Don't get me wrong: 'America's Next Top Model' is fantastic. They've done 20 seasons, so they've obviously done something right. But I think what ensures that the winner of 'The Face' will become a working model is the prize - a year-long contract with a cosmetics company is huge.
Modeling is an industry that judges you purely by looks. Today you are on the top of your game and tomorrow a new face arrives and all eyes are on her. It happens every season.
It all started when I went to this model search in Charlotte when I was 18. That's when I met all these agents and realized I could do it, and I won! I met a photographer at the competition who persuaded me to sign with a different agency than the one that was offered to me. So, I started with a small agency and eventually moved up to IMG.
When I was a teenager, me and a couple of my friends entered a couple of modeling competitions just for fun, and one of those got me an agent in Sydney.
One of the first times I came to New York was for a modeling and talent competition, IMTA, which I won. I came with a group, like a modeling school from Fresno.
I was shopping with my mother in 2006 and saw that there was a model casting going on. A couple of months later, I was one of the fifteen finalists in an international contest.
I was doing a little modeling on the side. Then 'ANTM' found me on social media, and it pretty much flipped my life around, all for the better.
I went to New York, I think at the end of 2010, and did a competition called IMTA. I didn't do that well in modeling and ended up winning male actor of the year, so a bunch of agencies wanted to sign me, and I ended up moving out to L.A. in 2011.
I won a scholarship to come to LA and compete in a modeling and talent completion and was amazed when I won it. I had never acted before in my life and won the acting category. I began to wonder what this is about and then decided to see what happened.
I'm fortunate to be a part of the 'ANTM' family.
