Riley Burruss has been on television long enough to know that cameras have a way of remembering what people would rather forget.
It’s a lesson her mother, Kandi Burruss, made sure she understood before Riley stepped out of the relative safety of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and into a reality series where she, not her mother, would be responsible for what happened when the cameras started rolling. Kandi’s advice was simple: be honest, because the tape can always be run back.
After two seasons of Next Gen NYC, Riley understands exactly what she meant.
This season, Riley wasn’t watching the tape to catch somebody else in a contradiction. She was watching herself — and she didn’t always like what she saw. She laughed at some moments and cringed at others, admitting that watching the season unfold revealed parts of herself she still wants to work on.
“I feel like this really was a season where I looked back and I was like, there’s a lot of room for more growth,” Riley told The Reality Rundown. “Of course, I already knew that. I’m never gonna stop growing.”
For someone who has been watched since childhood, that distinction matters. Audiences first met Riley as Kandi’s young daughter on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, years before she could have understood what it meant to have strangers form opinions about her. Next Gen NYC changed the terms of that relationship. At 24, Riley’s friendships, arguments, ambitions, romance and mistakes are no longer supporting storylines in her mother’s life. They’re her own.
And Season 2 gave her plenty to watch back.
