“I Like Being Me”: An Interview with Xiomara Frans from ‘America’s Next Top Model 2’

It’s no secret that Xiomara was a personal favorite of mine this season. Before the show even began I picked her as one of my favorites, and she didn’t disappoint me one bit. In fact, she made me love her even more! You could only imagine my excitement when I found out I would be interviewing her next, even though it did mean she was eliminated. In this interview, Xiomara lets loose on what photo shoots she loved, which ones she hated, what she thought of Bethany, Camille, Shandi, and apparently, a whole bunch of partying that the viewers didn’t get to see!

RealityNewsOnline: After finding out that you made it to the finals, did you do anything to prepare for it or did you just dive right in?

Xiomara: I can’t really say that I went out of my way to do anything special. I knew that there would be a nude photo shoot somewhere along the way, so I did try to get my body a little more toned up, but other than that, I pretty much just went as myself.

RNO: When you saw the other girls for the first time, did you think anyone would be a pushover, or that someone else would be huge competition?

Xiomara: When I saw the other girls, the first thing that came to my head was how different I was compared to them. I was more edgy looking and I thought that it would be an advantage for me, and to an extent, it was. Camille had this beauty pageant look going on, but there wasn’t anyone that completely stood out to me. I was worried more about myself at the time.

RNO: Do you think that African-American, Asian, or any ethnic models have a tougher time getting into the modeling industry than say the “blonde hair, blue eyed, All-American” type of girl?

Xiomara: Absolutely! The competition between minority models is much greater than that of “white” models, and I hate saying “white models.” Take a runway show for example: There are normally only two or three ethnic models, and the rest are normally white. Therefore, it is tougher for minority models to get into the show, which makes ethnic models more depressed about getting into the industry. It sucks to realize things are that way, but that’s the way it goes.

RNO: Which photo shoot was your favorite and least favorite? Why?

Xiomara: My favorites were the celebrity photo shoot and the Garden of Eden photo shoot. Obviously, my least favorite was the underwater shoot. At first, I didn’t like being turned into Grace Jones because I wasn’t even really sure who she was. I remembered her from some movies, but I never knew that she was a supermodel. I loved the shoot though because it showed me in a new light and was fun because it took a while to change me into Grace, which the viewers didn’t get to see. Oh, and I hated the underwater shoot because it just plain sucked, for me at least!

RNO: Several of the other contestants said that even though she wasn’t there that long, Bethany was the source of much of the tension in the loft. Can you shed some light on this?

Xiomara: The thing about Bethany is, she talked about all the other girls behind their backs, but was super nice to them to their faces. She even did it to the girls that considered her their friend. It never had an effect on me because I wasn’t her friend, so I didn’t care, and I have nothing against people that talk crap anyway, I just think you should do it to someone’s face if you’re going to do it at all.

RNO: Looking back, what could you have done differently to stick around longer? Did you expect to get eliminated when you did?

Xiomara: There are a few things that I could have done differently. The biggest thing that I could have done was to stay more positive. When Adrianne came to visit us, that’s when I started to lose my momentum. She told us the good things about being a model, but she told us the bad things as well, like how people would turn her away just because she won this competition. That really made me worry. I should have just stayed as positive as I was and took it step by step. I also shouldn’t have taken the judges’ criticism so literally and relaxed a bit. After each elimination, the judges would tell us what we needed to change. That was where I went wrong – I shouldn’t have tried so hard to change. I like being me, and I urge everyone to just stay who they are and not change their personality for anyone.

RNO: Can you look back and laugh at what I think is the funniest quote of the season thus far, when J. Alexander said to you: “Gurrl, you walk like you on crack!”

Xiomara: Haha, yeah, I can look back and laugh about that now. What you have to realize though, is that I only walked like that in front of the judges, nowhere else in that episode did I walk like that. I just got nervous, and it showed. Honestly, I felt bad for people on crack when he told me that’s how I walked! Although, I didn’t take it too seriously when it was said the first time, simply because of who said it. No disrespect to J. Alexander, but you know what I mean.

RNO: What was it about yourself and Shandi that made the two of you become such good friends?

Xiomara: We were just so alike, and you would have never known it. Looking at us, it doesn’t look like we would become such good friends. However, we had the same taste in everything. We are both very rebellious and we are our own person. I picked her from the get-go as someone that I would remain friends with. Shandi is great because she has her own sense of originality and didn’t stray from that. I love the girl.