Could America's Next Top Model Be Plus-Sized?

The 10^th season of Tyra Banks' reality television show, America's Next Top Model features one plus-sized contestant, the bubbly Whitney. Most seasons of American's Next Top Model have featured a plus-sized model but all of the past girls have fizzled and none have made it as far in the competition as Whitney. Could Whitney be America's Next Top Model on season 10 of the hit CW TV show? In just a few more episodes we will all find out.

In order for Whitney to become the first plus-sized model to win America's Next Top Model, a few things will have to change. First of all, she must be careful how her personality is perceived. The judging panel members of America's Next Top Model have frequently commented that Whitney seems fake and a little over-the-top. Whitney has been compared to Anna Nicole Smith throughout the season of America's Next Top Model and Smith's sex-kitten, ditzy persona is not what Whitney needs to portray to be a high-fashion top model.

It really does take extra work for a plus-sized model to make it in the modeling world. As was seen on a previous episode of this season of America's Next Top Model, many modeling opportunities simply won't work for plus-sized girls. On one episode the America's Next Top Model contestants were asked to wear a specific designer's "off the rack" dresses. There was no way that Whitney could fit in the size 2-4 dresses. In order for Whitney to remain in the America's Next Top Model competition she is going to have to work a little harder than the other models. And I'm not sure she has that drive in her.

I love to root for the underdog and in a competition where beauty, particularly bodily beauty, is everything, the plus-sized girl is the obvious underdog. I have been rooting for Whitney to win cycle 10 of America's Next Top Model since the first episode, however unless she really steps up her modeling in the coming weeks, and hones her personality, I'm afraid she will be sent home like all of the other plus-sized contestants in America's Next Top Model history.

So does Whitney have what it takes to become America's Next Top Model? Absolutely! Will Whitney actually become America's Next Top Model? Not likely. Without some more "umph" in her performance as a model, Whitney will be outshined by other contestants and more than likely, the typical model bodies of such contestants as Fatima and Anya will win the ultimate prize of being crowed America's Next Top Model.