Life looked very different for Chelley Bissainthe this time last year.
Everything she was manifesting for her future existed solely on her vision board: a thriving modeling career, a growing social media presence, major brand deals and a cross-country move from Orlando to Los Angeles to better support those goals. But after joining the Season 7 cast of “Love Island USA” last summer — the biggest installment of the American smash series yet — those ambitions quickly began to materialize before her eyes.
Not long after her time on the show, big-name brands came knocking at Bissainthe’s door (CoverGirl, True Religion and Shea Moisture, to name a few). By then, the fan favorite had grown her social following from a modest 10,000 before “Love Island USA” to more than 2 million once she returned to the real world.
With that surge in visibility came a wave of opportunities for the former day trader’s star to rise far beyond the villa walls, including appearances on red carpets and at Fashion Week, taking on correspondent duties, and developing her own passion projects now that she’s officially relocated to LA — all things that felt just out of reach before the dating series came along.
“A lot of this, all of this actually, was on my vision board last year in a way where I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to achieve this, but I know if I keep envisioning, if I keep trusting the process, it’s going to happen,” the 28-year-old told HuffPost during a recent Zoom interview.
