It’s finally here. Season 18 with Michelle Young of ABC’s The Bachelorette kicked off! We first met her when she was competing during Matt James’ season on The Bachelor. Ultimately, during his After the Rose episode, we learned that they were announcing 2 Bachelorettes from his season - Katie Thurston that we saw earlier this summer.

Of course, we begin by seeing more about Michelle as well as her parents. But we also get to find out more about the men that will be vying for her attention this season as we see them traveling, settling in and in some cases - plotting how they can be the ideal contestant - complete with tips, charts etc - it’s a bit strange. We get this access while we watch our hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe popping into the rooms to get to know about them and then what they have lying around.

Both of the hosts meet Michelle when she exits out of her limo to let her know she has a great crop of men. They also want to know more about what she hopes to get out of the experience. With that, the men begin to make themselves known to her. Jaime’s comment “that dress was just fabric until you brought it to life,” was definitely a line that stuck out in our heads and made us smile. Peter the Pizzapreneur with the accessorized suit jacket was another one that we liked. We met Ryan with the playbook and although his ice cream truck was cool, we still can’t get past all of his intel that he brought to his hotel room.

When we saw Joe Coleman as one of the contestants we wondered if they may have known one another since they are both from Minnesota. We love how Michelle thought he was familiar and then asked him if she had ever slid into his DMs. Although he was coy, she finally asked if his last name was Coleman and then we knew that he was in face familiar! We then find out that they had talked about basketball back and forth, and that he ghosted her! In talking with him, she found out that he ghosted her because they were communicating during the George Floyd Movement. We saw her take some extra time with Ryan and although they had a great second conversation, Tayshia and Kaitlyn loop her in. After Michelle talks with Ryan directly, she looks at the documents herself and deems Ryan unfit for being there - she sends his home.

The first impression rose was given to Nayte- she liked how he was vulnerable even though he said it would be hard for him. We can see the two of them being together.

With that, the first rose ceremony begins. Next week, we’ll see: Nayte (first impression rose), Jamie, Leroy, Martin, Spencer, Rick, Clayton, Peter, PJ, Mollique, Romeo, Daniel, Brandon J, Will, Chris S, Rodney, Alec, Pardeep, Christopher G, Casey, Olu, LT and Joe.

Michelle sent home: Ryan (from earlier in the night), Jomarri, Jack, Garrett, Edward, Bryan and Brandon K.

Each night during this season, we tweet about The Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!

Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.

We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!

HOMETOWN NOTES

SEASON 18 | EPISODE 1

This week these 4 stick out in our minds as the group that would be going to hometowns. We could see Martin, Nayte, Olu and Peter in hometowns! This season, we will mark how many weeks we have had them in hometowns as well as we continue our weekly predictions.