the thought of being chosen
to move to Magnolia Drive.
But there's another group moving in --
the Alpha Kappa Alphas.
♪♪
-We were the first African-American sorority
on Sorority Row.
We integrated Sorority Row.
-♪ One, two...three, four ♪
♪ A-L-P-H-A K-A-P-P-A A-L-P-H-A ♪
♪ Alpha Kappa Alpha ♪
♪ A-L-P-H-A K-A-P-P-A A-L-P-H-A ♪
♪ Alpha Kappa Alpha ♪
-One night after we were at a -- at a fraternity party,
we were driving by
and we noticed a smoldering cross on the front lawn.
We were terrified.
And anger crept in later, after we got beyond
the shock and the dismay of the entire situation.
Now, I grew up in Alabama,
so hearing that crosses were being burned
is something that I grew up hearing about,
but I had never personally seen a cross being burned.
And once you see that, you can't unsee it,
and it sticks with you for a lifetime.
♪♪
-I have come to know and love the people in my sorority,
and to know that they wouldn't have loved or trusted me
40, 50 years ago, it makes me feel upset.
And I -- I honestly, for my own self-preservation,
don't really like to think about it.
♪♪
[ Indistinct chatter ]
♪♪
[ Water splashing ] -Little bit more?
-Just a little bit more.
-On Bid Day, we sat outside,
and we could hear, like,
all the screams coming from the stadium
whenever they opened their bids.
And it was just crazy. -Oh, my gosh.
My friend sent me a snap, and he was like,
"The ground just rumbled." -Literally.
[ Indistinct chatter ]
-I'm gonna rush in the fall.
-I'm rushing in the fall, for sure.
And then what about Abby? -I'm not planning on it.
It just -- it's lot of money and a lot of time commitment
and just a lot of work, it seems like.
So there's like, almost 250 calories in my bowl,
because the meat and seasoning and everything.
-How do you know that?
-'Cause that's why I count out the chips,
so there's exactly 10 chips in my bowl.
-Wait, I didn't even see you do that, though.
-'Cause I -- when I was shaking it, I counted it out.
-I just have this image in my head that I need to be...
like, tiny, I guess, 'cause.. -You are tiny.
-Well, I don't -- I really don't see myself...
Like, when I look at myself, I see myself, like, as fat.
Like, I know you guys say I'm not,
but, like, I see myself as that and I can't help it.
-I feel like I would never have had an eating disorder
or anything if the boys growing up
didn't say what they said to me.
-Yeah, it is -- it really is the men.
-I feel like women are like --
Like, you grow up to, like, cater to men,
and it's sad.
-Have the three of you ever gotten in a fight?
-No. -I don't think so.
-We -- like, last night, okay,
I get overstimulated sometimes really easily and, like,
I just break, like, I'm just like,
"Oh, my God, Stop. Like, everything just needs to stop."
And so last night, I got a little overstimulated
and I yelled at Makayla, and then she was like, "We're good."
[ Chuckles ]
It was bad, but we're good.
-Yeah, I wasn't listening to her
when she was yelling at me, either.
♪♪
Hardcore Southern Baptist.
-We're all Baptist? I didn't know that.
-I think when you're raised in Alabama,
you're kind of forced to be.
-I don't know, there's a lot of people in my town
that are, like, Presbyterian and stuff.
-What's your relationship with God like?
-I really think He's just the anchor in my life,
that I need to, like, keep,
'cause life be getting real difficult sometimes.
And the fact that He risked His life --
like, He died for us
and, like, just for our sins.
I don't know, that's just really comforting
to know that someone would do that for you.
-[ Laughs ] Hold up.
Like, if I could do anything ever again,
it would be Rush week.
The experience is worth it. -Yeah.
-Like, because everyone talks about how, like, cool it is.
I just want to do it.
-Feet are, like, on the wall?
-Well, that's the thing -- Makayla does that all the time.
-I'm like... -You don't think it'd be weird?
-I don't mean it to be stretchy.
Like... [ Laughter ]
I did that too well, though.
-Yeah, you did. You've gone that way before.
-I'm like -- -No!
-No, me and Makayla were like -- [ Breathing hard ]
-We were like, "Hey." -"Heyyy."
Makayla was like, "George Bush!"
Did I tell you she did that to me?
