America's Next Top Model has crowned its first all-star winner, the "daring wild child" Lisa D'Amato.

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"It's so weird. I don't even know what to do. I just think that this is amazing and I'm not going to let any one of you down that's for sure -- none of you," Lisa told America's Next Top Model's judges after her victory was announced during Wednesday night's broadcast of The CW reality competition's seventeenth-season finale.

"It's crazy! It's absolutely crazy! I feel incredible. To be honest, my confidence actually comes from a very vulnerable place. It's not that I'm over-confident. It's just that I have to lift myself up every day. I have a lot to prove. I feel like the universe finally came around for me and I'm not going to let anybody down. I won America's Next Top Model All Star. It's pretty damn cool."

As America's Next Top Model's first all-stars edition's winner, the 30-year-old who previously appeared on Top Model's fifth season, won a $100,000 contract with CoverGirl Cosmetics, a fashion spread in Vogue Italia, a cover and spread in Vogue Italia's beauty magazine Beauty in Vogue, a blog on Vogue.IT, a celebrity guest correspondent role with Extra, the chance to be featured in a national ad campaign for Express, and the opportunity to be the face of America's Next Top Model's new fragrance "Dream Come True."

Allison Harvard, a 23-year-old who previously appeared on Top Model's twelfth season, finished as the runner-up.

"I'm happy for Lisa. Everybody wants to win obviously, but I'm just so grateful for all the support from the fans and everyone who has reached out to me. It's overwhelmingly flattering," Allison said after learning she had come in second place. "I'm definitely taking art direction and painting very seriously, so I have a lot of things I want to achieve."

Angelea Preston, a 25-year-old who previously appeared on Top Model's fourteenth season, finished in third place because she was taken out of the running for America's Next Top Model's all-star title and disqualified from the competition for undisclosed reasons.

"It turns out that after shooting was wrapped, our production and the network learned information from Angelea that disqualifies her from the competition," judge Nigel Barker said before panel critiques began.

"So what does that mean?" fellow judge Andre Leon Talley asked.

"Well, it means we're now going to do our final judging with the remaining two girls and in the interest of fairness, the producers and the network thought it best to evaluate Allison and Lisa on their own without the added competition of Angelea," Nigel explained.

"Well you know what guys? We wish Angelea the best in all her future endeavors," photo shoot director Jay Manuel said.

"Oh absolutely, absolutely," Andre Leon agreed.

Tyra Banks was shown adding little to the Angelea discussion despite being Top Model's creator, executive producer and lead judge.

During panel critiques in Los Angeles, Allison and Lisa were first judged on their final runway show in which they were required to model gowns they had previously co-designed. They had to descend their way down into a pool of water, swim through the pool, fly in the air onto the runway, and finally work the platform and get the audience excited by walking back and forth to the songs they had written themselves for their own music videos in one of the season's prior challenges. 

The runway show was meant to represent Greek culture and the transformation from mortal to goddess -- which also represented the models' journeys in all-stars competition. The three finalists were joined by previously eliminated seventeenth-season contestants Shannon Stewart, Dominique Reighard and Laura Kirkpatrick, along with local models from the Crete, Greece area.

When the judging panel discussed the girls' performances in the runway show, it seemed like Lisa outshone Allison with her personality and energetic walk that got the crowd going.

"Allison, I loved you under the water swimming. It was elegant. I was waiting for you to pop out, but your walk is still not your strong point for me. You've got to believe in yourself, and when the wind blows your dress, it looked like magic. But then you tried to fix it, and it didn't work," Nigel said.

"Is that not your moment to make it your moment? You work the wind!" Jay added.

"Beautiful [but] wind is a model's best friend. It's a gift," Tyra explained. 

"Lisa, quite frankly in the water, you were a mess -- an utter mess," Nigel told her.

"'A' for effort?! 'A' for effort?!" Lisa begged in a joking manner.

"No," Nigel said with a smile.

