'America's Next Top Model' eliminates first contestant Angelia Alvarez

Angelia Alvarez, a 20-year-old student from Landstuhl, Germany who currently resides in Pembroke Pines, FL, became the first girl eliminated from America's Next Top Model's sixteenth season during Wednesday night's broadcast on The CW.


"I am shocked that I'm going home because I feel like I did bring a lot of energy into my pictures and I know I'm not just a pretty face. And I know I wasn't always the pretty girl at school. I know my stuff and it's just I didn't get a chance to prove it. I didn't get a chance to show that I know how to work it, but I will make it on my own," Angelia said following her ouster.

America's Next Top Model's season premiere began with Top Model creator and lead judge Tyra Banks revealing she was going to trick her previously selected fourteen finalists into believing they had been eliminated. The models assumed they would be participating in the normal routine of casting week, but were thrown for a loop.

The models were handed envelopes and photo shoot director Jay Manuel and runway coach Miss J. Alexander told them if their photos were in the envelope, they would remain in the competition. The girls whose photos were missing were told to pack their bags and go home. The models who thought they had been eliminated got very upset, but Tyra later explained that a model needs to learn to face rejection and surprised the girls that they would also be staying in the Los Angeles penthouse they were at.

Angelia was eliminated after Top Model's judges reviewed the photos the season's 14 contestants had taken at their first photo shoot in Malibu, CA, which required them to act and pose naturally back stage while getting their makeup and hair done for their runway show challenge. The girls were photographed by famous fashion photographer Russell James and then learned they would have to walk a 12-inch wide runway over water in a giant plastic bubble.


Dominique fell as she was walking down the runway but managed to pick herself up, laugh it off and continue.

Angelia ended up in the bottom two alongside Dominique, a 23-year-old college graduate from Houston, TX. Both girls had decent photos in the end, but still failed to completely impress the judges.

The next day the girls arrived for the sixteenth season's first elimination panel -- where they were met by Tyra, fashion photographer Nigel Barker, judge Andre Leon Talley, and guest judge Erin Wasson, a model and designer who watched the girls' runway show.

The judges criticized both girls' photos during their panel critiques and Angelia was first. 

"There's a little bit of mystery and I'm like the girl that loves a little bit of mystery in life, but with it being your first time, I think that's the moment to really get out of the hair and let yourself shine a little bit," Erin told Angelia.


"This picture to me, I don't see a model. It just looks like a really pretty girl, like the girls that all the boys want her, but that's not what you want to be as a model. You almost kind of don't want the boys to really want you. You want the girls to want what you have on," Tyra added.

The judges then discussed Dominique's photo, revealing they were not completely satisfied with hers as well.

"It's not striking. It's not really saying anything particular. You're kind of just there," Nigel told Dominique.

"I got to say that Dominique at the fashion show -- she was one of the girls that took a spill -- but you did it in such a jovial manner and you made fun of yourself and you smiled through it, and like I said, I think it's amazing when your personality shows through. And here, I think your personality could show through more," Erin added.

After the panel deliberated, Tyra revealed the girls in order of the best photo to the worst of the week. Molly, a 22-year-old student from Charleston, SC, received the first photo. Following Molly, Tyra then revealed Brittani, Alexandria, Mikaela, Dalya, Hannah, Ondrei, Monique, Nicole, Kasia, Jaclyn, and Sara had also advanced to the competition's next round -- leaving Angelia and Dominique in the bottom two.


Tyra then recapped both girls' issues before revealing which one would get to remain in the competition.

"Angelia, you are so beautiful, but when the judges viewed your picture, we felt no emotional connection, and we wonder, 'Is a girl the prettiest girl in the room but not the strongest model in the room?" Tyra told Angelia.

Tyra then told Dominique why she was also in the bottom two.

"You are striking, interesting, and have freckles the judges have never seen -- absolutely unique -- but your photo, Hmm, it's capturing what's genetically there but not what's inside your soul," Tyra told Dominique.

Tyra then revealed Dominique photo, resulting in Angelia's elimination. 


"So you have to go and get some pictures that look more striking than you are," Tyra told Angelia.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski