Today, Teen Vogue published an insightful new interview with Love Island USA season 6 winner Serena Page. In between taking selfies with adoring “supporters” (the term she prefers to use), Page spoke to associate editor Aiyana Ishmael about reentering the real world, the show’s upcoming first-of-its-kind spinoff series Love Island: Beyond the Villa, and her relationship with co-winner Kordell Beckham.
Highlights from the conversation include:
On reentering the real world after the villa:
“I feel like the whole cast has been on autopilot,” Page tells Teen Vogue about her journey reentering the real world after the villa. We’ve just been moving and going with the motions and I think we’re finally starting to settle down and be like, ‘Whoa, guys. What is really going on?’ I think the spinoff definitely woke that feeling up, too.”
On her newfound success after going on reality television:
“That’s been the most heartwarming piece of this entire experience. From start to finish, people have loved me for me and not a character that I’m portraying or a role that I’m playing. I am very glad that people got to know my personality and who I am before anything else because I do have other dreams and aspirations in the industry.”
“I have a connection with my supporters,” she continues. “They feel like we’re best friends. I run into people all the time. I was just in Chicago and these girls, we made eye contact in the restroom and they’re like, ‘Serena?’ I said, ‘Hey, bestie.’ It’s just immediate, they always come up to me, they’re like, ‘I feel like we’re best friends.’ And I’m like, ‘Because we are.’”
On her “Powerpuff Gang” (PPG) deciding whether to return for the spinoff:
“We sat down and we talked about it because after the show, it was a lot,” Page says, dragging out the end of her sentence. “It was a lot for everyone with the amount of eyes and opinions on us, the amount of think pieces. So we were like, ‘Do we want to go through that again? Is that something that we want to put ourselves through mentally?’ It was a no for a long time. And then the more conversations we had about it and the more we talked about the reason why we’re here, what our supporters want to see, things of that nature, we were like, ‘You know what? Let’s suck it up. It is what it is. Let’s try it out, just like we tried it out last summer. If we hate it, we’re never doing it again.”
On showing a different side of herself in the spinoff:
“I show a different side of myself on the spin-off. I open up about my anxiety,” she continues. “I think everything switching in my life so fast triggered that. I’m showing more of a vulnerable side on the show because that’s something I always kept close to my chest, but it has become a big part of my life now… When I was younger, I didn’t tell anyone that I had anxiety,” Page continues. “I just want to normalize that it’s okay. Everybody has it. I still don’t consider myself a celebrity, but everyone, even your favorite influencer — you don’t know what they’re going through behind closed doors.”
On the family dynamic between the spinoff cast:
“We are all a family,” she says. “At the end of the day, you fight with your family, you argue with your family. You might have fallen out for a year or so, but we all went through that experience together that nobody else will understand. I think there will always be a level of love in our hearts for each other no matter what. I feel like you can tell there’s always love there.”
On wanting to put out a haircare line of her own:
“It’s something I haven’t been able to pour into because of how busy I’ve been,” she says. “I told myself after this spinoff, I’m going to sit my ass down, lock in, and get this out because it is one of my passions. I have been obsessed with hair since I was a kid. I remember braiding my Bratz hair, I learned how to cornrow on the little Bratz dolls.”
On Black representation and public reactions to wearing her braids on-screen:
“It makes me cry because I feel like it’s something that was not accepted as much,” Page says. “As someone who watched Love Island so much, I watched my sisters come on there with wigs, and the thing is, I never bashed them because at the end of the day, you get approached differently as a Black woman, this is known. When you have braids, you get certain attention from men versus when you have a wig on your head, you get a different amount of attention, especially when you’re going on a show that [stars] primarily white people.”
“The braids? Honey, you’re going home,” she continues, while laughing. “You’re out. It was a decision, and honestly, I didn’t think that I would get put on the show solely for that reason, because I did my interviews in wigs.”
Page says she wore a different hairstyle for each of her interviews for the show. “[The producers] were like, ‘You need to wear the same hair you have in this interview to the island,’” she recalls. “And then as I’m getting ready, I was like, ‘I’m not about to fight with my lace all summer.’ The first time I saw braids on Love Island was Justine [from Love Island Games]. That’s actually the reason I wore them, because I was like, ‘Justine wore them and she did the damn thing… I know they told me to wear this wig, but I’m about to risk it. I’m going to go get these braids.’”
After arriving in Fiji for season 6, Page remembers meeting the Peacock team for the first time in person. They said she “looked different.”
“I went back to my room and cried because I was like, ‘I’m not going on,’” she says. “It was nerve-wracking. It’s nice to know how well it was perceived when I got out [the villa]. I didn’t even know when I was in there that people were seeing my different styles as a thing. That’s me on the regular. I hate having one style for too long, so I would always just switch it up. I was getting bored with my braids in the villa. I almost took them out and wore my ‘fro because I was so sick of them.”
On her relationship with Kordell outside the villa:
“Once we locked in [inside the villa], it was like, ‘Wait a minute. I [feel like] we’ve been dating for years now,’” Page says. “So then after getting out, it just continued. There was no shift. There was no adjusting. Besides the fact that people are writing think pieces about our relationship — people being like, ‘Oh, she hates him.’ They love that one, honey. They don’t like a woman who doesn’t do the chasing.”
On Kordell only joining the spinoff as a guest star:
“At [first] he was going to do it with me. I had fully confirmed, signed the contracts and everything, and then he got booked,” she recalls. “I was very proud of him, but I was sad and it made me very anxious about filming because I was like, ‘Damn, I’m going to be alone.’ Granted, I have my girls, Leah and JaNa, but their men were on the show doing it with them. There were a lot of times where I was like, ‘Damn, I don’t know. We’re supposed to be navigating our relationship, but you’re about to be in a whole different state. What am I going to do?’”
“But he did an amazing job reassuring me,” she adds. “He was like, ‘Any crumb of a chance I can get, I’m going to be on that screen with you.’ And honestly, you’re going to see a lot more of him than you would’ve expected. It’s maybe [only] a handful of scenes that I’ve done without him. Y’all will get to see some behind-the-scenes of me and him working together. Y’all get to see dates. He even ends up coming to Miami, too.”
On whether or not she’s watching the new season:
“It doesn’t hit the same because I was a Love Island watcher,” she says. Is it like working at a fast food joint and never being able to enjoy a meal there again? She agrees wholeheartedly. “Now I know the inner workings. I know what you have to do. I know when the pauses happen. I know when I see poor editing. I’m watching from a different lens now… But I’m a reality television watcher. I’m going to tune in. And there are two beautiful Black girls.”
On how the show has changed her:
“I am extremely stubborn,” she says, reflecting on how the reality show has changed her. “I am a ‘I can do everything by myself’ type of person. It’s always been extremely hard for me to admit I need help. But coming off the show, I have been forced to, because if not, I will have a panic attack every other day. I can’t handle all of this. I’m very grateful for the show and all the stress because it’s at least forced me to acknowledge that about myself. It’s been a weight lifted off my shoulders.”
STORY LINK: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/love-island-beyond-the-villa-serena-page-spinoff-interview-july-2025
To view/download the exclusive images, please click HERE*.
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Credits:
Photographer Kendall Bessent
Styling Courtesy of Matthew Reisman and Reginald Reisman at The Only Agency
Location Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel
Art and Design Director Emily Zirimis
Designer Liz Coulbourn
Associate Visuals Editor Bea Oyster
Associate Culture Director P. Claire Dodson
Culture Editor Kaitlyn McNab
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