Milk & Honeys
Milk & Honeys" is the perfect blend of raw industry insights and unfiltered realness. Like the ingredients that sweeten and smooth out a cup of tea, hosts Kayla Becker (TV host of 10 years) and Vanessa Curry (model and actress of 10 years) bring their own flavors to the conversation— Together, they spill the tea on what it really takes to live and thrive in LA’s entertainment scene.
So, grab a mug and sip on some Milk & Honeys—because we’re serving the tea with all the right ingredients.
Milk & Honeys
Episode 39: Reality Check with Fo Porter: Her America’s Next Top Model Experience
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This week on Milk & Honeys, we sit down with America’s Next Top Model Cycle 12 fan favorite Fo Porter to talk about what it was really like competing on one of reality TV’s most iconic — and controversial — shows.
With the new Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model bringing the show back into the conversation, Fo reflects on her time inside the ANTM house: the judging panels, the pressure of the competition, working with Tyra Banks, and what it felt like navigating it all at just 18 years old.
Did contestants know what they were walking into by Cycle 12? Were there moments that felt off even at the time? And how does Fo look back on the experience now?
Plus, Fo shares what life has looked like after Top Model and how she found a new passion in the kitchen. She’s now focused on cooking, planning to attend culinary school, and building her foodie page @food.popps.
Warm Welcome And Cinco Plans
SPEAKER_02Welcome back, everybody, to Milk and Honeys. We're your hosts, I'm Kayla Becker. And I'm Vanessa Curry.
SPEAKER_00I totally forgot.
Introducing Faux Porter
SPEAKER_02So this is our 39th episode. Oh. And since episode one, we have this like normally we can read each other's minds, but we don't know who's gonna say the other person's name. Right, right. So we're gonna learn. We're almost a year in. We're still figuring out finish each other's. The year in being this close is crazy. May the 5th, Cinco de Mayo was our our and our relaunch. We thought we both love tequila and talking. So, like, what holiday brings both of those things together? Cinco de Maya. Cinco de Mayo. Absolutely. So stay tuned for our Cinco de Mayo celebration. I want to be here. We are joined today, but a lot of you probably remember from America's Next Hot Model. We are here with Faux Porter. She's from Cycle 12. And she's also someone I know personally.
SPEAKER_00Which is always fun because we can skip the, you know, awkward. Yes that we've never talked to before. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Um, but yeah, we've been talking a lot about uh America's Next Hot Model lately, because a Netflix documentary, reality check inside America's Next Top Model recently came out and it reopened the conversation about what actually went down behind the scenes controversial photo shoots, emotional pressure, editing, the whole shebang. So today we want to hear your experience from the inside. Again, please welcome to Milk and Honeys. It's Faux Por.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, hey y'all. Welcome to the pod.
SPEAKER_04I'm so excited to be here.
SPEAKER_02This is gonna be great. It's gonna be so much fun.
SPEAKER_00And again, thank you for taking the time.
SPEAKER_04Yep. Please.
SPEAKER_00And I feel like I was trying to remember when the first job was that we actually together.
How ANTM Came Knocking
SPEAKER_04Oh it was a French Dame O'Shapes. Oh, it was a French workout um client. And they like they have, I mean, I don't know if they're around anymore, but it was just like workout gear. But Priscilla Ono was our makeup artist.
SPEAKER_00And and then Sharon Amber Heard was doing her own, there, they were doing their own clothing line at the time. And we did that together. And then that's how we reconnected. And it was just how long ago? Maybe I don't age by six. I'm gonna say like 50 years ago.
SPEAKER_04It was definitely 2010, 11, that area.
SPEAKER_00Very, very long time.
SPEAKER_02And here we are now. Here we are now. I know. We have a lot we do want to talk to you about. So we're gonna get right into it. Um, so I just want to like know how did America's next type model even happen for you? Were you already modeling? Did somebody see you? I'm like, oh babe, you should be a model, which is I would say that to you if I just met you on the street. Well, I was looking at this face.
SPEAKER_01Zoom in on the face. I mean, come on. Face card does not lie.
SPEAKER_04Um, this whole thing. I will say I was one of the organic pluckers. Like, I felt like I was organically, I let me just put it this way. I was a diehard fan. Like I remember running home, 12 years old, UPN was a channel it was on, watching it religiously. It was on every Wednesday at 8 p.m., I'm pretty sure. And so I'd watch it. And I remember when I was hitting like probably 19, eight, 17, 18, I was like, you know what? It'd be fun. Like, what I was a preschool teacher. Oh, wow. So I literally was like, what else could I do with my life? You know what I mean? I love kids, but let's see. But I feel like from there, I pretty much just, my mom was like, hey, there's an audition in Phoenix. I was up in New Mexico, like, just come try out, just see what happens. I'm like, sure, okay. I camped out, y'all. I was one of the campers from like, I got there the night before. I think it was like 8 p.m. And I was a third person in line.
SPEAKER_00Did you have a tent?
SPEAKER_02I missed that era of like auditioning for something, right? We did the work, we showed up. That and Black Friday. I was there the night before. Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_04And I my commitment was so real. But yeah, there, I don't know if we had a tent. I will say it got to the point that my brothers were like, yo, we got you a hotel, like, we'll hold your space in line, and you just you go and you know, rest.
SPEAKER_02It was that your brother did that for you? Shout out to your digit. You said something hanging over them or something. Like my brothers would never listen.
The Marathon Second Audition
SPEAKER_04It's crazy. Side story, they actually went to Ozfest that night. I think they were like just like adrenaline, and then they just came back. I'm sure they probably slept on the on like the wall. They were literally like this, like posted up. But so that's kind of where it started. From there, it was like two months later. Um, I got a random call that was like, hey, you want your back for like a second audition? This audition was insane. So there was like they basically put you in a banquet hall. Okay. And they put the girls all, they see them all around the corners, and each girl, like one by one, comes up until I was literally girl, I was there for 10 hours.
SPEAKER_02Just watching.
SPEAKER_04Just watching. 10 hours.
SPEAKER_02Like the more like when you watch people have it. Like, oh my god, they're so much better. Like that's how I would be. That's the mentality that happens. I'm so like, should I even be in here?
SPEAKER_00Like you're starting to compare, like, did you did you start to compare yourself? Or you were were you like, okay, like I got this in a bag. Let's go talk to my brothers outside. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04I'm like, I got I have my my my pizza. No, honestly, I will tell you right now, I was shooketh because watching the documentary and then realizing what those they were beating this out of girls. They're like, we want to hear about your rape stories, we want to hear about your, you know, selling your organs, like just like stuff like trauma. Trauma, trauma, it was all trauma-based. And now I think about it, like, oh my god, they coined on that. Like, yeah, it's breaks my heart because I mean, I lucked out, I literally walked up 10 hours. I was ready to answer my hour-long answers, and they asked me three questions, and it was like, what would you bring to top model? I told them, uh, where do you see yourself? Just like very, very basic, nothing trauma, nothing of the sort. And they're like, Okay, thank you. That's all. It was, it was two minutes, and I was bawling. I was like, they don't like me. This is it. Oh my God. When I tell you when I'm on the show, I asked them, and basically they were like, no, we knew what from the first audition, like we wanted you on. So I'm like, you're not making me wait 10 hours.
SPEAKER_02So from the audition before like the first like what was the first audition like though? That was the second one you said.
The Call And NDA Shock
SPEAKER_04The second one was the first audition was was just um, I think at the time it went to CW. So it's what the CW production, it had nothing to do with like the producers or top model. That was like, you know, when you go to a first call. Yeah, you do acting, you know, or you know, your first call is they just want to see, you know, you and then like the callback is the big what you can do specifically that we want to see.
