Brooke Hyland's Life After 'Dance Moms' Is Surprisingly Normal

From Woman's Day

Have you ever wondered what happens to child reality stars when they leave behind fame and try to go for a normal life? Just look to Brooke Hyland, who left Dance Moms in 2014 after four seasons on the show. At the time, she was 16 years old. Today, Brooke is 21 and figuring out what she wants to do next in life.

After quitting Dance Moms, Brooke put dance on the backburner, choosing to live her high school life as normally as she could while also having millions of Instagram followers and a famous face. From there, she applied and enrolled in college. Now she's starting the next chapter of her life, and Dance Moms is far in her rear-view mirror.

Why did Brooke Hyland leave Dance Moms?

The entire Hyland family — including Brooke, her sister Paige, and her mother Kelly — left the show in season 4. Their exit wasn't entirely unexpected as Kelly had been having dramatic clashes with dance coach Abby Lee Miller for years. Without delving into the specifics, Kelly later said in an interview that it was "time for us to go" because "it just got to the point where it was an unhealthy situation for my family."

Her mother's personal beef with Miller aside, Brooke had already expressed on the show that she wanted to pull back a bit from competitive dancing. As a teenager, she wanted to be at school more with her friends and try her hand at other passions like cheerleading and singing. Leaving Dance Moms enabled her to do that.

What is Brooke Hyland doing in 2019?

In January, Brooke turned 21 and in May she graduated from Ohio University. According to LinkedIn, she majored in Marketing, Management Information Systems, and Business Analytics. "3 years, 2 degrees, & INFINITE memories … cheers to us & to what’s next," Brooke wrote in an Instagram caption along with photos to commemorate her graduation.

Aside from stepping into her new life as a college graduate, Brooke currently runs a food-themed Instagram — indulging in another non-dance passion of hers. It's called bitesized_foodie, and the pictures are sure to make you hungry.

What's next for Brooke Hyland?

Now that Brooke has graduated from college, she will likely start looking for jobs. Her Instagram shows that she just got back from a (probably much-needed) trip to Europe, and now her job search can start in earnest. Her LinkedIn shows that she already has experience being a marketing intern, so perhaps she'll pursue that path.

According a 2015 International Business Times article, Brooke once discussed another potential direction for her post-Dance Moms life. She and Paige said perhaps they'd open their own dance studio some day. "Everyone always asks me how I do all my tricks. I hope to teach everyone all of my secrets," Brooke said, referring to her flexible dance skills on the show. "My family have all danced our whole lives so it only seems natural to continue with dance," she said.

Whether Brooke sticks with what her college major was or does head back into dance at some point, it seems like she's content with her non-reality TV life. After leaving the show, she had a chance to experience being a "normal" teenager and college student, and those kinds of memories are priceless.

Watch the all new episodes of Dance Moms season 8 on Tuesday nights on Lifetime and catch up on all the old seasons on Hulu.

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