[ Laughing ]
♪♪
-♪ Hey ♪
-We got roofied at a bar. [ Chuckles ]
So, this guy ordered us shots.
One of the bartenders was telling us how, like,
when they went back in the video footage,
he, like, slipped it into all of them.
So it's nice. We love that for us.
The last thing I remember is looking at Makayla,
and I was gone, and my, like, friend found me in the woods.
We took Makayla to the hospital, and she had, like,
drugs in her system,
and we don't do drugs, like, at all,
and I was with her the whole night.
But they did find him,
and he did get beat up really bad. [ Chuckles ]
-Do you think he'll get, like, criminal charges?
-If we -- If anybody pressed any, but I'm not.
I don't know, I just don't...
Honestly, I don't want to go through the whole court case,
'cause I've only been through that court case.
I don't want to go through it again. It's annoying.
-Have you been roofied before? -Mm-hmm.
Like, three times before.
[ Dogs barking in distance ]
-Oh, I could give you the pageant walk, but --
[ Laughs ]
It's so, like, fierce, though.
♪♪
♪ Heyyy ♪ [ Laughs ]
It's hard to be a perfectionist, because you want everything
to go in order, and sometimes it doesn't.
And when there's multiple things that just don't go right,
it really stresses me out.
And my adoption, like,
it triggers some of my depression and my anxiety.
When people are, like, going distant,
it really makes me nervous because I --
I have trust issues with people,
and I get nervous that people are gonna leave me.
I accidentally found out about me being adopted.
I'm really close with my grandparents,
and my grandpa had handed me a paper, and he was like,
"Do you think your parents still want this paper?"
And I was like, "I don't think so.
Like, let me just read it, though."
I was more concerned about my homework,
and I'd read it after,
and it had talked about me being adopted,
and I was like -- I thought they were joking
and, like, I thought it was a joke,
so I was waiting for, like, the laughing,
and there was no laughing.
Like, he was just focused on doing his own thing.
He didn't even know that it said that.
So it -- it turned my world upside down.
♪♪
Basically, I thought I knew who I was,
and then it completely changed.
I've been in therapy since I was 13,
and then last year, I started doing some trauma treatments
for just trauma that I didn't even realize that I could have,
but it was making my anxiety and my depression so high.
I used to be able to not even take a test in class
without almost passing out.
So I'm really hoping that when I get to Alabama, like,
I can just always have an open heart and an open mind
and just let myself be me and not let my triggers,
like, affect me and take over my life there.
♪♪
-Just like Shelby,
I was really looking forward to freshman year of college.
It's a new beginning.
My big plan was that I was going to take the wig off.
But when I got to college, I was too scared.
I couldn't do it.
I couldn't even tell my freshman year roommate that I wore a wig.
So I slept in my wig every single night that year.
I was convinced that, if you knew I was bald,
you wouldn't want to be my friend.
♪♪
[ Turn signal clicks ] -I don't know.
I always said I was never going to dye my hair.
And then I started, like, I got highlights
and now I just can't stop.
Like, every time I love to just go lighter and lighter.
Every time she asks what I want, I just say, "Okay, blonder."
-Which one of the dates? August? -Yeah.
We have Open House and then Philanthropy.
And then there's Sisterhood Preference Day,
and then there's Bid Day.
♪♪
-I had a whole spiritual awakening while you were gone.
You don't even understand.
During finals, I definitely had, like,
a blinding revelation.
Like, I sat myself down in front of a mirror
and was like, "How you've been acting lately
is not you, that's out of character,
and you need to pull it together."
The stuff I've been doing, like, going out how I have been,
you know, I shouldn't be doing that on a Wednesday.
I need to be focusing on my studies.
Like, I'm there to build my career, make money,
and build an empire.
I'm not there to see who can drink the most.
Like, that's just not me. I just need to grow up.
I'm not trying to force anything anymore.
♪♪
-Holliday: Hey, what are you doing?
-Driving.
Are you okay?
-Oh, I just wanted to talk to you.
I got a text last night
and someone was telling me about how you
and Kirsten were just, like, trashing me and
talking, like, really bad about me
and I just want to talk to you about that because
I don't really understand --
-Who said that?
-Huh?
-Who said that? -Emma.
-If I was in your position I would be like,
who am I to believe Makayla
'cause she could just be saying that
and she is actually just doing that.