SPEAKER_00But they didn't ask that much of you. Then they ask of other questions.
SPEAKER_04I was devastated. I walked out and I was crying and I was like, this is it. I'm just never gonna happen. I would say three months later, I got a call that was like, is this Felpulter? And I'm like, it's 10 p.m. I'm like, who the hell is this? I'm like, this is so his, I think his name is Medford. Medford from America's Next Top Model, and you are one of the final contestants. And I was like, Wow. I was screaming. It was literally Were your brothers like nearby when you got the call? No, I was actually honestly, I was actually at a house party. Like, I'm not kidding. I was at a house party.
SPEAKER_00Literally, I'm like, shots to everybody. But's like on the table.
SPEAKER_04She's like, I'm about to that's when the actually they and they and they stopped me right then and there and they're like, they're like, whoever's in the room with you, they have to sign an NDA.
SPEAKER_02Like it's always oh my god, the way I would have fucking flexed that NDA for you, NDA for you. That was my next question.
SPEAKER_00It was like, did you have to keep it a secret one? 1000% got it.
SPEAKER_041000%.
SPEAKER_00But like, so like obviously you were at a house party, so obviously you didn't like say anything. How did you do it? My mouth was.
SPEAKER_04Well, I was so I will say I was in like a room. I was I was in a room with um one of my girlfriends. So I was able to like share the love with her, and like we like, you know, so she signed it. Um, but yeah, I obviously went out and partied that night that night, and it was just it was like hair in a world. I I'm like, it was I think I was 18, gonna be 19. So it was like that cusp of like, I can't believe, you know. I mean, I wasn't drinking, I wasn't drinking, I was um we're doing Kumaya and you know, making it like no one at 18 drinks alcohol. What do you think they said? But not at a house party, not ASU.
Going In Naive And Hopeful
SPEAKER_02I was not in the ASU area, so um yeah. So it's amazing. Okay, being 18 and getting that call at a house party of all places, right? At the point you're like, I'm on the top of the world, nothing can get me down. Totally. Um, I do want to like just fast forward to this question because we talked about the documentary uh a couple weeks back. You were on cycle 12. Yes. At that point, you said you you were a big fan, you had watched a lot of you know all of the seasons. Um, people had already seen like girls get torn apart at the panel, you know, all the emotional breakdowns, all like the controversial shoots, the the abuse, and you know.
SPEAKER_04Totally.
SPEAKER_02You so you kind of knew it was gonna be brutal. Like you were prepared for this going in, right? Like you're ready.
SPEAKER_04It's like it's like when you like the asshole. Like it's like I mean, like asshole guys.
SPEAKER_02It's like when you like the I'm gonna make them, they're gonna, I'm gonna be the one that changes them.
SPEAKER_04Or just like, I want that, I want that, like I want the toxicity. And also, it was every girl's dream to have a makeover. Yeah, you're being polished to be a model. Like, and I was a preschool teacher, so I'm like, and I went on that show, like, I'm good in extensions, I'm all in. I but I will say this, I went on there beautifully naive. Like I truly felt like I was like, whatever happens, happens. I'm gonna go back to being a preschool teacher. Like I already had that thought. Right. If top model, if modeling wasn't for me, I was like, it's fine. I'm not, I and I mean that when I say that I went in there with a whole different mindset than other, I think a lot of the girls went in with because they're thinking this is gonna be like you heard it on the documentary, it's gonna change my life, it's gonna be the best thing. I totally felt that and I did see all the trauma and the horribleness. But again, back then that was like, well, do you want to be a top model? Do you want this? Yes, do you want this? And if you want this, then you're part of a lucrative team or you know, group, and we all want this. Yeah, whatever.
SPEAKER_00They're like, if you want this, you're dying your brows blonde.
SPEAKER_02We were at all like having having like you know, the backup plan going back to being a preschool teacher. We were at all that like the image that could possibly be like made of you on television because we all know about the good and the bad edits, could maybe ruin, you know. Girl, I love my edit. I was like, there's a chance the edit could have been like negative, right? Right.
Makeover Shock And Identity
SPEAKER_04And I also just feel, and I mean this, I am the same person. I mean, I I had the same mentality of my glasses always half full. I didn't go in there being like, this is not America's next top best friend. Like, this is the competition. I didn't have that like mindset. I was like, I want to go and have fun, I'm gonna make some friends, meet Tyra, like you know, Souton, who's a makeup artist. Like I met my celebrities. Like I was like, this is who these are household names, you know. Like you don't see the the good, bad, and the ugly. You you like you focus on the positive and those kind of situations like what's gonna happen? So from there it was very like, oh, this is happening. Like this is I'm in it and I love I loved it. My hair was chopped, so you can kind of like dissect that. When I went on the show, I was like, I'm getting ascensions, it's happening for me, and it did not happen for me. Yes, Tyra. It did not. But here she is, you know, 15 or 17 years later. And so when I got the when I got the makeover, I was I will say that was traumatic. And my that's probably the only traumatic thing that I had. Like I was so stripped of my security blanket that I was just like, and I couldn't call anybody. I couldn't, and if I did call, I couldn't tell them what happened. Like, yeah, you have like no one to like nobody just bounce, like have a backboard and everyone is for themselves and they want me to cry. I mean, like the girls want to.
SPEAKER_02Well, did they when you auditioned, did you like talk about how your hair was like a favorite quality of yours?
SPEAKER_04And you think they was my hair was like a box dye orange, and it was like hinged straight, and it was like, and I was just such a like, I would never call myself a lost puppy, but I was very much like you know, I don't even want to say the word grooming, but it was very like, you know, like make me beautiful.
SPEAKER_00Like I want to you you watched the episodes before. Were there any moments that made you a little hesitant before? Or were you like, no, you have to do that to become a model?
SPEAKER_04Exactly. Girl, no. I was like, give it to me. And also, but I mean, don't cut my hair, but I it's it comes with it comes with the territory. Like I said, I'm lucky and blessed to is to have gotten that haircut because I worked with that haircut for a decade after that. Of course. It made me, it literally also helped me to be so much more comfortable with my skin because I wasn't your curious blanket was taken away from you.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. I mean, your cut was fire. I mean like looking back. And I guess someone who like, especially as a brown girl, a mixed girl, I mean, hair's always been my success, like having long extensions and blow, whatever has always been a secretity.
SPEAKER_04It's a part of our identity. It is. It's it's also a part of our femininity. Like that's how we are as women. And if you, I mean, have you seen good hair by um Chris Rock?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So that and I watched that like not too long ago, and I was like, this is what I'm it's like this is like why black women are the way they are. They were so protective of our hair because also in the indigenous world, too, you don't let anybody cut your hair that gives like that bad energy because this is like this is your like vitality. So I gave it to Tyra and she she knew what she was doing. She knew what she was doing on that part, on that little part.
SPEAKER_02Although she may have wanted to also sabotage you. We don't know. Totally, we don't know. We don't know if he talks to sit off her because of the case. We've seen her do that, we've seen her sabotage people. Um, so the document that came out talks a lot about the environment in the house. You know, there's cameras everywhere, there's constant pressure. We want to hear from someone who's actually in it. What was the environment in the house actually like? Hot.
SPEAKER_04Because hot. You see these cameras, literally every inch of the case. You can bring it there or there, even if it's not.
SPEAKER_00Like were there, there were cameras constantly everywhere. Like how many cameras were in the house?
