Throwback Thursday: America's Next Top Model Season 1

Alright so I have an Apple TV now... and with all the streaming services and all the shows I could possibly watch... what did I decide to visit? Season 1 of America's Next Top Model. Why? I had heard Safiya Nygaard talking about it in one of her videos and it made me curious- but also I like the early 2000s. I like the fashion and the sort of look of it all... and I like reality tv. So I kind of thought it'd be something fun to put on and see what it was all about.

It was a fun show overall. The girls all had some fun and funny personalities. Plus there was aninteresting divide in the house. 3 of the girls were very religious and they did a bible study every day and the rest of the girls were not religious and one girl was open about being an Atheist so... there was some divide. I'm sure the producers did that on purpose and they probably fueled some of the fights... but it was still pretty interesting.

There was a lot of stuff that was kind of potentially triggering. There was one girl that was incredibly skinny and there was an eating disorder storyline with her... which I'm sure was producer influenced. I don't know if she actually had an eating disorder- but the contestants definitely voiced that they thought she did. It could have just been a bad edit they were trying to give her because... I think they were kind of making her look good- like she could be the winner but also making her look like a villain because... she was definitely the most vocal of the house and possibly the most irritating at times.

The other frustrating thing was the bad edit that Ebony got. There's always going to be a villain in reality shows- and I think for the most part the villain was the religious Diva of the house- Robin... but Ebony also got an edit that was really bad. It seemed like they were making her the crazy girl of the house and... she did not seem that crazy to me at all. In the episode where Ebony was eliminated they mention that she had been using oil on her skin because the judges told her her skin looked very textured. And the girls let her know that her oil is getting all over the doorknobs and everywhere and they ask her to wash her hands after she uses it.They ask nicely and she handles it well but the way its edited together sort of looks like she didn't handle it the best. It was just a weird choice.

She also makes some comments about one of the girls in the house that is supposed to be helping her clean the house while the other girls get massages. Giselle didn't do much to help clean and then asks if the masseuse can give her a massage even though she wasn't one of the chosen winners of the competition. Giselle was being annoying and not doing what she was supposed to be doing- yet they sort of made Ebony look like the villain for calling her out about it... so I just didn't think the editing made sense there.

Ohhh and Robin being the "plus sized" contestant was just... ugh. When they weighed her in she was 165 pounds and she was the heaviest of anyone... but she had like curves and she looked beautiful. And Janice Dickinson took her apart like every episode and... I'm just not a fan of Janice Dickinson so that was kind of bad. A lot of older reality shows did "the mean judge" thing where the judge would just fat shame contestants... and it's terrible. This show was really bad when it came to things like that.

And just one kind of funny sign of the times moment came in the first episode when they all had to get bikini waxes... which I guess wasn't super common in the early 2000s... but now it's still a topic of conversation as to whether you get one or not but I definitely think getting one is very common. These girls were all very... whiny when it came to getting their bikini waxed. One girl said she'd never do it and was acting like it was the worst pain she's ever been in. It was just a funny scene to see how these women reacted to it.

I think that's everything I wanted to mention. I have started to watch Season 2... I'm not sure if I'll watch every season- I was just planning on comparing this to the last season... but I might watch some more seasons too.

Bye!

-Shannon