FIERCE!

Cycle 14 of America's Next Top Model is well underway (seriously, FOURTEEN! And they've started casting for Cycle 15. It only started in 2003 and there's been 14 seasons! How does Tyra have time to do anything else?!) and all I can say is

I. LOVE. RAINA.

If more people had eyebrows like this, the world would be a better place.

( Images from CWTV.com)

What could have been...

So, while browsing through some of the entries on Foto Decadent (which is amazing and I don't know how I've only just come across it), I found these lovelies;

Tiiu Kiuk photographed by Camilla Åkrans

They reminded me of a much better version of these;

America's Next Top Model - Carmen Miranda Shoot

The more I look at the Top Model photos, the more I just think "meh". The only thing I like is Allison's face, and that's because I always like her and her giant eyes. I don't know, is it just because the Camilla Åkrans photos are SO gorgeous, that these pale in comparison? It just feels like there's something not quite right about them, I don't really get what they're going for. Actually, I don't think anyone really knew what they were trying to achieve on this shoot because Jay Manuel kept giving them all conflicting instructions, so bloody frustrating! Seriously though, I keep looking at that photo of Celia and thinking "who the hell styled her?!"

And don't even get me started on the Ciara shoot - a crazed fan wearing underwear, tangled in her mic wire?! What the crap was that?

Also, we're on Cycle 12 now and I think they were auditioning Cycle 13 recently - how many more "America's Next Top Models" do they need to find? It must be a bit of an anti-climax for the winner -

"Woohoo! You're America's next TOP model! You'll be huge! You'll be on the cover of Seventeen magazine! Just like the Jonas Brothers! You'll be the face of Covergirl! Oooh mascara! Hurray!

...Right, well that was fun, congratulations... ummm...cycle 12 girl, we're off to go and find America's NEXT next top model - ok bye!"

Anyway, I'd love to know people's thoughts on this - is it just me or are the Top Model shoots going downhill? Actually is Top Model generally just going downhill? Is anyone else sick of Nigel Barker being so snooty? And is anyone else frightened that Tyra's hair is getting so big that it's only a matter of time before a goodbye hug results in one of the girls suffocating in her weave?

ANTM - Cycle 11

Having been away from regular Internet for a while, I've just spent the past week or so snuggled up in bed catching up on all of the new episodes of America's Next Top Model. It's taken me a while to warm to this season as I was still VERY hung up on season 10 and the appalling-ness that was firstly BEE-YUTIFUL Katarzyna not getting further than she did and then (mean) Whitney winning over Anya. (seriously, WTF?!) Don't get me started, I'll go mental. It also didn't help that season 11 began with a bizarre, space-age boot camp which was basically just another excuse for Tyra to have a weird, OTT grand entrance. I wish the girls wouldn't all scream when they see her, it's only going to inflate her ego even more. Why do you think her forehead's so big?!
However, once I got over the initial horror I started to get into it and I have to admit that this week's super-glamourous 'Fiercee Awards' shoot was FABULOUS. I'm a sucker for old-school glamour; Elina's makeup and Lauren Brie's hair nearly made me break down and weep for Veronica Lake-inspired joy in my pyjamas. Marjorie's photo was chosen as the best one and who can blame the judges? She is so frikkin cute I could eat her (I won't though...yet) Have to say though that I have a ma-hoo-sive girl crush on Analeigh, she's SO PRETTY! I'm not going to say who I want to win because I have a track record of always favouriting the girl who ends up coming second or third (case in point - Mercedes cycle 2, Yaya cycle 3, Nik cycle 5, Jenah cycle 9) and I want my girl to win. So it's a secret.