Life Inside The House
SPEAKER_04So I knew there were like, so there's no cameras in the house. This is like one of the, and it's funny because I was watching um other top model alumni talking about their experience in the house. So uh the moment you woke up, the moment you woke up, you have to go downstairs and get mic'ed. And like before your glam, before anything. Like even like you pee, yeah, don't even brush your teeth, like because you could get talk, you could be talking to somebody in the bathroom. You you beeline it to the bath to to go get your your go get mic'd up. And then the cameras, I would, I mean, I couldn't even give you a nest note, but there was cameras all over every corner you can think of. Every little corner of a room you could, it was camera or a light. Um, so that's the thing is it was we were in like a three-story brownstone. So it was like the first level was the kitchen, the second level was um, and I hate to even put it this way, it was the white girls. It was like it, and then not that we wanted it to be that way, but it was like the white girls, like you know, women of color on top. But no T, no shape.
SPEAKER_00There was little clicks. It was the SRT and a shape. Yes, all the T. But did production make those clicks, or did did you guys kind of just it just happened that way?
SPEAKER_04I really don't feel like who knows though. Who knows? Right. Like I really don't know. I remember us getting the key and we just ran into the house. And that you know, you know, the iconic images of us, you know, picking your room. Exactly. And you run in. It's like all of reality TV has that. But um, but yeah, we went in and it was very just surreal. Like, again, there's men, like you can't talk. They're all men, by the way.
SPEAKER_02Which is very which makes which looking back, we see that's very evident based on you know some of the horror stories that came out of the way production didn't handle things the way they should be handling them.
SPEAKER_00Even though they were men, like, did you sometimes forget that they were there eventually? Totally.
SPEAKER_04I couldn't. I forgot that they were there, but also, my dude, they're watching us get naked, they're watching us undress. Like, and this is I'm not saying they are, they're this is their job.
SPEAKER_02Like, they're not but also, let's be honest, we've all worked in television for a long time. Exactly. I was trying to protect any people that shouldn't be protected. Right. So let's figure out what's actually happening.
SPEAKER_04No, and it's very true. There was there were men on call, there were women, there were women producers. I remember one of the producers was actually pregnant, and she was, you know, she kind of was like the mother hen. And there was side note, there was um, I mean a uh luscious, tall black girl. She's so love her so much. She basically got tripped down naked. She, I think she drank one night. She shipped down totally naked. I think she took off her mic pack and she's walking to the house, like, and all we hear is like boom, boom, boom, boom. Like just running to running upstairs. Who the fuck? This is not mics right now. You fucking signed a contract. What the and it would, but also, mind you, this is a pregnant woman who has to have to clean up. Who has to run up all these stairs? I'm not giving her an excuse, but I'm just telling you, she's like, she this is her job.
SPEAKER_00Like she's like, I'm pregnant, I'm not getting fired over this. Like, put your mic back on. You know, yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's the thing is you would hear in the mornings the footsteps coming up the stairs, which are kind of eerie, but then okay, so if it's like a new horror movie coming up, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02Producer's feet up the stairs.
Production, Cliques, And Control
SPEAKER_04It's like it's it's almost like it is a horror movie. Yeah, like I'm just like, who's behind the corner? But um, it was honestly the house was great. I I felt like a little celebrity, like a little bougie bitch, because it was just I will say this too. I always associate walking out because you couldn't go out of the house. You had to like stay inside the house. All the windows were all you know, uh taped off. But I always thought of it as like Beetlejuice. Like, have you seen Beetlejuice where they walk out? It's like the sand pits. That's how I felt. And I have dreams about like that. Stop. I do, but to this day, because it's it's like you wouldn't dare, you wouldn't dare like go out there because you would jeopardize your it's just the weirdest feeling of like being so disassociated from reality when you're on reality TV. Um, it was filmed during Christmas, so they had no Christmas shot. It was the craziest time, just weird, just weird, but also weird in a sense where you're just like this is happening, and it's just so fast. Yeah, exactly. So you don't have yeah.
SPEAKER_00Were the friendships that you made in there? Did you feel that they were authentic? Or did you feel like it was put on for camera? Or or were you forced to be not forced, but were you guided to be friends with certain people in the house?
SPEAKER_04I do feel that I no, I don't feel like anyone was forced. I think all of them were genuine. Um, Tiana and Amina and my girl Jessica, they were like my girls. Like we had just a click. We were we all clicked, but I think everyone got along fairly well.
SPEAKER_02I mean, obviously, when you're put in the house with 13 girls for three months or whatever, whether you're on camera or not, 13 girls, that all that feminine energy, you know.
SPEAKER_04Also syncing up. Like we're all syncing up.
SPEAKER_00I mean, girls, but we sync up and we don't even see each other all the time. I'm like, can you please fucking stop? Yes, I'm like, if she's if she's synced, I'm like, I'm next week. Like it's like I already know.
SPEAKER_04And it's totally one of those things, too, that I will say, and I have to even go on like them. They gave us per diem. I was talking with Allison and um and uh uh Isis. I was talking with Allison and Isis. We watched documentary with me, and we were like, we didn't we got per diem, but we had to pay for our groceries and our laundry. So we were like oh really?
SPEAKER_00So you didn't get a per diem. You literally were paying for groceries.
SPEAKER_04And it was literally, I think it was honestly maybe like I want to say maybe a hundred bucks a week, something crazy, maybe like 175. I don't know. But to do your I had, I mean, and think about it, we have one, we have one um fridge for 13. For 13 people, and it's like yeah, it was very I think that's an example than trying to stir shit up, you know.
SPEAKER_02People who share a fridge. Do you eat my food? Wait, did you touch my yogurt? The fridge was not full, was not stacked with stuff for you guys. You had to you just soccer with your$100 per diem.
Tyra On And Off Camera
SPEAKER_04We had to, and we had to write it down like specific as we possibly could be about what we wanted. They did I think they did have like deodorant, like I think Dove sponsored it. Thank you. Thank you for making pick. We had like Garnier Fruitisse, like hair program. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00And you're like, Andy, you're like, my hair's struggling from Garnier.
SPEAKER_04Literally.
SPEAKER_03And I'm like, well, but book me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, but also book us.
SPEAKER_02Book us. Well, I mean all all of this, you know, kind of comes to a head with who was running the show. Yes, we can't, we gotta talk about Miss Miss Tyra Banks, the cent the center. And okay, and we can all admit, I mean, I I watched since cycle one. I've since I was a little girl, I've I watch every single season. And Tyra was like as a child, oh my god, she's the queen. Now, many years later, you're like, oh cut the fucking devil. Yeah. Um, what I've never met her. I don't think you've ever met her. No. On camera versus off camera, how similar are the two people?
SPEAKER_04You know, and I it's this is like the the topic of this is like the number one question I get. Well, the two questions are why did you cry when you got your haircut? And then the other number one question is, how was Tyra? I'm gonna say this as faux little faux. Like, you know, faux from top model. Amazing. Like to me, off camera, she didn't snub me. She was very like, she got I got to go to Comic-Con. She had a book that she released, and it was like we were her characters from her book. And I love Comic-Con. I'm a huge I cosplay all the time. But that was, I saw her there, and then I saw her at a book release. Um, and she it was me, my mom, her mom, and like I never had to be like, yeah, it was me. Yeah, it was I think it was, I think it was either I went there for the signing or like she invited me for the signing. But it was, yeah, it was her, me, my mom, and her mom. And like we, I got 20 minutes. Kiki chit-chatted, she took a photo with me. It was just like she was just so genuine. And I mean it. And I and I think maybe I was just I've always been a teacher's pet. I don't know if that's the thing. Like, I'm not just saying that. Like, I feel like maybe I I smoozed her in a way, or like, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But she never ever did me wrong. I she follows me on Instagram. Okay. So she wasn't mentor to you. She was a 1000%. I mean, I saw her on Fresh Prince, Life Size, like, I mean, all over. I mean, honestly, like Maxim Magazine, GP as well as Victoria's Secret. You know, you just see her, she was us. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02She was Do you think she saw some of her? I think we've seen her like favoritism with certain girls throughout the years. Totally. Where she sees herself in one specific contestant. Do you think you were that contestant for cycle 12?
