Whitney Thompson has made Top Model history. She is the first full figured winner in the show’s history. Despite landing in the bottom two several times, she picked herself up when she fell and continued on in the competition. Her strong runway walk, confident commercials, and beautiful pictures carried her all the way to the finale, where she prevailed over Anya Kop. Today, Whitney took time out of her busy schedule to talk to BuddyTV about her win, how she plans on surviving in the modeling world, and how she really feels about her fellow contestants.
Hey everybody, this is Gina from BuddyTV, and today I’m talking to Whitney, the winner of America’s Next Top Model, Cycle 10.
Hi Gina.
Hey Whitney, how are you?
Good. How are you?
I’m good. You know, I have to apologize, because I really did not think that you were gonna win because you had been in the bottom so many times.
Oh, I didn’t think I was gonna win either.
I’m so happy that you ended up prevailing and becoming America’s Next Top Model. Congratulations.
Thank you.
When you did stand next to Anya in the final two, what was going through your mind?
Oh my God. I thought definitely Anya was gonna win.
What was it about Anya that you think brought her to the final two?
She’s an incredible model. She’s beautiful. She’s beautiful, she’s got a great body, she’s got a great face, and she’s really a genuine, genuine person. She’s like my best friend. She was so genuinely happy that I won, it’s incredible.
That’s gotta be an awkward moment, when you found out you won and Anya’s standing there next to you. What was that moment like when you were there?
They probably didn’t show Anya, but she was happy, she was smiling. I gave her a huge hug. Later that night, the producers I think tried to keep us apart because they assume that we hate each other, and I passed her going to this interview, and she saw me and ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug. She’s like, “I’m so happy for you!” It’s just so genuine, because I have friends who weren’t in the bottom two with me that weren’t as happy as Anya was that I won. I think she’s so sweet. She’s gonna have an incredible modeling career no matter what.
Did you leave this season with some genuine friends besides Anya? Who will you stay in touch with?
I still talk to Stacy Ann, Claire, Lauren, Aimee, Marvita. Those are my main ones.
That’s a lot of people to have stayed friends with, especially since there was so much drama in the house this season.
Yeah. Well it’s so funny, because after everything was said and done we were all like, “That was so dumb.” Even Anya, Fatima and I went out together a few nights ago. When you’re living with someone, things are so much different than when you’re just with someone. You spend every single second of every single day together. I mean spouses, siblings don’t do that. To have strangers, and all of us think that they are America’s Next Top Model, and egos clash. In hindsight, that was stupid for us to argue so much. But yeah, we’re all better friends now. We’ve bonded.
When you watch the show back, is there anything that you were embarrassed by, or wish you didn’t say, or was edited to look bad? Is there anything that you would take back that was shown?
You know, I don’t really believe in regretting anything. I learn from my mistakes, and I’m glad that I’ve learned from things that happened on the show. I don’t think it was edited badly. I think we all have personalities, and I think that they clashed. People have ups and downs, and sometimes I am very argumentative, but I’m not going to pretend that I’m not and say it was editing. I said it, it happened. Yeah, that’s basically the gist of it.
You had such a great walk in that final runway show. It reminded me of Cycle 4’s finale with Naima, where she was stomping through the water. What were you thinking going into that final runway? I had never seen you walk like that before that show.
Actually, I was watching Miss J during the rehearsal, and I saw Miss J do her walk down the runway, and how she stomped and really worked it out. I basically just tried to copy that completely. Copy her movements and her energy, and just everything, and just totally mimic that. They say it’s the best form of flattery, but really it was just a smart thing for me to do. You’re not gonna walk down a Versace runway show and be shy about it. You’re wearing a $100,000 dress. If you’re not confident, you’re going to get swallowed by the dress essentially.
You expressed several times throughout the season that there are designers who just don’t make clothes for girls your size. You’re very average, like me and a lot of other people. How do you plan to combat that in life after Top Model?
Hopefully I will get a lot of publicity just from being on Top Model, because honestly if I walked into an agency people would be like, “Who are you? No, you’re average. That’s not that exciting.” Of course, even Elite doesn’t have a plus size division in New York, so it’s a struggle already combating that. However, there are a lot of plus size people, and people that do support it, and designers that are beginning to support it, so hopefully that’ll come up and that’ll be bigger and bigger. I know even Dolce & Gabbana, you have Jean Paul Gaultier, you have big, high fashion designers that are starting to do the plus size thing. It’s just a first step, and you never know, I might be the first girl that they use. But there’s no way that I would ever say, “Oh, try to squeeze me into a size 2,” or anything like that I’m not going to change myself. Either the designer changes, or I just don’t work with them. That’s just the bottom line.
Do you have anything to say to your fans that are BuddyTV readers?
Thank you so much! I get so flustered when people approach me on the street for autographs and pictures. So yeah, just thank you, thank you, thank you for your support. Continue to look for me all over.
Well Whitney, I’m so glad we have our first full figured Top Model. I just wanted to congratulate you again and wish you luck in the future.
Thank you.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CW)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
