Whitney first tried to break into the modeling world in her hometown of West Palm Beach, Fla. She explained that the agents were looking for stick thin Brazilian girls, so the plus-size black girl just didn’t stand a chance. She auditioned for cycle seven of America’s Next Top Model, giving up her position on the Dartmouth women’s basketball team. She didn’t make the seventh cycle, but was called back for the eighth. She landed a spot on the show, and abandoned her studies at Dartmouth. She has since returned and will graduate with a degree in sociology in June. \nEven though the judges told her Wednesday that she needed to work on getting into her characters more when she models, Whitney isn’t giving up. The girl’s go-get-’em attitude is inspiring.\n“I had a hard time balancing crazy and modeling. At the end of the show, I never felt more defeated in my life. I let other people’s comments get to me.”\nDuring her last photo shoot, she was asked to pose with a former ANTM contestant who had refused to pose nude. She was to impersonate the other girl and she loved every minute of it. She describes herself as a “Top Model crack addict” and was excited by the opportunity to hang out with old contestants. She said Jay Manuel told her during the shoot that she had finally learned the art of modeling and she was disappointed that the judges could not see her improvement.\nWhitney seemed to take Jay’s comments to heart, because she said that when the show wraps up she plans to continue to pursue modeling and to also explore acting. Someday she would like to have her own talk show.\nFor now, though, she is just focused on her upcoming graduation. She thinks that her experiences living in a college environment helped her get as far as she did with the other girls in the house, but is excited to be done with school. She commented on how fast the years flew by and asked me to write a line thanking her many friends here at IU that who her emails throughout the show. Watch the rest of the girls battle it out at 8 p.m. next Wednesday on the CW.
Predictions\nWhitney’s: Dionne – “I have just seen her bloom so much.”\nJaslene – “Some girls want to be doctors, Jaslene just wants to be America’s Next Top Model.”\nMine: Dionne is really starting to shine, especially after working through her fears of posing as a lesbian. Brittany continues to take the most beautiful shots of all of the contestants. We’re getting closer to the end and I think that both of these girls have the look and attitude necessary to win the final prize.