SPEAKER_04I mean, yes and no. I think there's a all of us had, you know, a moment away with her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I do feel off the show. I was like, oh my God, like I kind of not that I got special treatment, but I just feel like I don't know.
SPEAKER_00You felt more like she was a mentor than a husband. You didn't see her as this is your boss. It was like a friend.
Panel Pressure And Cruel Critiques
SPEAKER_04A hundred percent. And that's what I think is the main goal. I think that was the whole point is like she is Tyra Banks. She is us, she represents us, you know. And when it comes to what I've heard on the documentary, I mean, I don't even want to get emotional, but like I have gone through a lot of trauma on my own personal part. But to see Tyra not say, I'm sorry, or just even be like, but for the hair side, you guys wanted. this like I'm like that is such a narcissistic thing to raise we're gonna we're gonna get into that and like and like even even in that case though like you know on the show do you think that my I have a question like do you think that she was playing a character or do you think like because of production or do you think she was playing a character in that moment because she chose to do that I think Tyra is Tyra like we've seen her be like kooky and like she I think she is very much there's Tyra on camera and then there's how like Tyra but I so yes there was two different people I do feel like there was a character for instance I remember one time I was being on panel and like we had to kind of stop in the middle of of whatever she was saying and it went from like okay and cut and she was like you know and you could just tell like it kind of went like she toned it down but also when I get offset or when I'm on set I have to like I when I'm in front of the camera I am I'll commute with you all day honey but when I'm offset I will drive an hour home stick yeah we with zero silence zero I I have to hone in. So I do think that is very much a professionalism of exactly being in front of the camera.
SPEAKER_00So that I'll give her that but yeah I mean a girl like we all have our you know of course our personas we just were talking about that it's like when you get offset if you're out of town you don't want to go home and have a roommate. You want to go home and just decompress and like you don't want to run lines with somebody I just want to go home and turn my brain off because being on set as what we do it's it's a it's a very we're turned on.
SPEAKER_02Because also I think there's a good balance though in like figuring out how you can be this person and be this person and still not be an asshole between you know true. And I actually do want to know like what she what Tara being an asshole to somebody is like and I I mean obviously we saw in the documentary but like I I'm like I can't imagine that but also you know Jay could probably like tell us both both of them probably I know both of them I'm like oh no but yeah so for you did uh anything ever specifically feel uncomfortable for you to have to film or to have to portray on camera?
Height Politics And Prewritten Arcs
SPEAKER_04Um I'm trying to think of like photo shoots uh like there okay I will say there was a photo shoot with Nigel Barker and I did I did an interview um that recently came out but I did it last year it's before the documentary came out I Nigel was kind of mean to me on this photo shoot first photo shoot after the after my haircut you're so hot it's fine be mean to me I also was like excuse I'm like I also was so but they did me so dirty with my hair they like spiked it and it looked I was just like I I didn't even know how to like emote that and I started crying just because I was like I feel so ugly and he was like hold on hold on stop this stop the shoot are you crying on my set and I'm just like it was just like such a like but again ratings like they they they have to dig no they have to probably almost they know that you're already feeling some about your hair and now they're like oh what else can we do to make her feel even more uncomfortable let's say I found your weak point that was the the season for you right which is about like surrounding your hair and then and then I will say this like they when I got eliminated they said I was too short. And I'm like girl I've been I've been here for probably 13 weeks now I'm all of a sudden short and again that's just readings for that's like that's they have the same I got a knee reduction in the middle of the season.
SPEAKER_02Right I'm hey guys I mean looking back now do you do you view any moments differently um I I do say this I would do it all over again and have the same results and still be just as happy like I really I would would I've done uh all stars I would have loved to they approached me about it but at the time my agent um was like listen girl you're already you're doing what you're booked and busy there's no way she was like there's no way over my dead body will you go on that and I'm like but I and she's like if you I had to leave my agencies I'd have to leave like I'd have to like burn all my clients' bridges like you know what I mean also you see it was a joke it was a joke like and you were still but I'm just saying at that moment you were working so much so much on your own which is what all these girls are trying to do even all stars like maybe they're they don't have a career yet so they're like okay let me go on all stars and see if that helps you didn't need that also I will say it I would have done it knowing what I know now with social media and sure and that was good for your following like you those some of the girls of the the um all stars all stars and forward they all have like 4000 followers they all have like hundreds of thousands of followers and which is great for brand deals that's what I'm saying but back then 2017 there wasn't like that wasn't that wasn't a thing yet you're still we're still worried about like you know our your actual career exactly totally so even right now that is an actual career a perfection is I and that's what I mean now now I'm toeing into that where I'm like I have to do this to be not even relevant but like I would have done it if it was just for uh following safe of course but I was adapting to the times I was adapting to the times you still are a real model girl not was is okay you're only a tiny five eight right yeah five nine like a way and hit five feet okay we're basically the same we got heels fat iron and and water but like and especially like in runway like five eight is short you're like a garden basically is the way they treat you do you think the judges had already decided when you were at there that they were gonna use your heights against you they were decided that maybe you weren't high fashion enough do you think that maybe was already in there I will I do feel that way only because um one of the Wranglers I remember it's probably like maybe episode I don't know four was like I was wearing vans I was flat and everyone was wearing heels so obviously but they were I remember her whispering in my ear and being like just make sure you wear heels anytime you're on camera.
SPEAKER_04Every time you're on camera wearing heels. But I don't think I it could have come for production but I remember that one time that being said and then like at the very end I'm like oh maybe that's you know what I mean the sea was planted.
Villains, Sweethearts, And Edits
SPEAKER_00Yeah so absolutely they were I I've had I've I've been told that too at certain things like there's girls that come in and do their digitals and they're in like sneakers but they're super tall. Right. So it's like they don't need to but even like in with my bikini photos like for my digitals like I'm a little shorter so a lot of the times I will still wear my heels.
SPEAKER_04I was gonna ask you wear heels because a lot of times you're like clients don't want to see now they don't yeah but back then but back then you're getting into digitals with no heels on they're like we got five pairs absolutely crunchy feet into those seats.
SPEAKER_00Now they make me take them off and like tiptoe and I tiptoe. But like in back then like I kept my my heels on for my clothed digitals and became digital totally 100% I mean at some point even fitness digital is like I'm broken like those like those like Converse with the heel with the heel on it.
SPEAKER_02But as a woman in wrestling as an interviewer I was never allowed to wear heels because they wanted the wrestlers who aren't as tall as you think they are to look as tall as possible. So I would only have to be flat footed I have to spread my legs when I'm interviewing to look even shorter. That is so I wonder that is crazy. I did not know that I'm like guys I listen I'm not gonna make any wrestler look short I promise trust me when I make them look taller now.
SPEAKER_00Okay did did the criticism ever truly affect you at all or were you I mean look honestly you're very confident probably we just met one of the photogenic of the season okay let's be honest so like but but obviously they have to like criticism criticize you and make you feel a certain way kind of like you know what we were just saying like you're back we go back to like acting classes or commercial classes and it's like sometimes the teachers have to like beat you down a little in order for you to get back up.
SPEAKER_04I was yes I think I had mentioned this before um in another interview but Paulina Porskoba said I look like Gollum and it was such a like I was like okay but like wait it was just so unnecessary to be said. And I think that was the only thing I not the top of my head I don't think there was any criticism that I was like holy shit like that was way too far. Right. Except for like just being called Gollum on my last photo shoot. That's like when I was eliminated and I was just like I'm too short I like Gollum I'm like oh it makes sense what they were doing.
SPEAKER_00You saw a pattern that was happening.
Race, Body Standards, And Then Vs Now
SPEAKER_04They were do you think in that sense they were gearing you up to realize that you were gonna be cut or I don't maybe but I mean like I think they also though I will let me put this this way I the criticism they were giving me whatever the criticism they were giving other girls I was uncomfortable with that. There was some there was some there was one in particular her her name was London I don't think she's ever really associated with top models since then but I believe there was I'm not even gonna air her laundry but they basically made a notion about the short she's wearing and she was wearing like short shorts but she had I guess put on weight to them and they were like those shorts are so unbecoming like don't ever wear those shorts ever again. And it was like again other times but I just remember looking at her and you could just see the like spirit the hope just like when she turned around she just walked back and you see these girls when they're walking back and I remember their faces all the time. Like I would I think I was emotionally in tune with with what was happening I'm a I'm a huge empath like I'm but also I don't think I was tapped in enough back then because they they pre-programmed in your head like you this is not your best like they make you almost go like I always say they would throw a rock in a glass house because they'd be like so I don't know if you heard this but like when they're interviewing you for you know those little those little clips you see of us being interviewed um so and so said something about like what you were wearing or like how that looked it just like kind of they actually they'll lie and just get rid of it. It would and I don't think they're lying but they would just kind of I throw a rock in a glass house just to see what would happen and then just like watch it implode in itself. And so it was just like well shit you know but again I don't think what was being said towards me was really hurtful but I do feel like what was being towards towards some of the girls was actually the girls are getting up every morning getting dressed feeling their best they're on this show where they know like this is like my my best look today.
SPEAKER_02And for it to get torn down totally in front of everybody like that is just so and it's for TV it's for ratings it's for but also like But y'all didn't come on the show being famous. So people have been on TV for a long time kind of kind of like nowadays we'd be like okay we know what's what's you know back then everyone's coming innocent like with these big eyes just like so excited for what's gonna happen and like all these possibilities and get torn down like that. Exactly they got this opportunity like finally oh my god I'm on America's next time model totally like possibilities are endless and to be treated like that which is why we've seen I think I mean maybe you can correct me there hasn't been a ton who have come out of America's next time model who have really made it I would say there's a handful I would say there's a handful out of hundreds I mean hundreds of I think I I think there was I think I read it and it was like 300 and something girls had competed a handful have really and that right there should just show you how terrible and this was real TV back then though no matter what have you seen the the scripted version was it called reality maybe there's a show about it. Yes I'm like it's such it's so eye-opening it was a scripted show a scripted show about how I'm like this is yes oh go I'll send it to you it'll probably piss you off if you watch like oh my god seasons of it right and just show it's it's kind of based on the bachelor franchise like what they kind of do but it is so you will watch it a lot I was gonna say fruit reality can change everything.
SPEAKER_04Yeah so like did the version of you on TV though like when you watched it back did you feel like it was pretty an accurate representation of who you were for sure you got like a good edit as they would say I mean besides being a crybaby but I I am a crystal because I'm I think I'm an air sign I forget what Libras are but like someone's like I'm surprised you're not a water sign because I'm like I do because I've been crying all the time but I'm just in tune with my emotion I'm not ashamed of that I I was a little bit like growing up but now I'm not ashamed of that at all.
Elimination, Sequestration, And Aftercare
SPEAKER_00People make fun of me I'm like yeah it's fine I'm like I let I gotta let it go. There could be worse things exactly we could be bitches be so many things I was okay about her I'm like you're so pretty and like successful I'm surprised you're not a bitch I mean listen girl the same for all of us none of us are actually bitches otherwise we wouldn't we are right now but did you speak of bitches did you think that the producers were always uh pinpointing who's gonna be like the sweetheart who's gonna be the villain total those things 100% they oh they knew that's why when I when I did the audition they asked me like what would you bring and I was like oh I'll be like totally peace girl I'd be like so neutral like I'm very like about you know the community and that and like and I think that's how they're like okay perfect she's our she's our they went with that totally and that's why I think they only asked me those couple questions yeah right because they were like okay well and then they just hear me talk you know what I mean like am I gonna be a bitch but there were some girls that were painted like smeared as a bitch.
SPEAKER_02Of course like who actually weren't from your like personal experience.
Career After ANTM And First Big Gigs
SPEAKER_04I will say that some of them came in being like I'm the most prettiest girl they're gonna work with TV. Yeah exactly but um other than that I don't feel like yeah everyone would talk about do you think that they said that because they like think if they are the villain they get more screen time or do you think this particular person but who we were looking at in there um I don't even I mean I'll say it Lisa um I think she was down to be whoever the fuck yeah she's one she's down on like even just exactly there was I remember she was on I had a side note but I remember she was on like um one episode in Jackass came on and like she wouldn't put on like a diaper and like Pedro was like I'm so cool. But to me it was like she was someone that ooze like the pick me girl she wants yeah across the board even with type and even like watching her on that and like she's in like another uh documentaries she's in all the documentaries she could probably which means she's she's ready to fucking just like pick me pick me and I'm just like yeah I don't know I I don't I think and then that's how you're known you know that's what you're known for you're known for being the I'm not hey yeah um you being an ethnic woman beautifully oh my god I can't believe somebody in the studio has more freckles than me I know I thought you were Latina to a little saying and when I saw you like freckle all the freckles in the studio I still and touchy DNA they said no but I still hope for it. Did you see like any like ethically charged like discrimination in the house because we you know some of the earlier seasons which we all watched we we saw that pretty clearly bicycle 12 do they kind of tapered out I really don't feel like like I said the only like I wouldn't even call it I only want to use that word segregation but there was no like there was the white girls in the bike I was saying like that's the only thing I would think of but again that wasn't even play like that wasn't like that was more just intent that was like you just relate to people because you're similar it wasn't like oh we don't like them because exactly and I mean and then and I remember there was um Sandra um and she was beautiful I think she's Nigerian and she was she was bunked with the with the girl I don't even with the with the I'm like I don't want to say white girls but yeah she was bunked with the city with the white girls what about downstairs the call cage um yeah the call cage um but so and then I think that I think that yeah you saying that that makes so much more sense to me I think that relates with me as we all we all we all were there you know as brown girls we related to each other so much more and we joked with each other each other so much more I remember like Tiana and um and Amina making fun of me because I was a black girl which like you can cut no booty but back then I was like a stick you know stick thin and like that was a thing. Exactly it was such a thing and if I had a booty it wouldn't you know wouldn't have been okay Janice Dickinson she is a fat ass.
SPEAKER_02Exactly thank you exactly I have M.
SPEAKER_00Yeah and I'm like and now you're getting injections for that ass.
SPEAKER_04She looks I love her death I do love her respect her but like she looks wild.
SPEAKER_02What was the show she's uh she did a cameo was it last season of House of Villains or something oh anyway I was like that's Janice Dickinson.
SPEAKER_04She wasn't in that it's crazy because again like someone like her of her stature like obviously she didn't get like dreamed because she was she was she was popping off all kinds of obscure she would say the things that I pro like like I feel like I feel like you're blocked you have to be blacked out just to like say shit. Like what she was saying you're fat you're fat everyone here is fat you're fat we're all fat I'm like why shut the fuck up but that's what we were talking about like the being a bitch like that being someone who's like a Simon Cattle because I get the shock factor and I were then to piggyback off that I have to say in our generation I feel like it's way more accepted to be a girl's girl whereas back then being a bully was also like Naomi and Tyra were like you know put against so I feel like now we're in such a like we got each other we have to have each other we're smarter and it wasn't like that back then. The community is there but yes you're very right.
