The Blueprint | EP 2

Hi, Curse Up listeners, I know you miss me on your feed. Don't worry. We're working on an all new season of Curse Of coming out later this year. In the meantime, if you can't stop thinking about the shocking stories you heard about America's Next Top Model, you'll definitely want to check out our new docuseries from E Dirty Rotten Scandals. In the series, you'll hear from the America's Next Top Model participants you heard from on Curse Of, and a few you didn't like former A and TM

Would Adrian and Shannon come in? Please?

It's July eighth, two thousand and three, and America's Next Top Model is about to crown its first ever winner.

The judges have reached a decision.

One of you is about to be a star.

After weeks of watching ten, then nine, then eight, and finally the last two women be transformed into POI supermodels. The most deserving young woman was about to have all her dreams come true.

Let me remind you what's at stake. A contract with Revlin, a fashion spread in Marie Claire magazine, and representation by top modeling agency Will and Minas.

The two finalists, Adrian Curry and Shannon Stewart, were standing there because they desperately wanted to become top models. They were, of course both tall, thin and pretty, but Shannon, with her blue eyes, blonde hair, and tan skin, had a more obvious beauty that gave all American supermodel. Adrian, with her pale skin and dark hair, had a more gothic look, a bit like our early two thousands Angelina Joli minus Phillips. Shannon and Adrian, We're both so young eighteen and twenty.

The winner's picture is hanging behind me, and when the cloth is dropped, it will reveal who will be America's next Top Model.

They had no idea the show they had just spent nine weeks filming would launch a global phenomenon.

The decision is made, America's next Top Model is.

Adrian, But after the cameras went down, Adrian would become the first contestant to fall victim to the Curse of America's Next Top Model.

She thought when she stepped off that set she was stepping into a career as a top model with a beauty contract an agency representation to give her a head start, But those prizes never materialized, and neither did her modeling career. I want to be on some Welcome to the Curse of America's Next Top Model. I'm Bridget Armstrong. For a lot of A and TM fans, Cycle one was just address or her as well. They say the show didn't really get good until season two, but cycle one was

It's certainly not a show that anyone in the fashion industry wants to touch you if you bet on it and season one, you don't know that that we knew as much as Kelly Clarkson knew going into American Idol.

But unlike Kelly Clarkson, Adrian didn't become a superstar. She didn't sell eighty seven million records or win three Grammys. She certainly doesn't have a talk show. Adrian's an avon lady living in rural Montana, and according to her, she never got that Revlin deal and the Wilhelmina contract was an empty promise. She says the agents completely ignored her. In fact, once she left the show, she discovered that no one in the modeling world took her seriously when

Janis became one of the world's first supermodels in the nineteen seventies and her face was featured everywhere and had.

Been in this industry for quite a long time, making me probably the most opinionated person on the panel.

All right, next we have four.

Jannis became known for her less than gracious opinions, but according to her, she was just doing her job. Here she is in twenty twenty two talking about her role on the show. When I was hired to do America's Next Top Model, Tyra hired me to be like a female Simon Cowell to be feeding in a negative fashion things about the girls, and as we know, Janie did her job well, maybe too well.

There's so many teeth in her mouth.

I mean it's like maybe she should have a few removed.

Got to work on the side that the booty thing your ass was.

Going, you know, wiggle walk and wig walk.

Escathing vitriolic judge check. Next, they needed some fashion experts to transform these scrinny confused teenagers into supermodels. So Tyra brought in somebody who trained her when she was a squarnny teenager.

I have the one and the only top runway trainer.

I have known him.

Since I was seventeen years old.

His name is Jay Alexander. Come on, Jay Alexander or Miss Jay was well known in the industry is the go to person to teach young models how to slay the runway, and two thousand and three it was a big deal to feature a queer black man who went by miss on a mainstream show, and from the beginning, Miss j was his authentic, fabulous self. On episode two, he taught the girls how to walk while wearing nothing but a black shirt, drawls and heels.

Jay walked out a little black like underwear something in high heels.

Jay's legs look a lot better than mine.

New So yeah, my motto is walk like it's for sale and the rent is due tonight.

Next there was Jay Mayuel or Mister j. He eventually became a judge in the show's creative director, but on cycle one he first appeared as the makeup artist on the makeover episode. Here he is wiping away a lot of dramatic tears.

Don't look so sad.

Models are canvases.

Yeah, they're canvas and they're also chameleons.

Wow.

This was before Jay's iconic silver hair. He was still a brunette here. So they had their judges, they had their Jay's and now they needed their model. They began a nationwide search, and despite not knowing what this was going to be, young women showed up and sent in their audition tape. At least one contestant was cast the Fairytale Way literally at Disneyland. Jazelle Sampson was working as a dancer at Disney where her coworker approached her.

It came up to me, he was like, what are you doing here?

You should be modeling, And then he said something that would change Jazelle's life Forever.

My ex girlfriend. She's in casting, and there's the show called Supermodels. Originally it was called Supermodels, or maybe that was the alias that they were using.

She gave her coworker her head shot. He passed it along to his ex who was working and casting for a and m Jazelle didn't hear anything for a while. Then a few months later she got a call about that Supermodel show.

And I got the phone call on New Year's Eve Eve, December thirtieth of two thousand and two. They were like, hey, can you come in right now and meet with our producers. I literally changed, got in my car, went to CBS Studios in office and I walked in and I was just, you know, thinking I was just going to meet a couple of producers, and then there was Tyra Banks sitting right there in front of my facet.

As I've heard over and over on the first seasons, Tyra was extremely involved in every aspect of production, including casting. Do Thelle remembers Tyra asking her to lift up her shirt to show her stomach. She wanted her to do a runway walk right there in between the cubicles. The idea terrified her.

I freaked out. I freaked out, and I was like, I'm gonna lose the opportunity. I started crying. She was like, oh my god, that's probably what got me WHA. I started crying because I was so self conscious because I have s curve scoliosis, and so I had a total breakdown. And she was like, oh my gosh, girl, we all were tall, we all have that. Don't worry about it. And I was like, okay, cool. So she boosted my confidence at the time, and so I did my thing.

You know what. Gazelle might have a point about her breakdown getting her cast. Her entire storyline was focused on her supposed lack of confidence and her callback. Tyra asked Aazil one more thing, how she would feel if she became famous.

I lost my shit again, and I just started crying because I could just I got this overwhelming like sense of like this is my time, this is a sign, like I'm going to be famous now, like this is it.

Gazelle, like many women I've talked to, thought this was her big break, that she had been discovered. The next day, casting director Michelle Mock, no relation to ep Kin, Mock called Gazil they wanted her to come back in for a meeting with the network Exis.

She was like, I'm going to drive you, so I got in her car. I was like, oh my gosh, casting doctors, Deere me and he Mercedes Matins and all that stuff.

The meeting didn't take long. Afterwards, Michelle Mack came up to her and.

Said, I'm so sorry, but you're gonna have to figure out how to get warm clothes because you're going to New York in four days. And within twenty four hours I got the gig.

Just want to point out Dazell made it onto the show because she knew a guy who knew a guy. In later seasons, thousands of people would show up to casting calls and waiting lines for hours for a small possibility of just being seen. Jazelle's casting happened so fast she wasn't even prepared. She didn't have a passport, a requirement in case she stayed on the show long enough for the international trip. She and her mother had to rush to get her one. She didn't even have winter clothes.

They said, you're gonna have cameras on you twenty four to seven. They'll go down when you guys go to bed, and they'll be up when you guys get up. But that's all I knew. And then we were going to go do some modeling things, and then we were going to be judged on that and hopefully make it to the next round. But there wasn't really much said.

Jazelle quit her job and took us semester off college. But before she could officially join the cast, there was one teeny tiny piece of business. She was handed a stack of papers and told to sign.

I was seventeen years old, just five months before I got this competition show, and they threw legalities at me. You know, you need to sign this, you know, the releases and everything. And I was so excited to be on the show. I didn't know what I was signing. And I didn't even have time to like have my parents look over at have a lawyer look over at nothing. I just was like, Oh, I'm so excited, and they're dangling fame and fortune and television and you know, being

So she signed those papers and was cast on the very first season of Tyra Banks's new modeling show.

Up and Tomorrow. Ten women go ahead to head for the ultimate prize, a modeling contract with Revlin, Meet Giselle.

I hate to be bothered, seriously, when people are like, you need to do this or you need to wear this.

I just I'm like, will you meeting alone?

Spoiler alert. Cycle one did not make Giselle star, but it did make America's Next Top Model a hit, with a Revlin.

Contract at stayed America's Next.

Top Model Overmiers tonight after Buffy on ups Jimmy.

We'll get into that after the break. America's Next Top Model premiered on May twentieth, two thousand and three, to an audience of nearly three million. It quickly became one of the most successful shows on UPN and there are a lot of reasons for that. I wanted to call up someone who could explain the pop culture climate back in two thousand and three, someone with insight on what made A and TM and shows like it such a hit.

I am the original influencer. In fact, that word didn't even exist when I again back in two thousand and four.

That's Perez Hilton. He made his name terrorizing anyone who had the misfortune of being famous in the early two thousands and back then.

People weren't really talking about celebrities online. The websites for the magazines people dot com, Usweekly dot com. They were just placeholders. Go to our website to sign up for a subscription to the magazine. Nobody was breaking news on the internet. And then I come along and that's all that I'm doing every day.

Back in the day, Perez was messy. Honestly, messi is an understatement. He was accused of outing Lance Bath, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jodie Foster. He constantly mocked celebrities appearances and wait by featuring unflattering paparazzi photos. In one of this posts, he linked to a possible upskirt photo of an underaged Miley Cyrus.

The Insider did a segment on Hollywood's Most Hated websites, and they reached out to me and said, what if we made you number one? Then, for the longest time, for years after that, I called myself Perez Hilton dot Com, Hollywood's most hated website.

Besides being an expert on early two thousands culture, Perez was a guest judge on ANTM in its later seasons. So before I talked to him about the early odds, I wanted to know what he thinks about all the contestants who've been trashing Tyra in the show.

I encourage everybody to speak up and share their story, and I don't have to agree with it. If you hated it that much, you could have quit, you could have stopped.

I might not agree with Perez on this one, but I'll say this about him. As a person who made his career out of embarrassing celebrities, he knows what audiences really want. At least at our most base.

Nature, viewers enjoy watching others be humiliated and tortured and going through difficult things. That's why shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race and America's Next Top Model were popular.

A and TM certainly got the humiliation part right, and viewers loved it. Brez has a theory about the early two thousands being ripe for reality TV, especially the kind where people made fools of themselves like top model. He thinks it was a reaction to the very real and very scary things happening in the world.

We were coming out of nine to eleven, We were coming out of American troops at war, and that's real life. So when you translate wanting to see celebrities being real, flaws and all, once again, for me, it's escapism, you know, easily digestible escapism.

People must have really needed that escape because, compared to the other big reality shows at the time, A and TM was low budget, Survivor had almost quadrupled the budget and they flew an entire cast and crew to a remote country for weeks. The amazing race flew teens of people all over the world. Tyra, on the other hand, was trying to figure out how to get enough bed sheets for the model's rooms. Here she is in twenty eighteen reminiscing about cycle one.

What do you remember most from when that.

Show just stirred a cheap budget, like not being happy with how the beds looked, and me going to linens and things in bed, bath and beyond and shopping on my own.

Credit cards to fill out the rooms.

The girls on the first poster have my clothes on Yes, these Victoria's secret little like bandeaux tops and skirts.

Those were my clothes that I put.

In a trash bag or the airplane because I didn't want to put it in a suitcases and I'd have to check it and I was scared that if would get lost and then we'd have no clothes for the poster.

Chatty people were broke. And remember the iconic judging panel. Well, on cycle one.

The judging room was actually blue drape all around the rooms, but that was a hotel room where we moved a bed and stuff out. There was a hotel room the first judging room.

You know what, that makes sense because Tyra and the panel were squeezed in at that table like the models on cycle five during that phone booth photo shoot. In fact, Giselle told me that the so called penthouse was just a bunch of regular hotel rooms.

What they did is they took the top floor and they took all of the rooms, and they like took the doors off and then they combined it. There was no penthouse or anything like that.

Ken Mark struck a deal with the hotel to house the models and crew in exchange for promotion on the show. That's why there are so many shots of the hotel signage in this season. And we're not talking about the rents here. It was a small, low key New York hotel that's now out of business. I'm telling you. These people were making it on a hope and a.

Prayer, using bread, a bag, you know, those little ties to like hold curtains together. And I guess we were, you know, the guinea pigs. So it was more of like a free for all and let's figure it out as we go sort of thing.

Facle One didn't have the budget for the over the top photo shoots and stunts that became synonymous with A and TM in later seasons. Instead, the models did runway walks, a bikini photoshoot on a cold rooftop, They went to casting calls, did a mock commercial, worked with PR people, and did a magazine interview. The most shocking things they did were a mostly nude photo shoot where Robin uttered these iconic words. Last week it.

Was sprawn panties.

I probably wouldn't never do it.

This week it's two strands of ribbon and us all, what is it gonna be next week?

And they did a beauty shot with a snake. From the beginning, antm loved an animal prop I wonder if they had a deal with an exotic animal agency or something. But my point is the absence of death defying photoshoots and ridiculous challenges, they had to use what they had, the judges, experts, and of course the models. When Gazelle was brought onto the show, she and another contestant named

You guys, you know, are a finalists, but I like very round numbers.

So what I did is I did a nationwide search for two more.

Oh my, I was like what I had literally just said a minute before, curls.

I'm glad it's see eight of.

Us, So come on in here.

Tessa and Gizelle I noticed checking me like from up and down.

You know, just I don't know if I like this girl.

There were already two girls in the house who kind of resembled Tessa and Gazelle, which automatically put them at odds. Jazelle and her doppelganger, Katie, both had long, dark hair, and I can't quite place your ethnicity kind of looks.

Katie and I are very very similar, so I mean, if they're looking.

For that exotic type look, there's a major competition between us.

That's okay. I think she's beautiful.

I know that she's older than me, so that's okay.

Did you catch that shade? This unexpected twist of bringing in new cast mates is something we see over and over again in reality TV. The Traders does it RuPaul's Drag Race has done multiple seasons where there are two casts who initially know nothing about each other. America's Next Top Model didn't invent this trick, but they were one of the first to do it in this way, and while not sinister, it was clearly done to throw off

I felt extremely uncomfortable with the bikini wax.

It's all on two people has been down there but myself for my guy of colleges, and I give him crap.

Here.

I told everybody in my whole life, I said, I will never get a bikini wax.

Oh, I was too young for bikini wax in two thousand and three. But this must not have been a widespread thing back then, because these models freaked out. The waxing scene was even the clip they showed on Tyra's late night appearance with Conan O'Brian when she was promoting the show.

Is that something that a model has to get his new.

Models are always told by their agencies that they have to show up at a shoot clean hair, clean face, and clean shaven, and a lot of models don't really understand what that is. I think, okay, clean shaven, clean shaven, and then they get to the shoot and it's like, you know, they forgot a spot, so so.

Hah. But this is something that I don't think it's ever been seen on TV. And I was looking at the.

Clip today, never scene before on TV. Is wild. Of course, from the beginning, the makeover episodes were a built in day of drama. Although compared to later seasons, these were pretty reasonable. Most of the girls just got two thousands highlights and elevated versions of the hair they already had. But that didn't stop the tears.

Giselle cried, Giselle wine, Giselle moaned, Giselle grown, and.

I'm just the way I had my hair, So I'm kind of concerned about the link.

Robin's finfrushir was her whole hair situation.

I don't feel that this color is right for me, so it's kind of like just having like hair color from ag double hockeysticks. The one person they did wrong Ebony Hay. Ebony was this gorgeous, striking black woman with very short, almost no hair except for a bit at the top. There wasn't much to change about her look, so Tyra decided to cut that off.

It was really just frustrating, and people didn't I have the correct clippers.

Everybody basically sat and they didn't know what to do.

While it may seem like a simple task, the hairstylists were these white women who were honestly looking at their hair like they never touched a black woman's hair before. They had the wrong clippers. They were making jokes and shaving in the wrong direction.

Leave a little top.

I ain't like the way the woman was cutting my hair, or the way they have a conversation in front of them.

Street Writer.

