America’s Next Top Model Contestants Allege ‘Psychological Warfare’ at Tyra Banks’ Show: ‘My Life Was Being Put on the Line for Ratings’

Brad Barket/Getty Images

Former America’s Next Top Model contestants alleged that Tyra Banks put them through “psychological warfare” while on the long-running competition series.

Insider spoke to several former contestants and employees of the show, which ended in 2018 after 24 seasons, who claimed producers wanted “the most drama” possible — no matter the cost.

Banks owned a 25 percent stake in the show, was an executive producer, and had final say regarding what aired.

A producer also told Insider that before contestants were asked to walk on a path of wooden planks seesawing over a pool, producers had instructed divers to loosen the bolts to make the runway less stable.

Eugena Washington, a season seven contestant, claimed that she was asked to wear 6-inch heels, a pencil skirt, and two corsets while walking down that runway. She ended up falling while walking back, cracking her knee and giving herself permanent scars.

“We were all nervous, because we didn’t know what the fuck was going on,” Washington added. “It was dangerous.”

AJ Stewart, another contestant on that season, recalled thinking that the runway could not be for the show. “Someone could get hurt. Someone could break an ankle.”

“I felt like my life was being put on the line for ratings,” Washington said, especially as contestants had to sign contracts saying America’s Next Top Model was not responsible for injuries sustained while filming.

Season 12 contestant Aminat Ayinde called the show “psychological warfare,” revealing that she was forced to relax her hair and get extensions, despite being allergic to the salon-grade chemicals used in relaxants.

“This is when I understood: Tyra doesn’t give a fuck,” Ayinde told Insider, revealing that the procedure left her with a two-inch bald spot that took years to grow back.

“The whole thing really left the most disgusting taste in my mouth,” Ayinde added. “And honestly, I lost all respect” for Banks.

Contestants also allegedly had to undergo a series of personality tests to determine if they were psychologically fit enough to be a contestant on the show.

According to Jay Manuel, who worked as a judge and creative director on the show, three psychologists gave each contestant a red, yellow, or green grade to determine if they could handle the stress of filming.

Former contestants also detailed how producers used examples of trauma shared during the psychological evaluations in interviews conducted while filming.

“The interviewer brought that up — ‘Is this the way you felt when your mom would tell you to kill yourself? Is that why this is affecting you so badly?'” D’Amato said. “They don’t stop. It just keeps going and going.”

While the fashion industry did see a “huge boom” in diversity following the show, several Black contestants have spoken out about how the series “fueled harmful narratives about Black women and beauty.”

“Some Black contestants felt Banks was extra hard on them because she was trying to prepare them for the realities of being a Black model in America,” Insider’s Kate Taylor reported. “Washington, the only nonwhite contestant in the final five of season seven, was repeatedly critiqued by Banks and other judges over a supposed lack of humility.”

Washington further told Insider that she “felt kind of trapped in this situation,” she thought Banks would be an ally or “someone who understood” her.

She said that Banks was instead “the worst to me,” adding, “The show left a trail of very hurt young girls who really had to overcome a lot of self-esteem and self-worth issues.”

“Talking to a lot of contestants, it took us years to recover the things that we lost on that show,” Washington said.

Banks has remained relatively quiet regarding the history of her show, and deleted her Twitter account shortly after Insider’s Taylor asked for comment, according to the reporter.

In May 2020, Banks did address some of the controversy surrounding her series, tweeting, “Been seeing the posts about the insensitivity of some past ANTM moments and I agree with you. Looking back, those were some really off choices.”