SPEAKER_00Were there any moments of you know comments that were made on either the panel or even just in the house that made you want to quit at some point or were you just like no there was that there was a strong girl.
SPEAKER_04Again I was very like there's a well you were a peace and love to that exactly but again like just Nigel probably telling me like to like stop crying on his set but that's whatever. You know but I I I say this too that would never happen in the real world. Like that would there's there's no and if it would I'd walk off that set and go home.
SPEAKER_00And I would like you to pay me my full day right and your agent would your agent would support you with that. And I would 100% we've done that before we've I'm sure we both have done that where 1000 our agents are like look I support you if you don't want to be there then walk off.
Advice To Younger Self
SPEAKER_04Just say that with some a client of mine and I won't I'll just say that it's a bullseye certain client and I told my client that I um don't want to work with them because they roll back on DEI and I'm not gonna let you use my imagery but you won't hire you won't hire people of color disability.
Cooking Passion And New Goals
SPEAKER_02It doesn't matter whatever whatever the roster is for DEI that to me is just like I love that you're using what you know your experience and your you know what you've seen with your eyes to make a difference and to try to change the industry because we need people like that versus those who are so desperate to still be a part of the business or holding the still do whatever they want all that they saw firsthand. I don't want no blood money I'm like I don't want to like no and if you're gonna sleep at night and look at yourself in the mirror I'm proud of you. Having morals is something it doesn't happen a lot here go eat a child and you'll make it in life I'll edit that part out. When you were eliminating I know because I was like wait I didn't mean to laugh at that that was not funny so please edit that out for I don't think that's edit um that was a good one you were eliminated I love this conversation I forget we're honestly we have to wrap pretty soon so we're gonna ask you a few more questions and get into like your cooking because I want to learn more about that. Yeah wait we didn't question about the documentary and then we're gonna we're gonna skip all this because we've got it we already answered it.
If Cooking For Tyra
SPEAKER_04It's like I'm ADD sometimes I keep notes I am I also I'll go on the whole tandem like you know the moon is brown you know I'll go on a whole tangent oh yeah um when you were eliminated though did you see did you know it was coming or did you like were you didn't know it was coming and I will say uh Celia is my girl um I it was literally like who goes home the oldie or the shorty that was what she said and I was like first of all Celia's 25. It's wild the oldie um I didn't know it was coming I did not know um I will tell you you don't get to go home you you I was in Brazil uh you don't get to go home and you get to go to call anybody they put me in a in a hotel room I think like uh no there was windows and I was like I maybe might have blocked a window but there was one there was very like they wanted to no windows no air because people knew that you guys were there shooting people knew we were there so there was actually paparazzi following us which I was like and there's actually a photo of me running all of us running it was our last my last shoot running into the beach like you guys have five minutes to go play in the water whatever and I'm running and it's like this photo of me I'll just send it to you it's hilarious. Please do please send it to I'm gonna put it in the it's hilarious because it's like me and I'm in such a joyous moment. It's like I'm wearing a thong bikini and you can see my my face I'm like and it's just I'll send it to you I can't describe it but it's I pure joy pure joy. So um and that was the last time I like actually was on the show. But um yeah it was it was it was weird being sequestered. Yeah so it's weird yeah the elimination was hard for me um I always curtsied and it was like my last bow and I don't know you get choked up about it sometimes too where I'm like everything is supposed to happen for a reason and I wish I would have gotten even gotten one more episode in because I went to I was top five so the episode after mine was season finale. Okay it's like you know but either way I'm so happy with how it came because you know I have my own season finale and I've been doing the past 17 years.
Closing Gratitude And Signoff
SPEAKER_02Exactly yeah well if that with with the elimination so was it was it Tiffany who had who was the the the Tyra meltdown was that oh yes about that getting to the documentary and that was rehashed in documentary that situation I still to this day don't know if Tyra was just trying to have an on air moment there was nothing fair about that reaction because I think she did whatever anybody else you curtsied when you left you didn't start crying and breaking down and having a meltdown you handled it with class as did am I saying it was a Tiffany am I saying that the right person I think it was Tiffany when you saw how like what was your going through your mind when you saw that reaction do you think it was just for the cameras oh and in the moment I thought she was just it could have been a moment it also was like again readings like it's probably just like she was being passionate.
SPEAKER_04Like I think it was her showing passion. I don't think but now I've been grown grown foe foe I think she was probably on her period and I think any and let me when I tell you there's moments where I'm PMSing and I just like and it comes out of nowhere I truly do see that as being a PMS reaction and I'm not just I'm not I'm not putting it for on the women I'm not trying to make it seem like it's we we get we no but we do though it's not it's not like you trying to do we do like even the other day you were like I just feel like I need to cry like and she doesn't cry.
SPEAKER_05You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00So it's like telling you that I'm a strong girl. We're all strong but like strong women cry too I will say
SPEAKER_04I forgot to never mention this. There was literally a um they didn't air it, which I was very shocked because they aired Tyra going off on another girl. One of the girls who was eliminated, she was praised the entire entire panel. So beautiful. She looks so good. Gets eliminated. And she was one of the girls that was like, I'm gonna make it to the top. She went home against a black girl. And to me, I was like, she was like, How fucking dare you? She's like, I'm gonna say what I have to say. And I was like, She's like, Tyra, you're fake. This whole show is fake. I can't believe you're gonna sit here and tell me that I um was so great this week and then I'm getting a this is such a this is bull, it's rigged. She was like literally going so upset. Saying what people, yeah, seeing what people felt. But in the other day, I was like, Tyra was like, I'm sorry you feel that way. Like, and it could have been one of those moments. And I was waiting for that moment, but it didn't happen. I think she kind of was like, Okay, whatever you feel, I'm sorry you feel that in a different she didn't have the same reaction. I think they probably told her, like, you can get stupid. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I feel like personally, I think it was all for like I don't like totally. I really don't think it had anything to do with PMS.
SPEAKER_00I think she was just being a I I think I think it could be all of those things. Oh, it could be PMS.
SPEAKER_02But the fact that they had taken her off afterwards, they were so scared of her. I'm like, after doing Americans for this many years, yeah, I think it had to be a little bit manipulated. Because they have never seen that version of Tyra that right.
SPEAKER_04That's why I mean I think that's why she ran she ran with like passion. Like you're embarrassing that like this is I saw myself in you.
SPEAKER_02Like she made it more about her than the girl. I think that's what bothered me. It's not about you, Tyra, but obviously the whole show was about. Okay, so when you watch the show, the your first reaction. Sorry, I'm just cutting through everything. Yes, yes. When you sat down, you watched it. I watched it in one sitting because I couldn't like do part by part. What was the first thought when you're talking about the documentary, yeah?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_04Because I watched it with um Allison and Isis, who are both very prominent figures in like the uh the ANTM community. But I we both we all were just like the first episode, we were like, oh, this is like you know, but when that third episode, the second or third episode hit, I was I was one in tears. Yeah Shandy, Danny, like um, there's other girls that were just like the Shandy situation really fucked with me. Like, really was just like when you see it piece by piece. And when you see like the even like her now, and like you can just still see that how it's complete altered her entire life. Her soul. Like, I'm just like her, not even like she's soulless, but it's just like you go on there thinking you're gonna be protected, and you're weren't, and you're being basically being told, like, we want this. This is what she's gonna do.
SPEAKER_02Did they get did she get permission? Did they get permission from her to like talk about this again, this documentary?
SPEAKER_04I well, yeah, because I think she she for sure. She she signed up for it.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, but again, yeah, but even like just showing it. They weren't because they weren't paid.
