America’s Next Top Model 7: Why Anchal is Not a Top Model

Personally, I never thought Anchal was as beautiful as the judges proclaimed from the beginning of the season, and I never thought she had much of a personality either. I think one of the reasons she stuck around so long was because other girls kept screwing up more than her. But honestly, she was bugging me so much towards the end there that if she hadn’t been eliminated when she was, I would have been pretty upset. Anchal displayed little talent and didn’t do any better with the Top Model Tips. They definitely give some insight into why she was eliminated from the competition.

The first tip is to be open and welcome change. Anchal did all right with this one. For most of the girls, appearing on reality TV is enough of a change to welcome. When it came time for makeovers, Anchal was ready for a haircut, even though the judges thought she might be nervous about letting go of some of her long hair. She knew what could happen and she was ready. This put her ahead of many of the girls who should have known that on this show, sometimes you have to get a haircut. Anchal never complained about getting her haircut; in fact, she was excited about it.

Tip #2 tells the girls to know something about the fashion industry. We never saw what Anchal knew about the industry, but I suspect it wasn’t much. From the interview challenges alone, Anchal didn’t display much knowledge of the fashion or entertainment industries. (And from her interview with RNO writer Phil, she didn’t seem to know much about reality TV either.) Anchal was so focused on other things anyway that she probably didn’t have time to think about the fashion industry.

Tip #3 is to practice your walk. We did see Anchal practicing her walk in the house, but it obviously never did her any good. She didn’t do well in the cobblestone-walking challenge, but we never saw her practice until weeks later. She should have thought earlier that having her walk down might have given her an upper hand on the other girls. Instead, like I said, she focused on other things - things that made her self-conscious and didn’t help her at all in the competition.

The fourth tip is that personality counts. Anchal didn’t have much of one - in fact, Twiggy said that her personality was boring. (I’m surprised Twiggy thought she had one at all, let alone a boring one.) I think the fact that Anchal was Indian-American was one of the few things that set her apart from the other girls. She certainly didn’t have anything else that made her more likable or interesting than the other girls. And towards the end, I just wanted her to shut up.

The fifth tip tells girls to focus on themselves, not the other models. At the beginning, Anchal did all right with this, but the situations with Monique and Melrose started to spiral out of control and she lost her focus. She also couldn’t concentrate on the competition because she kept comparing herself to the other girls, especially in terms of weight. Anchal was told numerous times that she was beautiful, but when Melrose started commenting on her disagreement with that, Anchal listened to Melrose instead. Instead of focusing on herself, she let the other girls get to her, and this in turn cost her her concentration.

The last tip tells girls to roll with the punches and not fight with the judges. Again, Anchal did all right with this, especially in the beginning, but towards the end, she started to get stuck in one place. All she could focus on were her looks (especially her weight) and her belief that she had no friends in the house. Instead of rolling with the punches and working through her issues, Anchal let them bog her down. She could have turned her frustration into a drive to do better, but she just got so self-conscious and upset with herself that there was nothing she could do to pull herself out of it.

Anchal could have done very well in the competition if she’d just ignored everyone else in the house, especially Monique and Melrose. It’s not clear if Melrose intentionally frustrated Anchal in order to get the upper hand (I wouldn’t put it past her), but whether she did or not, Anchal’s insecurities weren’t helped and she couldn’t make them better in time to improve her talent. Had Anchal worked harder and paid more attention to the Top Model Tips, she might have been able to do better. But instead, she let everything else get to her and couldn’t keep her focus. That’s why she’s not a Top Model.

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Jenn Brasler is an Assistant Editor of Reality News Online and an aspiring writer from Falls Church, Virginia. By day she works for a court reporting firm, and by night she’s a spy for a covert branch of the CIA. You can e-mail her at luckyjenn@hotmail.com. She definitely won’t miss Anchal complaining all the time.

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