Georgia Survivor winner Savannah Louie is giving fans a glimpse into how she stayed emotionally connected while competing on the reality show and what she intentionally left behind before ever stepping onto the island.
In a TikTok posted this week, Louie shared that before leaving to film Survivor, she wrote more than 30 handwritten love letters for her boyfriend, Brandon Stiles, one for each day she expected to be gone. The couple had been dating for nearly a year at the time.
“There are more than 30 letters here,” Louie said in the video, holding a stack of envelopes. “I wanted him to feel my presence even when I wasn’t here.”
Louie explained that the letters were part of her emotional preparation for the experience, allowing her to stay grounded while cut off from the outside world. Some included small surprises like photos or concert tickets, while others were simply reflections on what she loved about her partner or imagined moments in the game.
“So if it was day 13, I’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m probably at the merge,’” she said, describing how she wrote letters based on where she expected to be in the competition.
The Survivor winner said writing has always helped her express emotions more easily than speaking. “I feel like I’m actually a lot better at expressing myself and my feelings through writing versus speaking,” Louie said, calling letter writing a “lost art.”
Fans quickly flooded the comments with reactions, many praising the thoughtfulness behind the gesture.
“Proof she was thinking ahead. No wonder she won,” one commenter wrote, prompting Louie to reply, “Manifesting it!”
Others were curious about how her boyfriend reacted once she returned home — and once he learned she had won.
“What was it like telling him you won?” one user asked.
“I wish I recorded it,” Louie replied. “He thought I had won by my text messages on the plane, he said I was being too positive to not have won.”
Several commenters said the video resonated on a personal level. “That’s so adorable that he kept them,” one viewer wrote. “Writing things down helps me way more than speaking sometimes.”
Louie was featured by People following her Survivor win in December, but her TikTok channel offers a quieter look at the personal side of the competition, highlighting the emotional planning contestants often do long before cameras begin rolling.
