Australia’s Next Top Model Gets Physical

Now, if  you don’t watch Australia Next Top (ANTM) – do. Apart from the recent incident (and I will get back to that), this show is incredible. The fashion, photography and style within this show is amazing – and not to forget the beautiful models. As I am inspired by all these things, I adore this show and find that Australia’s Next Top Model has more style then any other ‘Top Model’ series (for example ‘Americas Next Top Model’).

My mum and I always have bets who will win and who we like most (as a model) – usually choosing who we think in the first or second episode. Our picks were Taylor Roberts and Ashley Pogmore. This weeks episode featured both our favourites – and not in their element. As the girls took to their ‘artistic’ side of working in a group and making an artwork in a team, things begun to get ‘playful’ as Ashley thought it would be a good idea to ‘start a bit of a paint fight’ which quickly escalated to ‘getting physical’ in the terms of violence. Ashley threw paint onto Taylor’s and this lead to Taylor losing her temper and attempting to strangle Ashley – and also pushing her down. This lead to Ashley in tears and then spun into a very serious matter quickly.

A story was also featured on A Current Affair (Channel 9) the night before interviewing some of the judges, like Charlotte Dawson, on their views and how the public may take it. This created a large amount of hype and  I already knew that they (the produces of ANTM) weren’t taking this ‘incident’ lightly – so I had already assumed she was disqualified.

In my personal opinion, I did think disqualification was the right thing to do – as violence is never the answer. But this will not be taken lightly with the fans either. Throughout the interviews is was predicted that Taylor and Ashley were going to get negative feedback from the ‘fun to not fun’ – with how they acted, how it proceeded and the result of both of their actions. So in other terms, through social media sites (instagram / Facebook / twitter) there may be a lot of fluctuating responses that may hurt the girls mentally and professionally – which may be damaging. Although, they have both posted pictures on instagram of them together, agreed to do radio shows and even be interviewed on the segment on A Current Affair – where they were both honest, Taylor breaking into tears. Its clear they want this to pass as quickly as possible so that they can get on with their professional careers and so they don’t get ‘too much’ criticism from the public.

I want to say good luck to the girls and I hope that its a lesson to girls not to turn to violence but also a lesson in forgiveness.

Ashley Pogmore (LEFT), Taylor Roberts (Right) (Images found Australias Next Top Facebook)

Feature Image – Taken by me (iphone picture of television)