-Well. Um.
Kirsten literally told Emma
that you said
I was psycho and clingy.
And I just had one of Emma's friends --
that was with her last night --
confirm that Kirsten said that you said that.
-This is... [ Sighs ]
This is so annoying.
I just want to be out of the drama.
(CALL ENDS)
I don't know who to believe anymore 'cause
I feel like everyone just lies.
♪♪
[ Cellphone rings ]
[ Cellphone beeps ]
♪♪
-All she does is hang out with Kappas,
and so she just ignores me now.
It's just a sorority she wants to be in.
Well, I'm upset about it, but, like, I -- oof. Ugh.
I hate emotions. [ Chuckles ]
I do. I'm so emotionally unavailable.
It's so sad.
♪♪
[ Cellphone buttons clicking ]
♪♪
-I was leaving a place, and I, like, stopped
'cause I heard my name.
Like, tell me how many people on this campus
have the name Holliday? Yeah, zero.
So I was eavesdropping. I'll be honest.
I was being nosy. I was eavesdropping.
I hear these girls and they're like,
"Is that Holliday girl going to rush, do you know?"
And then this other girl goes, "Well, I hope not,
since she's blacklisted from every sorority."
And I was like, "Alright, that's cool."
Like, I'm not gonna waste my time and money.
Like, if that is like...
you know, people are going to blow smoke out their butt,
but like, if that is true, I'm not gonna waste my money.
Like, there's no point.
I just, like, don't think mentally
it would be best for me to rush again,
like, and going through that.
Like, 'cause I didn't realize, I guess,
until my therapist pointed out,
like, how much of a mental, like, stress it put on me.
And I don't need that, because when they say,
like, your freshman year is a very humbling
and, like, growing-up experience,
they truly mean that.
♪♪
-There has been a few nights where I couldn't sleep at night.
-Oh, seriously?
'Cause you were scared of what I was gonna --
-Not really afraid of what you're...
-It's just how we're gonna be perceived.
The world we live in right now is, like,
very much cancel culture. -Judgmental, yeah.
People are going to feel how they're going to feel,
and I have to keep on trucking along.
-Yeah.
-I just don't want people to, like, hate us.
Or, like, hate me. I don't want them to hate me.
-Or us. -And, yeah.
But you're likable!
♪♪
-So, with Instagram and all social media,
we first do a pre-screen.
So once you register, they have your name,
and if they have your name, they have the ability
to find you anywhere -- and these girls are like --
should be in the FBI, creating fake accounts
and, like, making sure they find you,
so they'll figure it out.
So we just want to make sure your tagged photos
aren't anything that would be labeled
as "a standard concern."
And I'm not seeing anything.
So what they'll do is they will come sit right in front of you
and just start talking to you.
Okay, so we'll start with the first question.
What made you pick the University of Alabama?
-So I'm going into advertising as my major, actually.
They have an amazing advertising program,
like, one of the best in the country.
-I think the biggest thing is going to be the conversations.
Isabelle, you know, is really good at small talk.
The only thing that I'm worried about is that lead of getting
to that next part and, like, her thinking one step ahead,
and that just comes from practice.
-Do you dye it? -Yeah.
Like, all that is, like, blonde now.
And -- But we're only doing a little bit lighter at a time
so it don't fall out.
-There is a look
that is well put together and showing confidence,
and you have to blend in without crazy sticking out.
You don't have to be like everybody else,
but you just need to not stick out.
Not trying to follow the crowd or the trend,
but while also fitting into
a certain kind of mold just for Rush.
You don't want to give sorority a reason to cut you.
♪♪
-What if you just naturally stick out?
I'm thinking about myself, because I have no hair.
-Right. -But, like,
how would you approach a situation like that
with somebody who just automatically stood out?
-There, how I would approach someone who
automatically stands out, and especially
in a place like Alabama, we have a lot of clients
who stand out for whatever reason,
but I make sure that they're willing to listen
and they have to trust me.
They have to trust that I...
am not going to steer them wrong.
If you own it, I think you're -- you're great.
-This girl is not owning it.
This is me freshman year, in my wig.
The only time I took my wig off that year
would be in the privacy of the shower stall
in the bathroom.
I would take my wig off and let the water pour over my head,
and then I'd put my wig back on and I would wash it,
and I would go into my bedroom at the dorm
like nothing had happened, like everything was normal.
