You’ve probably seen a few of those “vertical drama” adverts yourself. As their name indicates, these programmes are tailored to fit your phone screen. Each episode is usually around five to ten minutes long. The plots and acting are often questionable, to say the least. It’s easy to make fun of them; case in point: this TikTok about a vertical drama parody called Pregnant With My Alpha Wolf Billionaire CEO Baby Daddy’s Baby.
The Heiress Who Won With Brains (native title: 真千金她是学霸, or The Real Heiress is a Top Student) is one such programme. It went viral in March, thanks to Filipinos spamming social media comment sections with protagonist Linda Walker’s mock exam score of 719. The other characters, despite all of them living in China, have baffling, outdated Anglophone names like Nancy Lewis and Ethan Miller. Linda apparently comes from a province called Brookshire.
Upon hearing about the drama, you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s just AI generated slop or the work of some exploited freelancer. Expectations for this show’s quality were practically non-existent. After watching both seasons, however, you might find yourself happy to be proven wrong.
Charming and empowering
Fortunately, the story isn’t the work of some anonymous underpaid freelancer. In fact, it is adapted from a story published under the nom de plume 减肥包子 (Jian Fei Bao Zi or Weight Loss Steamed Bun), originally posted on Fanqie, a popular web novel app in China. The source material was titled 当山河四省高三生，成为真千金后 (When High School Students from Shanhe Become True Heiresses). Season one premiered on Hong Guo, a short drama platform by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, on 12th September 2025. Its second season aired in November that year.
The characters don’t actually have names better-suited to British grandparents than young people in China. “Linda” is named 林思望 (Lin Si Wang) and “Nancy” is named 苏挚意 (Su Zhi Yi) in the original Chinese dialogue, for example. For the purposes of this review, however, we shall use the names from the English dub.
The premise is simple: Linda (Zhang Ying Fei) is a 17-year-old girl from Brookshire (Shanhe, a region in central China). She finds out that she was switched at birth with Nancy (Che Chao Yan), a spoiled brat who pretends to be a saint. When she moves in with Nancy’s wealthy family, the Lewises, Linda studies incredibly hard so she can ace the National College Entrance Examination and live independently in the Capital City (Beijing).
But Nancy is determined to uphold her reputation as the most intelligent, beloved, and perfect girl there ever was. Nancy throws herself into some real soap opera shenanigans just so the rest of the Lewises don’t realise how smart Linda truly is. Our heroine, however, is allowed to be multifaceted: she’s ultimately a kind and caring person, but she’s not afraid to be cunning and assertive.
Linda’s sarcastic lines and arguments with Nancy are hilarious. However, you’ll truly root for her too. Come season two, you might end up appreciating the de-clawed Nancy as well.
Light spoilers for season two mentioned below!
Linda gets some ship tease with sweet boy next door Ethan. However, she ends up choosing to reject romance completely. Her utter disinterest in dating is not treated as a flaw that needs to be fixed. The show lets our heroine to be laser-focused on individual success and self-development, without being punished for it.
In season two, Linda is now the CEO of her own company. Nancy goes from a parody of soap opera villains to a tragic riches-to-rags figure, a clueless young woman genuinely failed by her family’s endless coddling. Despite the abuse she suffered at the Lewises’ hands, spearheaded by Nancy, Linda has hope for her adoptive sister. She helps Nancy grow better and smarter.
Heiress is truly interested in portraying complex female characters and dynamics between them. Zhang and Che, both in their early 20s, are both incredibly talented young actresses too. They lend their roles wonderful humour and heart.
It’s no wonder this show was an instant smash hit in China. Heiress ranked number one on both Hongguo’s Hot Search List and New Drama List just three days after it premiered. The second season also garnered more than 2 million pre-saves ahead of its 21st November release. Tencent QQ News reported that the show’s success had the potential to change the face of Chinese dramas, as it focused on modern female characters instead of fantasy and romance.
Although global viewers had no clue about all this until the barrage of memes in March, it’s better late than never, right? As of June, the Heiress craze is still in full force. This month, Zhang Ying Fei began touring the Philippines to inspire fans to prioritise their education and careers. How well-deserved.
If you’re not checking out Chinese dramas yet, this should be your sign. As fun as the memes are, this show is the future, no joke!
Seasons one and two of The Heiress Who Won With Brains are available to watch for free on YouTube.