Since the beginning of time, Black women have been painted as angry, loud, and too much to deal with, and to this day, we are still labeled and portrayed this way across various media, especially reality TV. “Love Island” season 7 was no different as Chelley and Olandria took over our screens and served Black girl magic for 32 days straight. But it would be too much like right for two Black women to set boundaries and be authentically themselves without some backlash, right? The two talked about the mean girl allegations in detail in a recent interview.

After the heart rate challenge, Chelley and Huda had a slight spat about the way Huda carried herself during the challenge. Apparently, the way it was addressed gave “mean girl” energy to some, when in reality, both women were merely asking for the respect Huda demanded from everyone else to be reciprocated.

“How dare you guys say something like that to us, but not to everyone who was having that mean girl energy or mean girl moments? It goes back to the whole, you have to act a certain type of way [as a Black woman] because the moment you act ‘out of character’ you’re done,” Chelley told Teen Vogue. “We didn't call anyone names, we didn't sit here and run up and down the villa yelling, screaming. We just spoke our truth and held people accountable for their actions.”

She added, “I still know myself, I know my truth, so I can't take how you guys feel about me with so much weight. You sit here and try to paint me to be whoever you want me to be in your mind because of five minutes of one episode, I think that says more about a person than even myself.”

Olandria chimed in with her two cents on that, saying, “If that's making someone a mean girl —” Chelley scoffs. Olandria jumps in: “Then I'll take that.”

During the season, they made themselves available for advice and emotional support for their castmates, so when the show ended and other islanders began running with those negative narratives in interviews, it was hurtful to the newest dynamic duo.

“To see our fellow islanders playing into that narrative was hard,” Olandria says. “It's like, you knew us, why would you get out and let America, let social media get to your head? A lot of them played into that mean girl, bully narrative. I'm like, ‘Okay, this is not fair.’”

Chelley added her perspective, saying, “It was confusing and so weird because we knew who we were in that villa. We know how much we showed up for every single person on that island, how well everyone spoke of us. So for us to come out of the villa and see that we're mean girls, we're like, ‘Mean girls where?’”

Olandria faced similar controversy after she finally expressed her feelings to Taylor, who had chosen to couple up with Clarke and explore their connection, but she wasn’t unprepared for the reaction.

“I knew going into the show, especially as a Black woman, I was representing more than just myself,” she says. “The world always tries to label us as ‘angry Black women.’ They use a moment of weakness and make that one specific time our whole character. I knew that when it came to my emotions, I had to dial that back, which I did for the majority of the season.”

She continued on, sharing about the incident that led to her finally speaking her mind. “The moment that I did break and I kind of blew, people were like, ‘I knew it. That's the real her,” she recalls. “I wanted to be unapologetically me, but it's like this world doesn't allow Black women to do that.”

What is it about seeing Black women happy and unapologetic that turns us into villains? It’s really about confidence—something many people wish they had. Chelley said it best: “If you see us feeling ourselves and happy about who we are, why can’t that make you want to be happy as well?” And, finishing her thought without skipping a beat, Olandria adds, “Because it makes them uncomfortable.”

What wasn’t highlighted was the way that Chelley and Olandria bonded and stuck together from day one. People love to live off the notion that “Black women can’t get along,” but here we watched two complete strangers become sisters in 32 days, and that’s the most important story of all.

“We're soul sisters for a reason,” Olandria told Teen Vogue. “We'll always say to one another, ‘God knew we needed each other.’ I'm so happy the past seasons did not work out for us because season seven was the year to be here at the same time.” Chelley added,  “We were supposed to be here together.”