Eventually, my sophomore year,
the pain of not being myself
became greater than my need to fit in.
I finally took my wig off. It was just a simple action.
Just like -- Whhhh!
♪♪
But I felt like a thousand-pound helmet,
and it was the hardest thing
I have ever done in my entire life.
And I did it,
and I took my wig off,
and I never put it back on.
♪♪
[ Voice breaking ] And I owned it,
because I'm a bald girl.
♪♪
That's it.
-Hi, guys.
I'm rushing at the University of Alabama this fall,
and I'm going to show you guys what is in my Rush bag.
Static guard, scissors,
tweezers, Tide To Go pen, a first-aid kit, mints,
breath strips, sunglasses, portable charger,
and then a yoga mat.
And I didn't cut it in case anybody else needs a seat.
I wanted to be able to share with them, so I didn't cut it.
And that is everything in my Rush bag, so...
-This is the kind of woman that you want to marry.
This one right here, okay?
She is more prepared to take my three children...
-This girl is the equivalent of a CVS receipt.
I want to be stuck with this girl
if we're all going down.
Because of this girl, I'm inspired now to dive deep
into sorority TikTok.
[ Insects chirping in distance ]
-Now, here is a hard copy
of your résumé with that picture.
Do you like that picture?
That's the one you sent me.
-[Quietly] Yes.
-And that's the one that you want to use for that?
-Do you think we should change it?
-Mm-hmm. -Yeah.
-I think we should change it.
Super important that you look friendly,
engaging, and really excited to be doing this video.
Smiling the entire time you're talking.
It's a necessary evil, so...
[ Beeps ]
-Hi. My name is Makayla Miller.
I'm going through recruitment as a sophomore.
Authenticity is my number one core value.
In a sorority, like in life,
connecting and finding true sisterhood can only be done
by being authentic.
Respect is also a key value.
I think sisterhood involves [inhales deeply] --
sisterhood involves respecting your sisters
in all they do.
I look forward to meeting y'all, and Roll Tide.
More?
-Oh, we're going to do a few more.
-I don't know if this is a little too va-va-voom,
but that's an option.
-So, do you have a different dress for each round?
I mean, each day of Sisterhood? -Mm-hmm.
-I don't have all of them yet, but I have, like,
ones that I've been looking at all summer.
I just don't want to look like everyone else either.
Because I know I'm gonna show up
wearing the same thing as someone else.
I do not want that.
Hmm, I don't know about this place.
It seems like a store my mom would like, though.
-She now sort of looks like a Disney princess.
-A Disney princess!
But taking it and wrapping it,
so you get some tension and, like --
tension and keeping it straight.
That's pretty comfortable, isn't it?
It's not bad.
You could sleep with that and not look too crazy.
Beautiful. -I need to empty this out.
[ Indistinct chatter ]
♪♪
-Hey, guys. I am hoping you're having a great day.
Not a good day. A great day.
-It's about damn time. Rush is back, bitches!
-Here we go. Bama Rush, Season 2.
-Much like everyone else in America this week,
I will not be doing any work at my corporate job,
and instead, I will be allocating
every thought and conversation I have to Bama Rush.
♪♪
-Oh, this is my little chair. This actually goes here.
[ Laughing ]
Everyone made fun of me for this, but it's nice,
because we sit on my carpet,
so, like, if my friends are sitting on my carpet,
I can sit on the pink chair.
I'm really big on crystals.
It's a little piece of home, but there's like,
a lot of bad energy being carried on these.
Like, when I first got all these, I felt really happy,
and then just a lot of bad things happened,
and I just feel like I need a recharge.
♪♪
Two weeks before I came to the University of Alabama,
I was sexually assaulted.
♪♪
[ Voice breaking ] When it happened, like,
I blamed myself and blamed myself
and blamed myself.
But I was, like, you know,
like, that was the moment I realized, I was like,
I need to become my biggest protector.
And, you know, I feel like I'm a very trusting person.
And I was like, it is good to be trusting
and it is good to look for the best in people
and it's good to love others,
but, like, you need to protect yourself,
because at the end of the day, like,
I'm the only one that was there for myself at, like, all times.
And, you know, I know the person that I am,
and the way that people saw me was not the way I was,
and they treated me how they thought I was,
and they treated me like I was trash.
