Morgan Cadenhead accumulated 150,000 TikTok followers in just 10 days as a result of her nontraditional sorority rush style. Now she’s waiting to see her story play out on Lifetime’s new reality show, “A Sorority Mom’s Guide to Rush!”
“Rush is like ‘The Hunger Games’ for college girls,” Morgan says in a video interview with TODAY.com.
Responding to the negative attention some of her videos attracted, she adds, “I know how things go for me personally on TikTok. So I’m just really nervous about people taking portions of it to suit other needs.”
Morgan’s mom, Lori Cadenhead, is right by Morgan’s side in the interview, just as she is on the reality show, which follows Morgan’s journey through the 2024 rush process at the University of Alabama. Morgan rushed for a second time in 2024 because she did not receive a bid in 2023.
“My mom was like, ‘You should rush! That’d be so cool if you got in. And then we could do all the parent events and stuff,'” Morgan says.
Lori, who learned about sorority life through HBO’s 2023 documentary “Bama Rush,” says, “I kind of felt like I pushed her a little bit because in the beginning, she really wasn’t gonna rush. And then I kept on bringing up the fact that these are your friends for life. I just wanted her to be part of something.”
Sorority rush season at the University of Alabama — Bama Rush for short — requires a whole new vocabulary with terms like PNMs (potential new members), OOTDs (outfits of the day) and RushTok (the corner of TikTok dedicated to videos about sorority rush week). Well-versed in RushTok, Morgan even posts an OOTD video for this very interview.
In the episode airing on Sept. 1, viewers watch as Morgan gets dropped from rush the second year in a row … but she certainly grows throughout the process.
“I was really sad because I put a lot into it,” Morgan says. “But at the same time, it was a relief, because in order to be in a sorority, I would have had to do a complete 180. I don’t know if I would have been 100% myself.”
In a video she posted on Bid Day 2024 that has 1.5 million views, Morgan said, “To everyone who was dropped or withdrew from recruitment, please remember this: We’re all a part of a much larger sisterhood, one that’s not defined by Greek letters.”
She also gave a special shoutout to her mom, who traveled from Florida to Tuscaloosa to support her daughter during rush week.
Rush: Take Two
When Morgan first began posting rush videos on TikTok in 2023, she stood out from other PNMs. She gained notoriety for chugging orange juice, dressing differently than other PNMs and perhaps not taking rush “seriously” enough.
“Rushing was a thing that you did, in a sense,” Morgan explains of her first rush experience. “It’s a great way to meet your classmates before class starts. Is a great way to get connected with the other girls. It is a really nice bonding experience for a lot of the freshmen. So that’s kind of why I did it.”
“The second time I did it, it was largely because I’d seen what it was about, what they were doing, how they treated each other, how they acted, and I really wanted to be part of it,” she says. “I wanted it the second time more than I did the first, I think. I thought that if I gave it a real try, and was a little bit more sorority girl-ish, then maybe I would get in.”
Lori adds, “I think there also might have been a little bit of a ‘You guys didn’t think I was good enough, but I promise I can do this.'”
Dealing With Negativity
It can be hard for Lori to sit back and watch negative comments appear on Morgan’s posts.
“it sucks. It really does,” Lori says. “Especially the last month when Morgan started talking about rush again, I feel like they’re coming for her. The comments are just not ‘sorority girl sisterhood’ comments. Let’s just put it that way.”
The ladies suspect that many of the most negative comments are coming from students on campus. “They’re making fake accounts quicker than their little fingers can type,” Lori says.
Luckily, however, she notes that her daughter has “a pretty thick skin.”
Laughing, Morgan adds, “I think that it bothers her more than it bothers me personally. I don’t mind.”
In fact, Morgan would absolutely advise an incoming freshman to give Bama Rush a whirl.
“I’m not not self-aware enough to realize that my experience is one of one,” she says. “It was an interesting combination of social media and the way I acted that got me the results that I got. A normal freshman going through this process is not going to have to deal with anything that I’ve had to deal with.”
Life After Sorority Rush
Morgan, who will be graduating from college in December, has found her people outside of sororities.
“I was part of book club. I tried fencing … wasn’t for me,” she says, pausing for a laugh. “I mostly just hang out on campus with my friends.” She will also grab coffee with people who reach out to her via social media. “One of my closest friends I met that way the first year that I rushed,” she adds.
Morgan is also funneling her creativity into writing a book. Spoiler alert: It’s not about rush.
“It’s a dystopian young adult book and the tagline is, ‘What if every 10 years the government made you wipe your memory?'” she says proudly.
Morgan says she would consider writing about her rush experience, but, she says, “I’d have to leave school before we ever touch that.”
Even with all of the ups and downs of rush, Morgan says she wouldn’t change a thing.
Her mother, however, would.
“I wouldn’t send her to Alabama,” she deadpans.
