America’s Next Top Model 7: Top Model Tips

America’s Next Top Model is entering its seventh cycle, which promises to be a big one. There’s a whole new group of aspiring models, new challenges, and new chances for the girls to either secure a future in modeling or make complete fools of themselves. What haven’t changed, though, are the tips that the models should follow if they want to avoid the mistakes past girls have made. Here’s the newly updated list of Top Model tips:

Rule #1 – Be open to and welcome change. One of the things that claims at least one girl each season is the makeover episode. By now, the girls should realize that they are going to be poked, prodded, cut, and sewn back together by the second week they are there. It’s not strange or out of the ordinary for Tyra to take a girl with hair down to her waist and cut it up to her ears. If you want to be on this show, you should know that! In season two, Catie cried because she said her hair made her look like a boy, and although she did have the whole Peter Pan thing going on, she was still rocking her photos. There was no reason to cry about it. Season four’s Michelle had burns all over her head after the stylists were done bleaching her hair, yet we didn’t hear a peep out of her. She knew it would be hell, but she wanted to win and stuck with it. Meanwhile, Keenyah was sitting across the room complaining that she didn’t like what the stylists were doing to her. She eventually grew to like it, but her bitter attitude could have spelled an early exit had she kept it up.

Some girls don’t take well to change at all. Look at last season’s Cassandra. Cassandra told the judges she would be great for the show because she is used to being taken care of and changed, since she is a beauty queen. However, once she was told her hair would be cut, Cassandra cried for a day straight, saying she didn’t want it done. Although she did let Tyra’s crew cut it most of the way, when Tyra wanted it shorter, Cassandra drew the line and quit (and, in my opinion, took away a spot from another girl that would have done anything to be on the show). And compare and contrast Jade and Sara from cycle six: Jade hated her makeover and complained to anyone who would listen until they, well, stopped listening. Sara, however, said that she hated her haircut but wouldn’t be the girl crying in the salon. The bottom line is: want this enough to do whatever it takes!

Rule #2 – Know something about the fashion industry. There is nothing worse than watching someone talk about something they know absolutely nothing about. I think one of the reasons Yoanna won season two was because she had a working knowledge of the fashion world. She knew who the big players were: other top models, designers, and agencies. Yoanna read the magazines, while some of the other girls have admitted to never even picking up a Vogue before they were on the show.

During season four, the girls had to read off a teleprompter before the judges. The material included the names of colors, designers, and other top models. Some of the girls didn’t even know how to pronounce “magenta” or “Lacroix.” If you want to break into the industry, it’s important to have a working knowledge of what you are getting yourself into. Ashley from season five wasn’t the prettiest girl of the bunch, even though she claimed to have the “pretty gene” in her family, but she could rattle off the names of supermodels to the judges in her audition. Accordingly, Cassandra couldn’t name one, yet knew every pageant winner from the dawn of time. It was clear that modeling wasn’t her passion.

Rule #3 – Practice your walk! Yeah, this one can’t be stressed enough. How many times have watched the show, and even by the sixth episode, some of the girls don’t have a walk down? The walk is probably the most important thing if you are a top model, since you need to let your walk command the attention of everyone around you, as you can’t scream and shout on the runway. Every season there is a girl that has no clue what the heck she is doing when it comes to the walk. Past examples include Xiomara, Michelle, Shandi, Sarah, Kim, and even Elyse, the first season’s breakout star. If you know you are going to be on the show, you should be living in high heels. There is really no reason or excuse that these girls shouldn’t be able to have the fiercest walk. To this day I can’t understand why some of the girls get out on the runway and look like they are getting ready to dive for a football. I can’t stress this enough – practice!

Rule #4 – Personality counts! Of all the rules, this one can probably be debated the most. I mean, I loved Naima, but she was a lacking a little in the personality department. However, looking at other winners such as Adrianne, Yoanna, Eva, Nicole, and Danielle, all of them had personalities to back up their portfolios and to show that they weren’t just pretty faces. You might be able to take amazing photos, but if you don’t have a personality to match, it’s going to be an issue. Take Christina from season four. Very pretty girl, took really nice photos, but it was hard for the judges to get any emotion out of her. Finally, they gave up on trying and eliminated her. Cycle six’s Mollie Sue was portrayed as boring, so much so that the judges didn’t think she was suited to modeling. Even when she was placed in the bottom two with Jade, who had been ridiculed many times for many reasons, Jade’s personality trumped Mollie Sue’s lack of one and the “boring” girl was sent home.