America's Next Top Model: Brenda
Any of y'all watch America's Next Top Model? Even though we're only cycle what, 14 now? I don't usually watch it, but the other day a commercial came on for some local Houston station. They introduced the commercial saying "America's Next top model is from HOUSTON!!!" and I looked up, and I was like, "OMG THAT'S BRENDA!"
They confirmed this for me by saying her name 2 seconds later. I recognized her from the get-go because when I first met her 5 or 6 years ago, she was happy to have another pale redhead on the catwalk with her.
She went to modeling school with me at Neal Hammil. I was scouted to be a model there when I was a senior in High School, and Brenda took some classes, got her modeling diploma (way before I did, though. lol) and I saw her every week for 10 months. She was always VERY friendly. She had really long, curly red hair back then, and you can't tell from the pictures or the show, but she was tall.as.fuck. Although she towered over me, she was still skinnier than me, and very graceful given her tall, lanky frame. She WORKED it. Even my parents took note of her, mom saying that she was so skinny and she always looked "strung out." I think we even pieced together a theory that she modelled for her coke addiction and that's why she was so skinny and her eyelids were always half-open. We weren't seriously hating on her though, we were just jealous of her success, duh.
Brenda taught me how to walk on the runway. She taught me that when given the choice of shoes a size too big or a size too small, ALWAYS go with the size too big, and make sure to bring cotton balls in your bag to fill up the rest of the shoes or else you'll get blisters. If you get blisters anyway, the cotton balls will help the pain when you put normal shoes back on. She told us horror stories of how some runway shows only had really small shoes and she has to walk on the runway like nothing is wrong while her feet were literally bleeding and even soaking onto the shoe and the next model would have to wear the blood-soaked shoe anyway, so make sure you bring sheer socks because none of those shoes or clothes get washed between shows. I've always remembered her advice for the runway, and I always use it. I feel like I have her to thank for my success.
She was the top model of Houston, basically, so I sat there wondering, "Why is this REALLY experienced model going on a show where they TEACH girls how to be models? Brenda should be coaching models on this show, not the other way around!" And my first thought was "omg! America's Next Top Model really IS staged!" Like, I really thought that Brenda was going to get up there and talk about how she had never modeled and blah blah blah. But then I watched her interview:
I LOL'd when she said "the evil local modeling agency," because I KNEW which agency she was talking about. And it IS evil. They force you into a two-year contract and even if Christian Dior came to your door pleading to get you onto his runway, you still were not allowed to do ANY modeling jobs that were not brought to the model through the agency. I'm glad Brenda got to peace out of that agency and go on to greater things.
This post is NOT meant to be taken as me bragging. It's a combination of me realizing just how small this world is, and of me rooting for team Brenda. And you know, in case any of y'all are fans of ANTP, I figured you'd want to know what she was like before she got personal training from the one and only Tyra Banks.
They confirmed this for me by saying her name 2 seconds later. I recognized her from the get-go because when I first met her 5 or 6 years ago, she was happy to have another pale redhead on the catwalk with her.
She went to modeling school with me at Neal Hammil. I was scouted to be a model there when I was a senior in High School, and Brenda took some classes, got her modeling diploma (way before I did, though. lol) and I saw her every week for 10 months. She was always VERY friendly. She had really long, curly red hair back then, and you can't tell from the pictures or the show, but she was tall.as.fuck. Although she towered over me, she was still skinnier than me, and very graceful given her tall, lanky frame. She WORKED it. Even my parents took note of her, mom saying that she was so skinny and she always looked "strung out." I think we even pieced together a theory that she modelled for her coke addiction and that's why she was so skinny and her eyelids were always half-open. We weren't seriously hating on her though, we were just jealous of her success, duh.
Brenda taught me how to walk on the runway. She taught me that when given the choice of shoes a size too big or a size too small, ALWAYS go with the size too big, and make sure to bring cotton balls in your bag to fill up the rest of the shoes or else you'll get blisters. If you get blisters anyway, the cotton balls will help the pain when you put normal shoes back on. She told us horror stories of how some runway shows only had really small shoes and she has to walk on the runway like nothing is wrong while her feet were literally bleeding and even soaking onto the shoe and the next model would have to wear the blood-soaked shoe anyway, so make sure you bring sheer socks because none of those shoes or clothes get washed between shows. I've always remembered her advice for the runway, and I always use it. I feel like I have her to thank for my success.
She was the top model of Houston, basically, so I sat there wondering, "Why is this REALLY experienced model going on a show where they TEACH girls how to be models? Brenda should be coaching models on this show, not the other way around!" And my first thought was "omg! America's Next Top Model really IS staged!" Like, I really thought that Brenda was going to get up there and talk about how she had never modeled and blah blah blah. But then I watched her interview:
Click to viewI LOL'd when she said "the evil local modeling agency," because I KNEW which agency she was talking about. And it IS evil. They force you into a two-year contract and even if Christian Dior came to your door pleading to get you onto his runway, you still were not allowed to do ANY modeling jobs that were not brought to the model through the agency. I'm glad Brenda got to peace out of that agency and go on to greater things.
This post is NOT meant to be taken as me bragging. It's a combination of me realizing just how small this world is, and of me rooting for team Brenda. And you know, in case any of y'all are fans of ANTP, I figured you'd want to know what she was like before she got personal training from the one and only Tyra Banks.