MTV‘s Jersey Shore is inarguably one of the most successful reality TV shows of all time.
Prior to this show chronicling club kids who liked partying on the New Jersey shores, most reality TV focused either on competitive challenges or diverse groups of people coming together to find common ground. With Jersey Shore, the outlandish personalities and the dramatic situations they got themselves into made you love to hate the cast, tuning in every week to see what they’d do to annoy and offend you.
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The show’s stars have gone on to star in failed TV shows, failed movies, and failed musical projects. Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola has had more modest aspirations. The reality star has gone on to launch her own fragrances, clothing line and podcast.
Although other members of the cast have gotten more famous, Sammi’s Instagram account shows she has just as much of a right to be famous as all the rest.
Scroll down to see some of her best posts to learn more about what she’s been up to.
Giancola, of course, first gained national attention when she appeared on all six seasons of Jersey Shore.
However, her roots on the shore go back much further. She was the only original cast member actually from the New Jersey coast, and she is still proud of her roots.
“I am a true Jersey girl at heart,” Giancola says on her site. “I was born and raised in New Jersey, in a small town close to the bay and beach. I guess you could say I’ve spent my whole life growing up on the Jersey Shore enjoying the fresh ocean air and the excitement of summers on the shore.”
On the MTV reality series, she gained a reputation as a stylish party girl, but she’s also tried to show her fans that she’s much more than that.
She now embraces her athletic and fitness-focused side, as she opened up about on her site.
“While some may think of me only as a girly girl who loves art and fashion, I’m actually a tomboy and athlete,” Giancola wrote. “I’ve always been into sports but soccer holds a special place in my heart…My time training for soccer all those years is probably what influenced me to focus on eating healthy (I love to cook! both healthy and no-so healthy meals) and exercising everyday. Though I don’t play on any teams anymore, I still get together for pickup games with friends in between my daily workout routines.”
During and after her time on Jersey Shore, Giancola has actively stayed in the public eye for public appearances and small acting roles.
Among her gigs, she’s hosted the MTV show 10 On Top and appeared in the 2012 film The Three Stooges. She’s also made appearances on Project Runway, Makeover Manor, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Ellen and more.
Giancola has also spent a lot of her time promote Sweetheart Styles, her fashion brand.
The brand carries tops, dresses, pants, rompers, shorts, skirts, accessories, outerwear and more fashionable items designed by the MTV alum.
“Fashion is a way to share the real you with the outside world,” Giancola says. “Growing up, fashion and clothing were one of my favorite avenues to express myself. I would spend hours sewing my own shirts and making my own belts to match different outfits. I’ve always loved to style clothes for my friends and sisters, or put outfits together.”
Among her fashion and lifestyle products, two that she takes special pride in are her clutchlets and signature fragrances.
Her fragrance, entitled “Dangerous,” is described as having a “sweet-floral base with hints of Mandarin, almond, jasmine, honeysuckle, vanilla and brown sugar.”
The clutchlet line consists of two styles designs thought up by Giancola herself.
“My passion for art and design inspired me to create my very own line of clutchlets,” Giancola says. “You’ve probably seen me wearing one when I was out and about on the Jersey Shore. My signature clutchlets come in two different styles that I designed myself.”
One of the most interesting aspects of Giancola’s post-MTV life is her podcast, Just Sayin’.
On the series, Giancola teams up with relationship expert Siggy Flicker and TV host Clare Galterio to “dish over the latest developments in their own lives, as well as share their takes on the hottest celebrity gossip.”
The podcast is available on both iTunes and Soundcloud.
While Giancola has established herself outside of the Jersey Shore brand, she couldn’t stay away for long.
She reunited with co-stars Paul “Pauly D” DelVecchio, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino and Jennifer “Jwoww” Farley for a one-off reunion special for E! called Reunion Road Trip.
Notably absent from the special was Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Giancola’s notorious ex-boyfriend and castmate.
With the excitement surrounding that one-off special, MTV came knocking on the original cast’s doors with hopes of reuniting them all together.
However, Giancola turned down the offer to return for the new show, entitled Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.
It’s not clear why she turned it down, but rumors circulated that it was all because of past drama between Ortiz-Magro and herself.
While Giancola hasn’t revealed the official reason she’s not appearing on the new show, her castmates have chimed in with their theories as to why she’s not appearing.
Polizzi thinks it all boils down to Ortiz-Magro, as see said on a recent episode of her podcast, It’s Happening With Snooki & Joey.
“Everyone’s asking why Sammi’s not doing it. You have to ask her that — I’m not gonna speak for her,” she said on a recent episode of her podcast, It’s Happening With Snooki & Joey. “But Sammi is just in such a happy place that I feel like she doesn’t want to jump back into that drama if it does happen. And being that there was a lot of Ron and Sam drama when we did film, it was just really hard on both of them. So I just think she doesn’t want that anymore.”
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Bobby Bones. Credit: Getty / Eric McCandless