As a woman who also has very short hair, who recently let her boyfriend cut it and ended up bald. I feel her pain. But despite being made the butt of the stylish jokes and getting a terrible haircut, she'd later had to fix herself. Ebanie reacted to the whole thing very well, better than I would have. I don't know if it was intentional, but this botched haircut mirrors a dynamic tyr encountered in her early career, showing up on set and there's no one there who can style black hair.

You know, the white girls and the Asian girls and the Latina girls. They would come to set put their little purse empty handed.

Child.

I came with a suitcase.

I had to have the pressing comb, and sometimes the pressing comb and the hot plate. If the pressing comb that plugged in wasn't working, I had to have my Vita point grease. I had to have my.

Edge toothbrush to come down my edges.

Supermodels, ducky thought Jordan Dunn in Anakia. I have all talked about this. Maybe the show was trying to give Ebony a taste of what she'd experience in the real world, but giving a contestant a bad haircut and a competition that's all about looks seems unfair. Overall, though, the makeovers on this cycle were pretty tame, but the drama in

Serious least as.

When I found out Elist was an atheist, I had extreme reservations about her that really fans are.

For Robin, of course, qualifies every seaman with I'm not saying that you're going to hell, but you're going to hell. Robin actually showed me this Bible verse foolish is the man who says there is no God?

Like when I read it, it made me think of you.

So Robin, Elise might as well have been an alien. I genuinely think she'd never met an atheist before, but the Christianity conflict didn't end there. Ebony, the one who got the bad haircut, was queer and one night, wanted her girlfriend to come visit the hotel. When she asked the other girls if they were cool with it, the Christians Robin and Shannon were not feeling it. You know, if it's okay if my girlfriend come over for about an hour or two today.

He's a lesbian and I found this offensive my voice on him and say, Shah, I think that definitely it is wrong. It says in the Bible that it's an abomination to the Lord.

I'll agree with you.

But instead of making this moment about these two models and their bigoted beliefs, producers pivoted and focused on Ebane's visit with her girlfriend. They hugged and talked about Ebone's new haircut. Ebone braided her girlfriend's hair. It was sweet.

The girls were very nice.

You know.

They came and introduced themselves. Sorry, this is introduce yourself, Harris, to see.

That everyone except Robin and Shannon.

Of course, you know, you really let me know that she's okay and she's in this.

For a long one.

For everything A and TM did wrong, this one moment on cycle one, they got right This was two thousand and three, same sex marriage was still illegal, and for a lot of viewers, this was probably their first time seeing a loving black queer relationship on cable. Ebane ended up getting eliminated on episode four, Justice for Ebone. Today, she's a fitness instructor in Brooklyn. I found her on Instagram and it seems she and Ka are still in

Silent Bob right next to my ear.

I've had enough of you.

Jay, you offended me today. I know the medical school.

It's hard work.

How could I possibly not be aware of that?

Kate, I don't believe a word that comes out of your mouth.

You're the most insincere person I've ever met.

Giselle, you worthless.

You're so wasteful, bitchy, stupid, You're worthless.

Your parents must be shamed of you.

Damn, that's harsh, even about today day standards. Elif made it to the final three, which might have something to do with the fact that she was a source of drama. Gazelle told me that around the time of Eliza's rant, the show started to feel different. It became what Tyra and Ken Mott called a drumality.

This show, this is a this is a reality show that you're doing.

Drumality.

What was that a drumality?

My co executive producer says, dramality.

Okay, it's drama reality, it's dramality.

Yes, here's Gazelle.

We all got along at first. Then I started realizing that when we would sit down and do our one on ones with the producers, the interview format started to change. First it was very like, well, how do you think the photoshoot went, what did you learn? What's your experience like? Then later it started becoming more like, well, how do you feel about that girl? And did you know that this girl said something about that one? And did you hear that these girls are saying all of this about

Care Gaselle's right, this was a whole different ballgame. It certainly wasn't the modeling competition she signed up for. More after the break, I wanted to spend the whole episode dissecting cycle one because it's the blueprint, the bare bones image of Tyra's initial vision, and from the beginning, Tyra talked about size inclusivity.

All callers, all shapes, and all sizes.

Before we go on, I want to flag for listeners that were going to discuss eating disorders and body dysmorphia in the next section. Before Tyra filmed the first episode of A and TM, she was a nineties runway model at the height of the heroin Chic era. Tyra said in interviews that she was repeatedly told she was too big for runway.

