Aniya Harvey Went From Being A “Parasocial” Fan To Having Them Herself

Aniya Harvey is still adjusting to her newfound fame. As I chat with the 24-year-old Love Island USA star on Zoom, she’s just returned to her home in Atlanta, Georgia, after a whirlwind New York Fashion Week debut where she was constantly caught off-guard by strangers greeting her.

“People are like, ‘Aniya, Aniya!’ And I’m like, ‘Dang, where do I know them from?’ I kind of forget that people know me,” Harvey says. Even though she’s fresh off the plane, the Season 8 runner-up looks effortlessly stylish in an athletic two-piece that I recognize from one of her recent TikToks.

It’s not just that the millions of viewers who tuned into the hit Peacock series recognize Harvey. They’ve seen her experience a roller coaster of romance, heartbreak, and second chances, ending in a fairytale romance with Carl Schmidt. She’s a certified celeb now, with over 4 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, and a packed schedule of media appearances — but in her words, this “crazy” year almost didn’t happen because of a message she initially ignored.

When Harvey, who was working for her family's nonprofit, the Reconstructing Youth Foundation, applied for Love Island on a whim last year, she never thought producers would actually reach out to cast her. “I thought it was a scam,” she says of the DM. “My Instagram had just been hacked. So I was like, ‘This is the hacker!’” (Thankfully, she finally answered after their second reach-out in January.) She’s an admitted fan of the show, dating back before it arrived in the U.S. — “I was always extremely obsessed with Love Island UK” — but being on it was a whole different ball game, so much so that she has yet to completely watch her own season back.

“I've seen bits and pieces. I’ve watched everything up to Carl popping out of the cake,” Harvey says, referring to her eliminated connection’s surprise return in Episode 23, which solidified their relationship and finally gave her the romance she went on the show hoping for.

In that moment, Harvey was overjoyed to get a second chance with Schmidt after regrettably cutting things off with him after Casa Amor. But because Schmidt’s return was decided by audience vote, there could have been some tension around coupling up simply because it’s clearly what America wanted.

“It is a lot, people being invested in the relationship. Carl gets more stressed out about that. But personally, I don’t feel any pressure because I really like Carl,” Harvey says. “I enjoy every moment I get to have with him. I'm invested in it, too!”

I've also been super parasocial with everything. So I get why people are obsessed.

She’s so dedicated that right after getting her phone back post-filming, Harvey “pulled an all-nighter” losing herself in TikTok edits of herself and Carl. “I did not sleep. I literally was up all night and reposting every single Carniya edit I saw that I thought was fire,” Harvey says. “Still one of my favorite things to do is go on TikTok and just search up ‘Carniya.’ I was a viewer as well, and I've also been super parasocial with everything,” she says. “So I get why people are obsessed.”

Sadly for all the hyper-invested Carniya shippers, Harvey and Schmidt aren’t boyfriend and girlfriend yet, mainly because of the distance. He lives in Denver, Colorado, basically half a continent away from Harvey’s Atlanta home. But they’re discussing what a future together may look like.

“We talk about moving all the time,” Harvey says. “He's currently trying to decide if he wants to move to LA or New York. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do. I haven't decided yet. We don't want to rush anything, especially with the pressure of being on the show. But we talk to each other every day and have really good communication.”

He is my biggest bully, but it's so funny because he's so sweet when he does it.

According to Harvey, a lot of their banter leans into teasing. “Me and Carl, we make fun of each other all the time,” she says. “Carl’s witty. He has a dad-joke vibe. He's always going to make jokes about anything I did in the villa. He talks about how I kicked him off all the time. He is my biggest bully, but it's so funny because he's so sweet when he does it.”

While she and Schmidt can joke about it now, it took Harvey a bit to come to terms with the moment she dumped him to continue a relationship with KC Chandler, who then broke things off with her to pursue his now-girlfriend, Tierra Davis. “Watching that back when I first got out of the villa made me cry,” Harvey says. “It felt like the end of the world in the moment, and seeing myself that upset really hurt my heart. But now I watch it like, ‘Girl, life is great. You had all these blessings. Get over it. Stop crying.’”

Though she’s been able to cope with her most harrowing Love Island moment in the weeks since leaving Fiji, she hasn’t been able to get past some of the editing choices in the Season 8 reunion, which aired on Aug. 31. Her castmate Zach Georgiou has claimed several of his remarks were cut from the special, and Harvey has a similar experience. “I'm so glad Zach spoke on that, because there were certain important values to us that we wish were addressed that weren't addressed,” Harvey says.

She’s specifically referring to a statement she says she delivered about the racism she experienced from Love Island fans, which was not in the reunion’s final edit. “I was really disappointed, and it did hurt me that wasn’t shown,” Harvey says. “I received an abundant amount of backlash coming off the show. There was a picture of me as George Floyd with another islander on top of me. And still now, I received death threats going into the reunion, which I spoke about but also wasn’t included. Some other stuff was cut as well, but that's the most important thing.” (Elite Daily reached out to Peacock for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.)

With Love Island now in her past, Harvey is squarely focused on the future. She signed with talent agency Gersh shortly after returning from Fiji for representation in television, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, brand partnerships, and entrepreneurial ventures. She hasn’t been able to “pinpoint just one thing” she wants to explore most yet, but her “biggest dream” is to be featured in Sports Illustrated.

Along with that, she’s manifesting the strength to float above any negativity as she kick-starts her new career. “My biggest thing is I don't want to get in my head about stuff. I just want to stay mentally positive,” Harvey says. “This year is about keeping my head up, staying positive, and continuing to push through.”