'America's
Next Top Model' judge Tyra Banks has revealed that she is often disappointed
when girls leave the show and feel forced to drop weight in order to get
modeling jobs. She admits that the models who appear on the show are usually
above standard weight and after they leave the show, they're forced to reach
the same standards as typical models and thus are told to go on a diet by
agencies.
Tyra
says she is often disappointed to see former contestants from the show looking
stick thin because of this pressure to drop weight: "The sad thing is
that on average, my girls on 'America's Next Top Model' are larger than the
high fashion girls on runways, and when they leave they're excited; they're
like, 'Yay, I'm going to start modelling.' And then they get in the real world,
and they're like, 'My agent is saying I need to lose 20lbs.' I'll see them four
months later and they are a bone. A bone. It's just like, 'What?'
Tyra
adds that the show protects the models from the harsh realities of the real
modeling world and when they finally join a normal modeling agency they realize
they have to drop weight in order to be up to scratch or they'll be dropped for
someone else: "Then I realise that they were in this beautiful
incubator of safety, but then when they leave the competition, they're out
there with the wolves, and to compete they have to lose that weight. That's a
sad fact."
The
model, who has famously struggled with her own weight issues in the spotlight,
says she sadly can't control what the models go through when they aren't on the
show anymore but it does upset her that many feel so much weight-related
pressure: "I can't control what's out there, I can only control what
I produce on my show. I have seen a couple of them and talked to them after,
and I'm like, 'What's going on? What are you doing?' And they tell me that
that's what the agency wants, and they're under the agency's care. There's only
so much that I can do. But it does sadden me."