I was told that I wasn't good enough. They said, your but is getting too big.

The KPE Moss body standard simply wasn't possible for Tyra, so she made her own lane found clientele who appreciated her curves and she worked it. Tyra knew what it was like to be told you don't have the right body, so she decided to embrace different body types on America's Next Top Model. From cycle one until the end of the show, she always included at least one and for a long time only one plus sized or curvy model. But despite featuring plus sized models, ANTM still trafficked in

That's kind of an issue right now, whether Release has some eating disorders or not. But we're kind of confused. We don't know what's really going on with her.

I'm really worried about Realise. She's a smart, smart girl, but she's not fooling anybody and even missed tire Susan.

Alise ate like a whole plate of stuff. She mentioned to somebody that it was because Tyra.

Was there, and when asked during a judging panel which of their fellow models should be eliminated, more than one girl said Elise.

I think this time she's struggling through unhealthy eating habits and that could harm her in the future.

I don't want to be the one to judge.

Elise because I'm very worried about her health. And here they are speculating again at another dinner, all.

Of the girls are concerned about Elise. When we were eating at He's the place she got oatme.

She doesn't really eat as much as I would care for her.

To keep in mind, anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Yes, it's classified as the eating disorder and mental illness. But the closest the judges ever came to addressing it was this moment when they asked, Elise, are.

You naturally about banners that something work towards No, I'm naturally the spin I love it.

I'm not so against thin if it's natural or no.

You have nobody hot on you, so there's no insulation. It's a little for me.

While Alice denied having an eating disorder on the show, other contestants from Psyco one say they're eating disorder started after the competition ended.

I like Gizelle because it just seems like she wants this.

But I think she needs to tighten ue.

It's kind of wide.

Here's Gazil who's asked, Tyra just called wide on national television.

I saw it on the show, which is like a shock to me, which means now you're putting it into everybody's head all across America that I have a white ass. So clearly I'm not good enough. Clearly I can't be a model. So how do I get rid of this white ass. Oh, maybe I should stop eating. And then when I eat too much in one setting because I get so hungry, Oh, now I feel guilty. How about

And it wasn't just Gazelle. Robin, the only Curby model on cycle one, got it the worst. Now I have to pause and say this. I'm sure I thought Robin was beautiful when the show first aired, but rewatching, Oh, I was gagged. Robin is a baddie. She has the type of body people go get a BBL to have, And this is how the judges talked about her.

Robin's doubt is first, I'm concerning about being a supermodel.

Because I think the next America's.

Top model is not a plus sized model.

I'm sorry that that's of course Janis Dickinson who was especially outspoken about Robin's body, but she wasn't the only one.

Now are we shooting for the large size?

Yes, Robin would represent a plus size model.

One problem that.

I do have with Robin. I think on the top, she's not plus sizing.

On the bottom, she is.

Robin, first of all, is too old to be starting.

She's huge. She's not going to be a top model.

Car toppling company?

I think, did she say a car toppling company? What does that even mean? Imagine being invited to a show where you've been told your body type is welcome and even celebrated as a representation of real women, and then going home and hearing the judges say this nonsense. While there may have been questions about Elisa's size, she was rarely talked about as negatively as Robin. In fact, Elise is actually praised for having the most high fashioned looks.

When I look at Elise, I think that the body is rightful quotes.

She's just real finn. I love it.

At least I thought had a really good look for the runway.

Very finnving penn Abadan would love her.

We don't know if producers actually thought she had an eating disorder, or if they kept the questions about her eating habits and the edit for a dramatic effect, And I don't know which one is more disturbing. What we do know is that it was such a topic of conversation. It made us believe that she was struggling with eating. Some of those clips you heard earlier are from an episode titled the Girl who Everyone Thinks is killing herself. What message does it send that the girl we've been

Don't have a market here for Robin. You know, there's no markets for precizes in front.

I know A and TM didn't invent these standards. A lot of what we heard on the show about bodies and weight were a reflection of the actual modeling world, and that's been Tyra's defense against the criticism.

We were trying to be as realistic in the modeling industry, not trying to embarrass anybody. It's just what it's done, So we're pulling back the curtain.

