Since she was one of the fan favorites from Bachelor Season 21, what is Raven Gates doing now? The 25-year-old business owner from Hoxie, Arkansas made it all the way to the end of Nick Viall's season of The Bachelor before being sent home, which Nick could probably tell you from experience is the most heartbreaking way to go. But the thing about Raven is that she's a total badass, so I wasn't too worried about how she'd be doing post-show. You don't deliver the kind of heartfelt, tearjerking speeches that she did on national television without knowing quite a bit about yourself and what makes you happy. Since being on the show, Raven seems to be getting even more in touch with all the things that made us fall in love with her all season.
First of all, she's been working. Raven spends a lot of time at her store Grey Suede, which is located not in Hoxie, but in the neighboring town of Jonesboro, Arkansas. Grey Suede sells anything that a trendy, Southern gal like Raven could possibly want, and it's intentionally budget friendly to appeal to a whole range of customers. Based on Raven's social media, she's very involved in every step of the process of running a store, from selecting inventory, managing staff, and just being present on site seeing what's happening in the day-to-day.
Here's a little promo video from the store to give you an idea of where Raven spends her working days.
Even during her downtime, Raven always has an eye to business; she'll post a photo of herself on vacation, for example, modeling clothes she sells at the boutique with a link to the store.
But her life isn't all work and no play. I haven't seen any evidence of a new boyfriend, but Raven spends a lot of time with friends, many of whom will be familiar faces for Bachelor fans. Even though they were technically competing against each other for the attentions of the same dude, many of this year's women seem to have developed a really strong bond.
Raven has become very close friends with Alexis Waters post-show, and attended the first weekend of Coachella with Whitney Fransway, Jasmine Goode, Danielle Lombard, Corinne Olympios, Corinne's sister Taylor Olympios, and Sarah Vendal. She captioned an Instagram photo of the group with the word "Family" and a heart and a rose, so these ladies appear to be in it for keeps.
But that isn't the only traveling that Raven has done since her Bachelor heartbreak. According to social media, she spent New Years Eve in Miami, appears to have jaunted off to Fiji for a trip in late March or early April, and has also visited Malibu, where she was shown around by Whitney.
Some of her jet-setting was likely for fun, but she seems to have looped a lot of it into promotional opportunities as well, like this appearance at her local radio station The Fox earlier this month.
She also appears to have adopted a dog since the show wrapped. His name is Boaz, he's not quite five months old as of mid-April, and he's already 50 pounds. Boaz seems like the perfect pup for the outdoorsy lifestyle that we got a glimpse of on the show, and I can just imagine him riding happily beside Raven as she goes mudding.
Basically, her life is pretty kickass now, so don't feel sorry for Raven that she and Nick didn't end up together. She's living the dream and made a whole bunch of friends in her season. From the outside at least, it seems like a guy would just be an added bonus on top of all this, not a requirement.
