America’s Next Top Model 7: Why Megan is not a Top Model

I was disappointed but not that surprised that Megan was the most recent girl eliminated from America’s Next Top Model. I thought she had a great attitude and was both calm and professional, and I liked that she didn’t try to use her mother’s death to get sympathy. I also thought that maybe she could make up for Kim’s elimination, since I always thought Kim went too early in cycle 5. However, I wasn’t surprised to see Megan go this early. Why not? Because of the Top Model Tips.

Tip #1 says that the models should be open and welcome change. (Now that we’ve gotten to the makeovers, it’s a lot easier to tell which girls follow this tip and which ones don’t.) Megan already had short hair, so unless she’d gotten extensions, there wasn’t much the stylists could do with her hair length. But Megan did undergo a drastic color change by going blond. For some, that could be a difficult change to have to deal with, but Megan did well. In fact, she said she liked her new look and color. Megan definitely followed this tip.

The second tip says that girls should know something about the fashion industry. It’s hard to tell if Megan knew anything about the industry; I’m not even sure she had any modeling experience before appearing on the show. In the elevator challenge, she did all right, landing somewhere in the middle of the pack by doing okay with the makeup application and clothing choices. Still, I don’t know how much Megan knew, so I can’t really apply this rule to her.

The third tip tells the girls to practice their walk. Megan actually followed this rule, as did Michelle - we saw them practicing their runway walks in the house just after Christian’s elimination. Interestingly, though Megan was one of only two girls we saw following this tip, she went home. Maybe it’s because this week’s challenge didn’t involve walking. If she and Michelle had practiced dressing and putting on makeup quickly, then running for an elevator, she might have had the challenge all sewn up.

Tip #4 is that personality counts. Megan had one of the more interesting (and heartbreaking) back stories of all of the girls this season, but that didn’t necessarily mean that she had a personality. (If she did have one, she only had two episodes to show it anyway.) Though I liked Megan, I did find her a little boring. Though she never did anything outlandish like Monique and never caused problems with the other girls like… well, Monique, she really didn’t do much of anything. In fact, I would say that she was most memorable for looking like Kim. That’s not something that will keep a girl in the competition.

The fifth tip is to focus on yourself, not the other girls. Megan did this well, avoiding all of the drama in the house. It must have been difficult to focus with all of the problems Monique was causing, but it didn’t seem to affect Megan at all. She didn’t even join in the other girls’ complaining. This coupled with seeing Megan practicing her walk indicates that she was very focused on the competition, not on what the other models were doing. Too bad that didn’t help her turn out even better photos.

The last tip says that the girls should roll with the punches and not fight with the judges. So far most of the girls seem to be following this tip, and Megan was no exception. She seemed to listen to the judges and take in their advice and critiques. She never argued with them and never talked back to Jay at photo shoots, unlike some of her competitors. Megan remained professional throughout her short stay in the process, showing the other girls exactly how they should have acted.

But despite all of the things Megan did right, she was still eliminated second. When you look at all of these Top Model Tips, it’s hard to tell why. She was professional, she went with the flow, and she focused on what she was doing. And yet the judges just didn’t think she was right to be America’s Next Top Model. This is where things get tough with the Top Model Tips - even when a model does everything right, she can still get eliminated.

I think that Megan suffered the most in that she was overshadowed by her competitors. There are a lot of strong personalities and loud voices this cycle, and it’s hard for a normal, nice girl like Megan to stand out among them. This lack of standing out can be seen as a lack of personality, which is probably why I found her sort of boring. In addition, though Megan tried hard at her shoots and took the process seriously, she just wasn’t a good enough model to really stand out, even considering her friendship with Michelle, one of the cycle’s early front-runners. Even with all of the tips to follow, it comes down to the modeling itself. If you can’t give a good photo, the judges won’t keep you around. Even though she did everything she was supposed to, Megan didn’t pull it out in the shoots, and that’s why she’s not a Top Model.

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’s scared to root for anyone else, since two of her early favorites are now both gone.

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