And I was really, really hurt.
And it was really hard.
I had a really hard few weeks before I came here,
because I didn't feel like myself,
and I would look in the mirror every day,
and I would just see the things that been done to me.
[ Sniffles, chuckles ]
I hate being emotional, but it's just like...
I feel like it was really weird, just, like, coming here,
because, like, literally, like, a weight was, like,
lifted off my shoulders, because I was free from, like,
all the, like, ideas about me that I had once.
And I saw who, like, I truly was
and that, like, God showed me,
like, who I really, truly could be.
♪♪
I can, like, rewrite my story. My story can start here.
I've been placed with a lot
of just really amazing female mentors.
My therapist, she is one of them.
My mom is one of them, and my church leaders are some of them.
All these women, like, have really just like,
just shown me, like, the person, like, I want to be,
which is exactly what Greek life is about.
Every single girl in all of these houses
has gone through some amount of struggle in their life.
♪♪
These are really strong women
who want to get involved in their school
and who are passionate about building each other up.
Like, it is a sisterhood, and that's why I want to rush.
♪♪
I'm "nervited" [chuckles] --
which is, like, nervous and excited.
♪♪
-What's the thing on TikTok --
have you ever watched the one that's like --
[ Chanting, singing ]
♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪
♪ I wanna go to -- ♪ [ Both laugh ]
♪ I want to go Delta Zeta... dun, dun, dun ♪
It was something like that.
It was -- ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪
-Zeta Tau Alpha. -Yup. They're huge.
And that's Sigma Kappa.
♪♪
-[ Sighs ]
I should have did this last night.
-Rachel, what's the triangle mean?
-The triangle is Delta and the Alpha...
Gamma Delta.
-Yeah. AGD.
-We're going to need, like, a whole alphabet.
I'm gonna carry it around with me.
-I found it.
Yes, Zaya. This one goes with that.
-There's a grand piano. Like, right?
-Yeah. So, like, the stairs are going up on either sides.
It's actually really pretty.
[ Indistinct whispering ]
-So I just have a couple of thoughts regarding
this supposed HBO Max documentary
on Bama Rush that's...
-Hulu or HBO Max, whatever it is, like, TV shows.
-Okay, you guys, we have more tea coming through about
is someone filming Rush this year?
-So, Bama Rush update.
I guess we'll address the elephant in the room real quick.
-So I've got to bring it to you guys,
but I have gotten a couple of reports
going back to potential people
or a handful of PNMs being miked up.
-Not to be dramatic, but this HBO special
could be the end of Greek life as we know it.
-The rumor on TikTok is that they were
wearing microphones in bracelets.
♪♪
-Okay.
All the rumors are flying around here at Bama
about HBO or Netflix.
Supposedly, it's HBO that has about 20 girls they're paying,
and the girls will be miked up going through Rush.
I don't understand.
They're just going to have audio, if this is true.
They're not gonna have any visual recordings.
Um.
I don't get it. I'm quite puzzled.
What do they think they're going to gain by recording girls
going through Rush?
They haven't went up against this college yet,
and I'm telling you, you don't want to go up against
the University of Alabama.
I am not -- I'm here working. I'm a fraternity mom.
I wouldn't go up against the University of Alabama.
No way. They call them The Machine for a reason.
I wouldn't go up against the University of Alabama.
No way. They call them The Machine for a reason.
[ Indistinct whispering ]
♪♪
-This is a rumor that started on social media
that has led to an article in The New York Times
that my film that you are watching right now
miked 20 potential new members
to record what goes on inside the walls of a sorority house.
Anyone who makes a movie -- I'm going to wait for sound.
See, the air conditioner, for example,
is going to interfere with our sound.
So we're going to hold.
[ Air conditioner whirring ]
If an air conditioner is going to interrupt
the quality of sound for this film,
putting microphones on girls in houses
where they're all screaming to hear each other
is also [Chuckling] not gonna work.
Just...
This is what we're dealing with.
And not only is there a New York Times article
about this idea,
later in the day, we received a letter
from the president of the University of Alabama,
and he CC'd me and basically the Feds.
♪♪
But who started the rumor? That's what I'm curious about.
These accounts don't even look real.
-Another rumor that goes along with all of this
is that a PNM has already been disqualified.
