adison Bailey was at a Whole Foods a week after the premiere of “Outer Banks” when a stranger came up to her. “They were like, ‘Hey, are you Kiara from ‘Outer Banks?’” she recalls. “It was during the pandemic. I had a mask on and everything. I remember being so shocked. I ended up getting recognized three other times in that Whole Foods.”
That was the first time Bailey, 22, was recognized for her role as Kiara in “Outer Banks,” Netflix’s smash teen drama about a ragtag group of misfits from a coastal town in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The show, which premiered its second season on July 30, was Netflix’s fourth most-watched original series of 2020 and catapulted Bailey and her cast from relative unknowns to overnight teen sensations. “We already had fan pages when the trailer came out. I was shocked,” Bailey says. “I was like, ‘These people don’t even know if it’s good!’ To fall in love with it from just the trailer, I was like, ‘Let me prepare myself for when this show comes out.’ But honestly, nothing could’ve prepared me.”
Bailey, the youngest of seven siblings, grew up in Kernersville, North Carolina, a mountainside town a few hours away from the Outer Banks. She was adopted by a white couple and is one of two non-white children in her family. “Every mixed girl has a similar story. Discovering my own identity, not only as a mixed girl, but as a mixed girl with two white parents, I had to figure out where I fit in,” she says. “Finding my own identity has been a journey. Kernersville wasn’t the place where I had it all figured out.”
Bailey, who would perform skits in her garage for her family when she was a kid, was 15 when she booked her first role on “Constantine,” an NBC show based on the DC Comics character of the same name. “I worked probably less than five days, but it was enough to know that was what I wanted to do forever,” she says.
And so she taped the same scenes again. This time, she got a call that the creators wanted to see her in Charleston, South Carolina, where the show films. It was at that callback that Bailey learned she booked the part. “My heart sank. The feeling was indescribable,” she says. “I talked to [creator] Josh [Pate] about it later, ‘So...what originally happened?’ He was like, ‘I don’t know what happened to that first tape. I don’t know if we ever saw it.’”
“Outer Banks” follows Kiara and her friends—John B., Sarah, Pope and JJ—as they hunt for a $400 million treasure tied to John B.’s missing father. Though the show is set in the Outer Banks, much of it is filmed in Charleston, which has led to criticism from locals of the real Outer Banks. “A lot of people do feel a certain way because it’s called ‘Outer Banks’ and we don’t film in the Outer Banks,” Bailey says. “But it’s more an abstract idea of the lifestyle and less about the place. It’s a similar lifestyle to a lot of beach towns in North Carolina and even in the mountainside where I grew up.”
Season 2 sees Kiara continue her relationship with Pope, her longtime friend who she confessed her feelings for at the end of season 1. “We ended season 1 with a kiss. Season 2 was us figuring out what that meant. It was us trying to define the relationship,” she says. “They’re just two teenagers trying to figure out what their feelings mean for their friendship. We’re both tiptoeing around the fact that we don’t want to lose each other in any way.”
“I was nervous about the response I’d get. I think people’s response to any mental health issue that’s not depression or anxiety is that you’re crazy,” she says. “Especially if you have a personality disorder, they’re like, ‘Oh, what are their names?’ I’m like, ‘Not multiple personality disorder. I have borderline personality disorder.’ Basically I just have conflict with the one personality I have. There are a lot of misconceptions. But I realized at the end of the day, people want more accuracy.”
Bailey has also been open about being pansexual, a term she heard for the first time when he was 18. “I can’t remember who described it to me, but it was basically like, ‘That’s who you are when you love anyone and everyone,’” she says. “I was like, ‘Great. That’s what I am.’ It just stuck, and I ran with it.” Though her family was beyond supportive when she came out, it was still a long process for Bailey to understand her sexuality. “I thought I was straight my whole life because nobody presented any other option,” she says. “I didn’t know any queer people. Nobody in my family is queer. The older I got, the more access I had to the internet and I got to see other people living lives that were nothing like the one I had in front of me.”
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Shoes: Alohas. Pants and Top: Cult Gaia. Bag: Roam.
Top, Pants, and Shoes: Cult Gaia.
Top and Pants: Holiday. Crop: Frankie’s.