SPEAKER_00They're having to relive this again. Yes. But I and I get it. If I was her even not being paid, I want to come on and tell my story, right? So I understand that, but they should have been caught. None of the models were compensated.
SPEAKER_04Tyra was definitely paid.
SPEAKER_02You can tell the way she sat there and did the interview. It wasn't about like she didn't give anything, she didn't give anything to anybody that we didn't already know she was gonna do.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, she's giving like Yeah, I'm here giving my money.
SPEAKER_02Shout out to the game.
SPEAKER_04She's gonna be like Pam Bondy or something like that.
SPEAKER_00And it's like, and it's like, you guys wanted this. This is your saying.
SPEAKER_02Blaming the audience was crazy because nothing to do with what the Bruce did, but my name is listed as literally like an executive prince.
SPEAKER_00Your name's in there? No, no, no. Her name, like Tyra's name. Could you imagine?
SPEAKER_02I was like, girl, the tea.
SPEAKER_01I'm all sweet. It was me. I was jealous of your hair. I'm like, get it off, take it off.
SPEAKER_00But it's but it is it is it is like a crazy thing when you see it uh, you know, play by play, specifically the Shandy situation, right? And it's just like this poor innocent soul who had never left the country and is now in a different country and is now being fed, you know, gorgeous European men on a Vespa. And then obviously producers are getting them to come to the house. And like it's just you see it all go down. And that to me is that that's crazy because it is one of those things when when I was watching it in the time, I'm like, oh, this is just what happens. But when you, but but like, you know, like baby Vanessa was like, oh, this is just what happens. But uh grown, you know, women now were like, oh my god, that's not what should literally put that person in a situation. You call it what it is, and back to what you said about that.
SPEAKER_02She was raped, raped, she was raped, is it was and that and she hasn't come out and used those words. No, that she's been that she was sexually assaulted. She was sexually assaulted. The fact that this was aired now, though, I think everyone is now saying, you know, for what it is, right? For what it is. And it breaks my heart that she was never, she never, even in the documentary, she never said those words.
SPEAKER_00And even the girls, like, how do the girls wait hold on? Wait, wait, wait.
SPEAKER_04I have to say, and I have to say this as somebody who has been sexually assaulted multiple times, and this is where I get like very like choked up. Thank you. To be told you are not gonna be believed, no one's gonna believe you, like those, ugh, I don't even want to get I get choked. Those are the times where I'm like, I can't fucking like I get mad because I have been told by the people by the by abusers, and I've had to come out in the recent years of having to be able to open up about that. So I can't even imagine Shandy having to come on Netflix, you know, and like have to tell it to the entire world and leave it again, again.
SPEAKER_02And I'm just like, how dare you, Tyra? Like, how there was proof. A lot of people have been sexually assaulted. Even even with all this shit happening with what's happening in the world where people are like, well, there's no proof. So how can you well, most of the time when you're sexually assaulted, you don't have proof to to exactly because what you do? Oh, wait, hold on, let me pull up my camera before you sexually assault me. Or now in this kids, in this instance, there's actual proof that she was sexually assaulted. Where's this guy? But no one, there's still no accountability, there's no one backing her up. She's not even the most thing talked about thing on that documentary, which is goes to show the world has changed in a lot of ways, but still it has it. Right. And it's I'm so proud of like I am very glad this documentary is out there. I'm I'm I feel for Shandy, but I am also glad that her story is still being told. Yeah, and hopefully maybe looked at differently, the courage it takes if we live this.
SPEAKER_00Man, like even putting it on Shandy, you know, I know it was already for you, girls. You had to go through the ringer.
SPEAKER_02We could talk to you for literally three hours. All right, let's go back to the let's go back to the fun stuff. Okay, so immediately after the show, we saw that a lot of times you finished a show, you won, and then you're just thrown to the wolves. Oh, even you got eliminated very late in the season. What was it like immediately after? Were you set up?
SPEAKER_04Like I have to do say I so there, David St. John and Daniel Soyseth, who are two of the producers, um, they're so basically when you get off a show, you walk down the you walk down the stairs and you pretty much you get kind of escorted off. Like I think one of the girls like went fucking crazy and said they were like, we have to like watch her then. Make sure you get off. Exactly. So I I remember being escorted off, and it was like they were, I'm like, where was this energy, this love on the show? Like they make you feel i they isolate you within like you know, within around people. It feels really weird to be so disconnected. But they the physical contact on us, just like them hugging me, and they're you're gonna get the foe, we believe in you. You get the pep talk, you get like this isn't over, you know what I mean? Like, and then you have your final um interview. Um, and then they watch, they film you packing up your bags, and then you go literally straight to a hotel, and and and that's it. Like it's like literally, it's like lights, you know, lights camera, lights, lights off, lights, camera, action, good luck rap. And right after the show, I basically I remember going home and like my mom didn't know I had a um makeover yet, my haircut.
SPEAKER_00So I remember coming home and my daughter, what is going on?
SPEAKER_04Well, they knew because I was like, when I before I left, I was like, okay, we have to make an appointment for we have to make my appointment for uh hair extensions, like I have to redo the, I'm gonna have I'm gonna have to come back and like have maintenance, you know? So I was wearing a hat and I remember walking up, and my brothers and my mom were all there, and I'm walking up to the tarp, I don't know, and I see them standing there, and I like rip my hat off, and they're all like they start screaming, and obviously they were like, holy shit. So you're the one who got the cut on the there's another girl who got her who got Pixie too, but hers was like longer and like more like you know edgy. But um, yeah, go come out the show. I basically went back home to be a preschool teacher, and before this, because you know, there's like probably uh two months between the between the last production and then them airing it. Um so I went back to that and then I think we did a we did a Tyra show reunion, and that was probably like I want to say like spring. So we ended in we ended in like before Christmas. Spring comes on, and I got a call, like someone wants to sign me. And it was my my agency. I was with them for 16 years, but um, yeah, my agent found me from there and it was like they were like, okay, move to LA, keep your haircut. And I was like, What do you mean keep my hair? Like, I want to like.
SPEAKER_00You're like, I'm gonna have an extension appointment tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02It's more like you're getting opportunities because an agent saw you on the show, not because Tyra and them were pushing into agency.
SPEAKER_04Totally. No, it was it was an agent who came and signed me and Allison, and it was like one of those things like at the end of the show, we're gonna show you the two top models they chose to you know sign. Um, and so honestly, I girl, I moved to LA. I was living in mid-city, I had maybe 800 bucks in my pocket, like, and that was for rent. Yeah. And I was living in like a tiny bedroom uh with three other girls. I was living the fucking American dream. Like, I'm not just an American dream, America's next top model. Yeah, yeah. I was living this dream that I was like, this is so surreal. So, yes, I had a beautiful time off the show. My first clients were Nike Reebox Nike, Nike Reebok Adidas. Wow, okay. It was like that was like first. Nice too shabby. Amazing. She was really working, you know what I mean? But yes. So beautiful. Good.
SPEAKER_00I'm glad we had a good experience. What advice would you give baby foe now going on to the show?
SPEAKER_02Or like 18-year-old foe that walks into the room before filming.
SPEAKER_04Um, I would tell her, I'm looking down the barrel. Yes. Um, I would tell her it gets better, bitch. And you are you are everything you thought you were, and more and more, but just know that the insecurities you thought you had, those are so beyond your spectrum that girl, you're gonna be bigger than you ever fucking thought in your life. Uh so I love it. Just know that. Take care of yourself. Leave that man.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna leave that man, leave that man before and be yourself, yeah, girl. Yeah, yeah. I know your story, so I just girl, we were there. Yeah, we've both been there. So that's really great. I'm so thank you for thank you for sharing that question. I'm so I'm like, hold on.