-[ Crying ] I kept tucking it, because --
-This girl was rushing.
They caught her with a black hair tie
tied around her T-shirt.
She got kicked out of Rush
because they thought it was a microphone.
♪♪
We've never met this girl, ever.
-When the execs pulled me over, I immediately knew
that that could be the reason that they pulled me.
So I immediately showed them
and they said that they weren't "at liberty to check me"
or they weren't "at liberty" to look at anything.
So they said basically this was a final decision made
before I even had any chance to say anything.
And I called the dean of students,
and I called the -- Ambassador of Panhellenic,
and they basically said there was nothing I could do
and that it was a final decision.
...little black thing, so I kept tucking it because...
♪♪
[ Indistinct whispering ]
-You haven't lived until you are waiting for a text message
from an 18-year-old girl.
We lost Shelby.
♪♪
-It strikes me as being very Southern,
because we have a long history of silence.
What's was the first rule of The Machine?
"What is known is kept secret."
No talking to the media.
I could probably reach too deep
and say that you probably represent the carpetbaggers
coming down to teach us what's right and wrong.
♪♪
-[ Sniffles ]
[ Sighs ]
I think they believe that I'm trying to ruin their tradition.
♪♪
And I think there's, like,
really good things about your traditions here,
and I think there's really toxic things
about your traditions here
and really confusing things about the traditions here.
♪♪
But I came into this like, literally, Roll Tide.
Now that this New York Times article has named me,
I'm really paranoid.
Like, everywhere I go, I'm looking over my shoulder.
Our producers are requiring that we hire a security detail
to be with the film's crew at all times,
because they're actually concerned
for our physical safety at this point.
Because if you Google "Rachel Fleit,"
the first image that comes up is of a bald girl,
and I haven't seen another bald girl in Tuscaloosa
since I started filming here a year ago.
And if I'm going to keep filming with my subjects,
I don't know what to do.
♪♪
Do I need more curls?
♪♪
"This is insane.
This literally can't be real. Stop feeding into it."
What do you feel like when you see that?
-I don't know why they are...
so obsessed with it.
-The mike -- well, if we have mikes in there,
that would pick up nothing.
Plus, the conversations, for the most part,
really are, like, not that interesting.
What I'm looking most for is, like, not all,
like, the TikTok stuff.
And at the end of the day, I want best friends,
and I want to have fun,
like, literally helping the community,
which is what people don't see, like,
people don't see all of the good that sororities do.
It's not just Instagram posts or, like, pretty girls.
♪♪
Seven houses tomorrow,
and then I have two houses on the next day after that,
and then I have one house today.
So I got ten houses back.
-Everyone has, like, told me about how extra the girls are,
like, in the door song and stuff.
And when I saw that, I was like, what in the world?
Like, I was sitting there, like, laughing.
I was like...
[ Chanting, singing ]
♪♪
-[ Chuckles ]
I was like...I was like, dude, can I really do that?
'Cause I was like, I don't know.
I was talking at both houses and my lip would get stuck,
like, to my teeth because there is no spit in my mouth
because I was talking so much.
'Cause they give you, like, these little water bottles,
and I heard if you drink them,
that it'll, like, give you bad luck
for the rest of the, like, time,
so you might get dropped or something bad will happen.
So I just suffered.
♪♪
-I really think you're going to get your top seven.
-Okay. -I really think,
and then Pref, it all depends
on, like, what they're thinking.
♪♪
-I realize that, since being a sophomore now,
you don't have to be in a sorority to enjoy your life.
It's just me, personally, I don't think I can do it,
but I know other girls that love it.
♪♪
And when I withdrew yesterday,
with my Rho Chi, she was so, like, supportive.
She just kept telling me how she was so proud
that I had, like, an open mindset.
♪♪
In Atlanta, all the dresses looked so boring.
-It wasn't your style. -Yeah.
It felt like I was being, like, forced to like them, too.
It was annoying.
-Did you tell Trisha yet?
-Yeah. -What'd she say?
-Well, she just texted and said,
"Okay, I'm here if you need me. I'm always in your corner."
♪♪
I don't really care about disappointing anyone.
♪♪
-Highlight of my day was going to AD Pi,
and we're just talking about making genuine conversations
with people and genuine friends.
Throughout this, like, journey, like, I've changed so much.
I really have, like, been finding myself as a person.