Photography - Higgsy @higgsy_photography
Hair and Makeup - Courtney Housner @chousner
Styling - Ali Mullin @alimullin
Booking - @exclusiveartists
After high school, Bailey moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting full time. Three days after her move, she received a call about a show called “Outer Banks.” “I truly did not picture myself moving to L.A. and then coming back to the east coast to film a show about North Carolina,” she says. “But I read this part, and I was like, ‘Maybe this was meant to be.’ It was clearly kismet.”
The part was for Kiara “Kie” Carrera, the rebellious daughter of a wealthy biracial family from the Figure Eight, an affluent area of the Outer Banks. Residents of the Figure Eight are called Kooks, a label Kiara rejects because of her friendship with the Pogues, a nickname for the Outer Banks’ working class. “‘Outer Banks’ is different from how I grew up, but the idea of Pogues and Kooks is very similar,” Bailey says. “The south is very divided. There were the rich who had all this money, and then there was pretty much everyone else grinding it out.”
Bailey almost wasn’t cast on “Outer Banks,” however. When she sent in her self tape, she didn’t hear back. Her agent then told her that the creators had rereleased the role, which meant that they didn’t find the right actor the first time and were looking at more auditions. “My agent told me to audition again. But in bold letters, it said, ‘Don’t audition again if you’ve already taped for it.’ So I was like, ‘They clearly don’t love mine.’ But he was like, ‘Just go for it. I promise.’”
As for the possibility of a queer storyline on “Outer Banks,” Bailey confirms that she’s suggested the idea. “I’ve definitely put my thoughts and opinions out there. But at the end of the day, I don’t write the show,” she says. “I wish I had more control over that than I do. But I have talked about it, and they’re not closed off to the idea. They’re writing it one episode at the time.”
Though a third season of “Outer Banks” hasn’t been confirmed, Bailey has high hopes for Kiara’s relationship with her parents, which was left fractured because of her friendship with the Pogues. “I’m curious if she’ll end up deciding to go full rebellion in season 3 or come to her senses and try to find a more understanding ground with her parents,” Bailey says. “We end off season 2 with such a question mark that I couldn’t even tell you a plan for season 3. I know it’s going to be good, and it’s going to be over the top.”
As someone raised in a small town in the south with not many others like her, Bailey understands why Kiara would feel out of place with the Kooks. “We’re similar at heart. I relate to the divide she feels between her friends and the life around her,” she says.
“My situation is different. But I also didn’t feel like I belonged in Kernersville with what was right in front of me. I always wanted more. We’re both fighting for what we think is best for us and for authenticity in ourselves.” However, Bailey also sees differences between her and Kiara. “She’s more reckless. She’s 16. I’m 22,” she says. “I couldn’t see myself doing a lot of things she does. She’s definitely braver than me.”
A lot has changed for Bailey since “Outer Banks” came out. “At the time, I would’ve taken any project. I had bills to pay,” says Bailey, who has had weeks where she’s only had $10 in her bank account. She’s walked red carpets, won a People’s Choice Award and been on the cover of magazines (like this one.) But regardless of what’s changed, Bailey will always remember where she came from. “Now things are a little different. Now I do feel the Kook side of me,” she says. “But I’m still always a Pogue at heart.”
Top: Roam. Shorts: Paneros. Hat: Brixton.
In real life, Bailey is dating UNC Charlotte basketball player Mariah Linney, who she went TikTok official with in 2020 after coming out as pansexual. When asked if there are any similarities between her IRL relationship and Kiara and Pope, Bailey laughs. “There’s no parallel between Pope and Kiara and me and Mariah,” she says. “They’re two completely different relationships. I definitely never had to define the relationship. We always knew, for sure.”
The second season also sees “Outer Banks” tackle race for Pope, one of the few Black characters on the show who learns that his ancestor was a freeman who was hung for his knowledge about the treasure. The show has yet to have similar discussions for Kiara, something Bailey hopes for in season 3. “We could always dive deeper into that in every project, but specifically ours,” she says. “I do wish we hit that point harder. We talk about it with Pope this season, and I wish we talked about it with Kiara more.”
Since the premiere of “Outer Banks,” Bailey has amassed almost four million Instagram followers and was named on Variety’s 2020 Power of Young Hollywood list. With her platform, Bailey has been open about many parts of her life, including her diagnosis with borderline personality disorder at 17.
by Jason Pham