SPEAKER_02Let's get in the house. Let's get in to phone for a reason. Yes, phone.
SPEAKER_01Cook now.
SPEAKER_02Uh let's talk about cooking. You love the cook. You brought us flowers. I was hoping for like. I literally.
SPEAKER_04I was literally, I was that's right. That's why I put you flowers. Because I literally would have, I literally would have gotten you. I make bagels. That's the kind of thing that I make on the bag. You make bagels. I make bags from scratch. From scratch, girl. Oh, girl. So we go into the body. I like everything bagels. Actually, my dude and I are gonna be doing um, so what we do, and it's it's invite us. Um, we do YouTube series that we actually he DJs and I cook. So it's like we're looking at it. DJ and cooking? Can you invite us over, please? And guess what it's called? Something's cooking. Because he's he's cooking up, you know. And I have my two burners.
SPEAKER_02So it's so good. We do a collaboration. We're like, we're doing y'all in the background and we're just gonna walk to heaven's live with Andy Cullen. You're like in bagels in the show.
SPEAKER_04I listen, so we're doing one on Saturday. If y'all want to come by and hang out with him, at the park, it's like come as you are. We'll go to town to sleep with the next one. Next one, we're both there. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02But where did the passion of cooking cooking come from? Like, where did this come from?
SPEAKER_04Honestly, I'm I'm Latina, so I grew up in like, you know, cooking household. My mom was always cooking, my nana was always cooking. What is your ethnicity? Um, I'm Afro-Latina. Did I say that? My mom is from Mexico and my dad is from Billy.
SPEAKER_02So Philip, Philadelphia. Love, love. I said African American. So um New York.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, New York would have been cool too, but no, you were um best mix. Yes. And I and I'm I I say yes because I'm like, I had no idea what these freckles. I literally, growing up, was teased. I know. We know, girl.
SPEAKER_02We were made fun of, and now people are like, where did you get freckles then? I'm like, what the fuck are you? Now they put them on the same thing. I got soft and asked where'd I got my freckles and I'm like, in the womb. So offensive. Honestly, I'm like literally. The perfect answer is totally called freckleface bat half from my childhood. Anyway, it's about you, it's not me.
SPEAKER_04I literally freckle face Felicia or quarter potty was my last name's quarterback.
SPEAKER_02No, it's couple called shit face, you know, anyway. You are meaningful, but here we are.
SPEAKER_04Look who's laughing now. Exactly. Exactly laughing.
SPEAKER_02We've both been on national television, bitch.
SPEAKER_04No, hello. They want us um anyway, so cooking. Cooking came from growing up, but honestly, COVID. COVID, I was and I started cooking, I was taking like honestly two online classes a day. Oh wow. You were doing learning. I was going, I was doing culinary school, but like, well, I mean, I was doing like YouTube culinary school. Sure, yeah, yeah. But um, I'm actually um planning to go to culinary school this year.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. So I will definitely be bringing you guys some goodies. We'll sample everything you need to bring. What's your favorite thing to cook?
SPEAKER_04Thai food. Really? It's like, oh my god.
SPEAKER_02I'm still trying to I'm trying to I'm trying to learn how to like really enjoy because I don't like the taste of um uh fish fish sauce. Fish sauce. I don't like fish sauce. You know what?
SPEAKER_04And honestly, and I bet you if you were to put it in something that's like you wouldn't even taste it. Fish sauce is also just basically like it's very umami. If you're eating, if you're eating it and you can smell it, that means I probably have way too much. I always smell it. And sometimes it's like what it's supposed to be. Um pad thai. I feel like all I taste is okay. So maybe you might even have a sensitivity to that. Because that's like sometimes I think. Because I love pad thighs. I love pads. Okay, so maybe it's me. But I get also there is um it could be you know what it could be? It could be um like the cilantro effects. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02Okay, I love cilantro, but I get that. People it tastes like soap for people.
SPEAKER_04People are like, oh, and I'm like, uh, but it's it's it could just be hypersensitive. Maybe that's what it is.
SPEAKER_02I never I can't have an idea.
SPEAKER_04I know what you mean. My mom's the same way, and she's like, there's fish tall. I'm like, it's like maybe a teaspoon in there and chicken. Right, right.
SPEAKER_00Let me go for uh with your cooking journey now. What is your goal with that? I want to be a private chef.
SPEAKER_04Like that is my end all be all goal. Is I would love to be a chef professionally. Do you have any um interns? I want this a thing called stodging, which is like you just do like a working um interview in a kitchen. So like so you're working up for a whole week and then you can either work with them or you can just do your own thing. Right. So I'm looking for stodging, I'm looking for uh internships in any kitchen. Let me know. Hit me up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and if anybody needs to, you know, find her, it's at food.pop. Yes.
SPEAKER_02I have some I have some chef friends in town too. So many.
SPEAKER_04And I'm and I've been trying to like it. The thing is, I feel like I have imposter syndrome right now because I'm like because it's new. It's so new, but also I'm like people have been doing this, you know. Obviously, this is like this is people's life, like people call you up to the show.
SPEAKER_02Uh sign me at Plains. Like, we're not gonna go to that restaurant for sure.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, it's it's I'm I'm I'm that's my end all goal is just to be a private so I love that.
SPEAKER_02Celebrities, if you need me, hit me up. Tyra definitely last question. Yeah, last question before we close it out. If you had to cook one meal for Tyra Banks, what would you cook? And then what would that dinner conversation be like?
SPEAKER_04Oh, um, okay, I would cook her. I make a really like something I know how to make off the top of my head, Anthony Bourdain's Sunday gravy, um, which is like a bolognese, but it's like we it's cooked like for like six hours, and there's a lot more different, there's a lot more meat to it than just like ground beef or whatever. Um, so I would have this bolonnaise and I make it with like a regatoni, which soaks up, you know, you get a good, good solid base. Um, I'd probably make her uh, I think is it Ina Garden's um uh put it brownie pudding, brownie pudding is so good.
SPEAKER_02Oh, we have a course. I'll make that course after you do.
SPEAKER_04But and then um I don't know. I honestly would love to hear Tyra's like true take on like get her a little lick, look, little wine and be honest. I'm also a wine, I'm a wanna store. Like I love I am a part of the wine culture, so like I would have known I would have bought some.
SPEAKER_02I really fucked up. You have us over you can make the bowls.
SPEAKER_04Oh, we'll just see I will so and I'm I'm I'm honestly trying to do more stuff where I'm doing um cooking for friends, but also meal prep, like meals, delivery meals for my friends, stuff like that. So yeah. You're the right city for it. Oh I know, right? I'm like, we need to get more into it, but I'm I'm baby steps, you know.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you so much for coming on uh and sharing all of that. I know that's it's a lot probably to like kind of you know relive and rehash. I love hearing the the stories behind it and can't wait to see how big your cooking, you know, takes off. And you will always be your guinea pigs. Thank you so much. I will totally do it. Oh my gosh, so much for having me. I can't wait to try it. I know it's at food.pops pop the two piece. Yes, go follow.
SPEAKER_04Pops, and you can find it on my Instagram. It's like there's a um a delay. Perfect. But I have to say to you two ladies, like you y'all are holding for us with color and thank you for holding a space for having like real conversations, but also like just being women in an industry that's like it is what it is. It is what it is, and also we're just trying, we're just keeping up in lodge.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. And I know we're not drinking like tea right now, but just remember, Kayla and I are the ingredients to the best tasting tea, but you know what? Sometimes you bring a little extra spice. I'll be a sugar cube. That is milk and honey. We'll see you guys next week.
SPEAKER_05Thank you.