This feels more at home than I've ever felt in a long time.
♪♪
You can still feel pain and you can still be angry or sad
at what's been done to you,
and that doesn't have to go away,
but knowing that there's, like, a hope
and there's a plan and that...
all of the power is within you
and God, like, really just has given me
so much, like, will to live.
♪♪
Rush is about being yourself in these houses,
and I think that whatever house I choose,
I might not realize why I chose it in the moment,
or I might not realize
the reason for everything right away,
but one day, it will all click.
♪♪
-10...9....
8...7...
-6, 5, 4, 3...
2...1...
[ Screaming ]
[ All screaming ]
-Yes!
[ Indistinct shouting ]
♪♪
-On Bid Day, all I could think about was home.
So I was just freaking out and crying
and going back to like
a place of self-hatred and, like, not knowing who I am.
And then -- this sounds so, like, weird and fake and stupid,
but, like, I -- literally all I could think about was AD Pi
and the girl, McKenna,
that is now, like, she was my Bid Day Big.
Like, she was all I could think about,
and I just -- she brought me this sense of hope
and the sense that I could, like, be myself
and that I finally have not just a home,
but a place where I belong.
♪♪
But now I'm here, and it's so freeing.
And I feel just so, like, not only at peace,
but, like, hopeful for the future.
♪♪
-I worry about the -- the reception of all of this
by my sorority sisters, because I think a lot of them
are going to understand it as like a betrayal.
It's like, no.
But I also want these organizations
to be less concerned with tradition
and more concerned with the well-being
and the individuality of their members.
I would like to join an alumna chapter,
if they'll have me after this.
[ Chuckles ] I would like to.
Like, the people that I met in my sorority experience
are just the best people I've met in my entire life.
♪♪
-It's good to be back.
♪♪
How do you think you've changed since we've met?
-Everything about me has changed.
Like, my outlook on life,
my outlook on this school, on Greek life.
Like, everything. I've grown up for sure.
My mom used to have this photo of me
and I was like, throwing up a sorority sign.
I was like, "This is the sorority I'm going to be in."
When I was younger, that's, like, all I wanted to do.
But I just want to be my own person.
And I feel like they all try to mold us to be, like, one person.
♪♪
-What do you think now,
being on the other side of Rush?
-Well, I think it...
Like, when you're born,
you automatically are wanting to belong,
'cause you're just sitting there, crying,
you're wanting, like, comfort,
like, when you just got out of this womb to this scary life.
So what else are you supposed to do?
You're always going to need to want something.
You're just going to sit there.
♪♪
-[ Laughing, screaming ]
-[ Screaming ]
[ Screaming continues ]
♪♪
-Seriously, we're making a memory.
-This is a -- This is a core memory.
-Core? -Yeah, co-o-o-re.
♪♪
-♪ If you a ZTA at the University of Alabama ♪
♪ Please come to the stage for a roll call ♪
♪ Queens of the Row, check ♪
♪ Good grades on exams, check ♪
♪ You can't go a day, check ♪
♪ Without saying "ZLAM," check ♪
♪ Where them ZTAs at? Yeah ♪
♪ Where them ZTAs at? ♪ -♪ Yeah ♪
-♪ Shout-out to Malik ♪ -♪ Yeah ♪
-♪ Shout-out Momma Deb ♪ -♪ Yeah ♪
-♪ Hottest on the Row ♪ -♪ Yeah ♪
-♪ Top house every year ♪ -♪ Yeah ♪
-♪ Where them ZTAs at? Yeah ♪
-♪ Where them ZTAs at? ♪
♪ If you a ZTA at the University of Alabama ♪
♪ Please come to the stage for a roll call ♪
-♪ Queens of the Row, check ♪
♪ Good grades on exams, check ♪
♪ You can't go a day, check ♪
♪ Without saying "ZLAM," check ♪
♪ Where them ZTAs at? Yeah ♪
♪ Where them ZTAs at? ♪
♪ Zeta Tau Alpha, throw your crowns up, hey ♪
♪ She in Zeta Tau Alpha, throw your crowns up, hey ♪
♪ Where them ZTAs at? Yeah ♪
♪ Where them ZTAs at? ♪
-OOTD! Okay, we... we both have
these cute Zeta shirts from Zeta.
♪♪
[ Music fades ]