This week’s campus celebrity, Shelby Reardon, is a reflection of a young, gleeful celebrity in the entertainment industry. Shelby not only shares similar characteristics but interests with the lively Melissa Benoist. The actress had her breakout moment on the fourth season of Glee, and now is breaking ceilings as the leading woman in Supergirl, the first-ever superhero show on CBS. BU COM junior Shelby Reardon leads a list of talented, female sports writers for the Daily Free Press, loves action/sci-fi shows (including Supergirl) and embodies Benoist’s public persona in every way, from her wit to her contagious laugh. With that being said, Shelby is a Melissa Benoist look-alike. If the side-by-side photos don’t automatically say so, Shelby’s interests (and even her hairstyle) make her a perfect match for the Hollywood actress.
1. Singers
Melissa and Shelby have a thing for singing. Benoist performed musicals in college and raised the bar on Glee. Shelby learned how to play the piano at a young age and started singing later on. Since then, she has shared a few covers of songs on YouTube.
2. Dog Lovers
Melissa Benoist’s Instagram is mostly filled with pictures of her dogs. MTV also recently challenged her to answer questions while being surrounded by puppies (her emotional state midway through the interview certifies her love for canines). When I asked Shelby about her feelings towards dogs versus cats, the Terrier instantly voted for dogs. Her dream would be to own a Corgi, and she lives this dream virtually by following an Instagram account dedicated to dogs.
3. Body art addicts
Melissa has talked about and shown her tattoos on The Late Late Show with former host Craig Ferguson. She has a wolf on one of her wrists to pay homage to her home state of Colorado, a feather and the word “free” on the back of her neck, and a bicycle on her foot. Shelby has the word “Believe” inked on her waist, the idea behind the tattoo being quite meaningful; the number 13 makes the shape of the “B.”
“Thirteen is my lucky number and it represents big moments in my life,” she explained. “I graduated from high school in 2013 and it’s the same year I started college.”
The BU junior plans to get two more tats. The first: “so it goes,” which in her words means “shit happens,” adding that anything can happen in life and you just have to go with it. For this specific text, she wants it to be in typewriter font, an appropriate choice for the journalism major. The second tattoo is a picture of mountains to pay homage to her home in Vermont.
That’s three for three. Ok, you have to admit that the doppelgänger dial is leaning more and more towards 100 percent.
4. Tweeters
Benoist keeps her Twitter account up-to-date, whether it’s having friendly conversations with fans, retweeting inspirational quotes or crossing mediums with Instagram shares. Alike, Shelby is consistent with her tweets. She alerts her followers about her recent Daily Free Press articles, ignites her hockey obsession with retweets of the Dallas Stars and Tyler Seguin and posts what’s on her mind like a true storyteller.
I believe these four points make for a convincing case. Ruling the BU junior as a doppelgänger for Melissa Beniost is commonsensical.