America's Next Top Model: Racism, Painful Weaves, And 'Homeless Chic' Since 2003

KEY POINTS

•America's Next Top Model premiered in 2003 and quickly rose to fame, redefining reality television.
•Cycles 4 and 13 featured models in racially insensitive makeup, including blackface and 'biracial' looks.
•A 2020 Netflix documentary exposed emotional hardships and controversial photo shoots on the show.

Launching in 2003, 'America's Next Top Model' quickly became a cultural cornerstone—or reality TV’s textbook example of what not to do. Between 2005's Cycle 4 white contestants 'transforming' into Black women via blackface-level makeup, to the 2009 'biracial' photo shoot that definitely raised eyebrows (and blood pressures), the show had controversy on speed dial. Jay Manuel, the creative director, confessed he was so uncomfortable he basically played a silent seat-filler to Ken Mok and Tyra Banks’ 'creative decisions.' In 2008's Cycle 10, photogenic models played homeless on set, while actual unhoused women wore Gucci in the background. Oh, and poor Jael from Cycle 8 endured an eight-hour weave horror show, only to have it removed the same day like a bad haircut hangover. She then had to model death scenarios while grieving an overdose loss—because emotional trauma and reality TV etiquette definitely go hand in hand. Netflix’s 2020 documentary 'Reality Check' finally pulls back the curtain on these cringe-fests, while Tyra and Ken dodge questions faster than the finalists dodge bad photo shoots.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

When your big career moment includes racially tone-deaf paint jobs and sadistic makeover marathons, you know reality TV is a masterclass in human mishandling.

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