America’s Next Top Model may not have gotten everything right when it comes to what the fashion industry truly entails, but the drama between contestants did have a certain degree of accuracy — at least according to model and reality-television star Brittnee Blair. Her own foray into the fashion world picked up speed when she moved to NYC in 2013. “I stayed in a models apartment during my first few months, and I saw some things,” she says. “Some of the girls were really cutthroat. I’m talking ‘Nair in your conditioner during fashion week’ cutthroat.” Another seemingly made-for-TV moment involved a roommate throwing a fellow model’s alarm clock out the window to ensure that she’d sleep through a casting call.
Luckily for Blair, these early experiences only worked to unlock a deeper sense of self-assuredness. “New York challenged me to love and stand up for myself,” she muses. “You learn that everyone has opinions — in castings especially — and eventually you also learn that you can’t take them to heart.”
