Title: Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model

Language: English

Genres: Documentary

Objectional Content: Body shaming, Sexual Assault

Synopsis: A look behind the scenes of the popular show America’s Next Top Model

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My Review

I wasn’t a huge fan of America’s Next Top Model, though I did watch a couple seasons of it near the beginning. I remember some of the contestants that appear in this documentary.

The show starts out by telling how America’s Next Top Model came to be, background on Tyra Banks and why she created the show in the first place. This all seems very positive at first, as Tyra wanted to make the fashion industry more diverse and inclusive. She pushed back a great deal with other judges on the show regarding damaging beauty standards. At first. As the former contestants start to tell their stories, it becomes obvious very quickly, that this show wasn’t about being as inclusive as Tyra made it out to be.

It begins fairly lightly (which should tell you something) with the makeovers. It’s clear that the hairdressers don’t know how to work with curly textured hair and end up ruining one girl’s hair completely. When the contestant tried to speak to Tyra about it, thinking Tyra would understand as a fellow black woman, she was completely brushed off and told she was showing up “ashy.” The contestant goes on to say that was a term previously used against black women in a derogatory way.

Sadly, it gets worse from here. A contestant from cycle 2, Shandi, tells her story as well. Hers, I think, is the most heartbreaking. This poor girl was literally sexually assaulted while no one did anything to stop it and the entire thing was filmed. Then in editing, the entire situation was framed as Shandi cheating on her long term boyfriend. I’m sorry but no! Everyone there, including the producers and other contestants allowed Shandi to drink til she basically blacked out and not one person stepped in to say “hey, I think this is going too far.” The producers of that show should be held responsible for that.

I wish that was the worst of it, but as the show goes in, it does get worse. Another contestant, Dani, was forced to have the gap between her front teeth closed, even though she didn’t want to. She was told she would be eliminated if she didn’t go through with it. The procedure was also a quick fix, not a proper procedure that would close the gap over time like braces would. In the same cycle, Joanie, who had something called “snaggle tooth” had 4 teeth removed to fix her smile. She spent over 12 hours in the dentist chair.

Keenyah Hill was another contestant that faced constant body shaming, experienced sexual harassment from a male model during a shoot, and even had scenes edited to make it look like she was over eating. Other girls got hypothermia from a shoot in a freezing cold pool, another fainted from the heat and not eating. It was all filmed and aired for the drama.

America’s Next Top Model became more and more of a reality show centered on drama than an actual course in how to become a top model. The best pictures were no longer chosen as the end and instead the picture would be chosen strategically to get a girl eliminated.

Not once does anyone who worked on or produced this show take any kind of accountability or responsibility. Jay Manuel blames things on Tyra, Tyra blames the audience for wanting more.

Honestly, I could probably go on and on about the problems on this show and how disgusted I was by it all but I’d really just recommend watching the documentary. It is very well done and it’s very interesting to hear from the contestants themselves and their experiences. The documentary is only 3 episodes but it is packed with so much it’s a bit insane.

Give it a watch and let me know what you thought too!