Tyra said she wanted to challenge the rigid beauty standards of her industry. That's why someone like Robin was even on the show, but it doesn't seem like much of a challenge if the judge spent the entire season calling Robin fat and then justifying it by saying they're just being realistic, And why even cast and keep a girl with an alleged eating disorder until the end if you're not going to really address it. Tyra did come to the model's hotel to have a heart to heart about insecurities.

I want to make a top model in eight weeks.

I want to take someone from obscurity to fame, a person she could transform into a top model. She wanted a diamond in the rough.

Some of these girls you would not look at twice in the streets.

But I'll know when I can make an.

Inside Oh you come to la father.

This is the once in a lifetime opportunity, a life changing opportunity.

What I'm looking for is a star.

That's all. And that star turned out to be Adrian Curry. She was the embodiment of everything Tyr was looking for. She was different in edgy, A self proclaimed tomboy with a history of teenage drug use. She had a habit of quoting the movie Jay and Silent Bob, a perfect candidate for Tyer to showcase her ability to find and make a star and Adrian took on the competition with a self assured but laid back attitude.

I'm funny, I'm pretty, I got perfect too.

What do you think makes you special?

I'm like a really big time boy.

I mean, she genuinely brought into the dream the show was selling. She took the competition seriously. There was a time she got food poisoning and was threatened with a elimination if she didn't leave the hospital to make it to the judging panel.

I would never cult Adrian for being sick, but unfortunately, the judges came to the decision that if she was not present during the judging, she would be eliminated because it wouldn't be fair to the other girls that would be present.

The doctor told me it was a severe case of food poisoning. I faked being better to get out of the hospital. I'm not gonna miss this elimination.

There's no way.

The one time I had food poisoning, I could barely lift my head, let alone put on a bunch of makeup and get judged in front of a panel for hours. But Adrian left the er and showed up at the judging panel, which again was a curtain drape hotel room with red ties holding back the fabric. Here's what Jane said to Adrian that night.

So all of the matter that you showed up is what it takes to be a model at a supermodel well done.

I applaud that the fact that they encouraged her to leave the hospital and celebrated it was it the very least irresponsible. But this was just a small part of Adrian's storyline. By far, Adrian was the girl who tried the hardest, seemed the happiest to be there, was the most cooperative, complained the least, and had the biggest transformation. Tyro said as much when she crowned her the winner.

Adrian, you have transformed like Cinderella. When I looked at you in LA her semi finals, I was like, I don't even think she'll make it to the finals. Then you got here first week, I was like, I don't think she'll make it to the second week, and you're standing here.

Adrian came from a working class background and her mother had gotten scammed out of a bunch of money by pay for play modeling agencies. She'd been trying to make her daughter's dreams come true, but it was money the family couldn't afford to lose. Adrian didn't just want to win, She needed to win. And you could tell.

I don't want to leave neither one in my life drastically changes and for the better. I lose in I phone more and more into the hole.

She may not have been as refined as some of the other girls, or as runway ready as a lease, but she did want it bad and she had the best story. And this isn't an insult. She isn't in denial about why she won. A few years ago, in an interview, she said, quote, did I deserve to win? No? I just gave the producers what they wanted to make

Get a contract with Revlin, a fashion spread in Marie Claire magazine, and representation by Top Modeling agency.

But here's the thing. After we closed the storybook and went to sleep, we never came back to make sure Cinderella really got that happily ever after, because if we found out the prince was a jerk and the castle was a rental, the story wouldn't be a fairy tale. That's true about all Cinderella stories. We never get to see what happens next. And for Adrian, A and TM's first winner, her fairytale story ended abruptly as soon as the cameras stopped rolling. According to her, she never got

I was in debt after the show.

I was getting built for the testing, I was getting built for the dresses.

So now I'm having to pay, and I'm in debt, and i don't have a.

Place to stay.

I'm living on a couch and everywhere I go, people are wanting my autograph, taking pictures with me, and it was a very stressful time because Tyra owned me for that year.

I have thought receipts, I have got names, I've got stories. I know more about this show than I ever willingly wanted to. Because of my own experience and hearing other girls experiences, I was like, this can't be real.

Whole week or two later, somebody from the network production called me.

It was like, they want to have a meeting with you in.

New York City and they basically told me we can't air you as the winner because you violated your contract.

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