America’s Subsequent High Mannequin winner Lisa D’Amato — who competed in Season 5 earlier than taking the crown in Season 17’s all-stars competitors — spoke out forward of the present’s twentieth anniversary and urged fellow contestants to share their facet of the story.
“Plz plz be trustworthy with your self and everybody else once I say DON’T BE SCARED to actually inform how horrible it was in your interview,” she stated in a put up on her non-public IG account (through Leisure Weekly.)
“Do not act robust. Be actual. Do not be petrified of the fandom. Do not be petrified of Tyra or Ken Mok,” continued Lisa. “The sunshine is coming by and increasingly the fandom are on our facet.”
“Converse up and converse freely,” Lisa urged. “Keep in mind that is your life to [sic]! Battle for it! Have you learnt who’s going to face up for you when you do not? Have you learnt who’s going to save lots of your life when you do not?”
Lisa additionally in contrast the expertise on the present to the controversial Stanford Jail Experiment the place contributors took on the roles of guards and prisoners, and because the experiment went on, the mistreatment of the prisoners escalated.
As extra ANTM contestants have spoken up about how they’ve been handled through the years, the present’s ethics have gone beneath public reconsideration.
Alleged examples of mistreatment embrace Season 12’s second runner-up Aminat Ayinde, who accused the present of “psychological warfare,” once they compelled her to make use of a hair product that she was allergic to and left her with a bald spot. In keeping with Aminat, she believes host Tyra Banks, “does not give a fuck” and that she had “misplaced all respect” for her after her run on the present.
Season 7’s third-place winner, Eugena Washington, additionally shared that she needed to stroll a makeshift runway made up of a slender plank of wooden over a pool in six-inch heels. “I felt like my life was being placed on the road for scores,” she informed Enterprise Insider final yr, calling the problem an “inconceivable process” and “harmful.”
“You’re not lifting ladies up. You’re not giving them an actual alternative,” a former manufacturing worker alleged, “You’re attempting to pit them towards one another in a barrel filled with crabs which might be all attempting to claw their manner out.”
We’ll let you realize if Tyra responds.