"There was a lot of train on your dress, but you did step out of it and worked it. You could have gotten caught up in the train and it could have choked up your ankles, but you just kept walking and it was brilliant," Andre Leon explained.

"It was so obvious the audience loved your performance on the runway. That's something that you look for in a true Top Model," Jay added.

The judges then criticized the girls' CoverGirl commercials in which they were selling eye shadow. The judges seemed to favor Allison's commercial because it was more representative of her true personality in comparison to Lisa's performance.    

"It's very pretty. It's really beautiful. You know what I find interesting? It's that your eyes were closed but I can almost feel you talking through your eyes with your eyes closed and I think it's stunning," Nigel said.

"You and I know there was a huge struggle. Obviously the lights were bright and we couldn't keep your eyes open. So I made the creative decision to do more shots with your eyes closed, but we are selling eye couture, so it did work out in this situation," Jay said.

"Allison, I think that you look beautiful in the film. I wish that your articulation in the script had been a bit more pop and snappy," Andre Leon added.

"When you're doing a commercial, you have to exaggerate like, 'Mascara is great and I love it!' And there's like a pop! You just have to remember that when you're on camera, those little micro-moments sell it," Tyra explained.

The judges felt Lisa had held back in her commercial and wasn't "daring" enough, which was her brand throughout the season.

"It's super fun. You're flirtatious in the video and it works for me on so many levels," Nigel told her.

"I loved it. I really felt like you were selling me the product. I took notice of it," Andre said.

"I still felt we could have used a little more Lisa," Jay interjected.

"Yeah, I'm not impressed with your commercial, Lisa. I think you're so much better than that. I feel like you were 50% percent of Lisa, and one thing with CoverGirl and those ads, is that they really want your personality. So it's so important to push. I'm like, 'Where's Lisa? Where's daring?' It felt safe for me," Tyra explained.

Lisa and Allison's CoverGirl ads, which were photographed by Nikos Papadopoulos, were then reviewed. The judges were receptive to Lisa's photo and believed it was sexy, intriguing and fun, but Allison's ad was perceived as being empty and "vacant."

"Allison, it's beautiful, but it's not my favorite shot of you. It's almost a little vacant. I don't know exactly what I'm looking at. I'm looking all over your face. I know it's meant to be eye makeup, but I'm still searching," Nigel said.

"You know how they say eyes are the window to the soul? When I look at this picture, I kind of see vacant. You needed some eyes. You needed to squint a little bit and kind of feel something through and sell the makeup," Tyra explained.

"I love your body position. I love the way your shoulder is. I just wish the expression was better," Jay said.

"I think you look wonderful in the photograph, but I don't know what you're selling. I would have loved to think that your eyes would have given me a message," Andre Leon said.

"Lisa, it's interesting for me, because obviously there's only one eye [showing]. But guess what? That's all you needed because there's a lot being said in that one eye and I'm going straight to it. It's cool, it's different, it's you," Nigel explained.

"It's very, very sexy. It is suggesting that this CoverGirl makeup is very fabulous," Andre Leon said.

"What I loved about your photo shoot, Lisa, is that you really thought outside of the box, because CoverGirl is all about the new edgier girl," Jay said.

"To me, you're [saying] come to me. It's almost like a fortune teller. It's alluring," Tyra said.

"You can read my cards any time," Nigel joked.

Earlier in the episode, the three finalists had also participated in their photo shoots for Vogue Italia and Beauty in Vogue, specifically. They were photographed by Dusan Reljin and Lisa, Allison and Angelea were all shown receiving very positive feedback.

After the judges deliberated in private, Tyra then revealed she would be showing the second half of the Modeland -- a fantasy book Tyra had written about models pursuing their careers -- motion editorial the girls had previously filmed over a two-day span. The first portion was shown during last week's penultimate episode, and Tyra announced the winner would have an extra scene at the very end of the editorial.

Before the girls saw the video, Allison told Tyra she was "really nervous," while Lisa admitted her "knees were shaking."

The motion editorial then played and it ended with a close-up on Lisa's face.

About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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