Pitt alum Gabbie Hanna makes a surprise visit to campus

60 years ago today, The Beatles made their American television debut on the Ed Sullivan show to a crowd of insatiable fans. Pitt alum Gabbie Hanna spawned a similar moment today when she made a surprise visit to campus, prompting hundreds of Pitt students to congregate in the quad outside of Amos Hall. 

Hanna, who grew up an hour’s drive from Pittsburgh in New Castle, graduated from Pitt in 2013. Months after leaving Pitt, she amassed a formidable following on the short-form video platform Vine and pivoted to YouTube the following year. 

In the years since her genesis as an online personality, Hanna has gained notoriety as one of the most eccentric content creators on the Internet. Trying her hand at music, art, acting and poetry, Hanna has become Pitt’s most famous recent graduate. 

At 4 p.m., after the crowd waited for two hours, Hanna finally emerged from the door of Amos Hall. Surrounded by Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority sisters, Hanna stealthily slipped out of the building, offering a wave to the crowd. As they caught on, fans streamed westward down Fifth Avenue in pursuit. The Pitt News interviewed Hanna on her way into Raising Cane’s. 

“I was driving to a meeting for my design company in Point Breeze, and then I was just rolling through Oakland, and I was like, I have to just hit up the girls at Tri-Sig, see if I can come hang out,” Hanna said, between hugging fans and pulling out her phone to record a shoutout for The Pitt News. “So I came by, they were all super welcoming — it’s crazy because it was literally so different, but so much the same.” 

Excitement over Hanna’s stint on campus reached fever pitch during her visit to her former sorority in Amos Hall. Ayla Saeed, a sophomore law, criminal justice and society major, said she rode in the Amos elevator with Hanna and snapped a picture. 

“I got texted by my suite group chat, because I live in Amos. I ran from my class,” Saeed said. “I was like, ‘Wait, I should probably go up and say hi’ … She was like, ‘You guys are really cool too. Tri-Sig was awesome.’”

As Hanna caught up with sisters in Tri-Sig on the sixth floor, the mob steadily grew as the word spread on social media. Pathfinder tours dodged the crowd and slipped through the quad. For every person who gave up hope and walked away, a perplexed passing pedestrian caved to the intrigue and joined. 

Sara Zacharia had a brief exchange with Hanna inside the building. Zacharia, a sophomore civil engineering major, said Hanna was as personable as she hoped. 

“She was really sweet, too. She took pictures with everyone who asked,” Zacharia said. “We were in her vlog.”

Angelina Sweeney, another sophomore civil engineering major, said she was a longtime fan and relished the opportunity to meet her. 

“It was crazy. I used to watch her all the time when I was little,” Sweeney said. “I was shaking.”