It Happened To Us: We Worked With Tyra On America's Next Top Model
Yep. Eric was a judge sitting right next to the Original Smizer and I was the Editor in charge of the ANTM grand prize. PLUS on top of all that: FREE MONTH SUBSCRIPTIONS and LET'S REVIVE SASSY!!
Hi partners in crime!
I had the worst nightmare last night (I know who cares, but hold on because you’re involved). I was sitting on a white couch in the bedroom of the worst person we can think of (you know who I mean - he lives in a House the same color as his dumb couch). That person was talking at me and then leaned over and starting kissing me. Thank god my legs worked and I could run out of the room, though the door was heavy. After I woke up, I realized what sparked that horror: I announced yesterday that I had reached an epiphany about starting a print version of Sassy magazine again. I have never wanted to for so many reasons and all of a sudden I saw all the reasons to do it. So we can.
BUT in announcing this, I made a (true) comment about feeling like I’m in some kind of heyday - and that everything seems optimistic and hopeful and easy. I asked if any of you could relate. It’s the sweetest thing how many of you are still responding to that note. But a few smart people made the point that the world is shit right now and that in 2026, no, they do not feel any of those happy vibes. I get that and I think the guilt of not acknowledging that infiltrated my dream - that I had somehow pleased and supported and aligned myself with the gross dude by saying I was so optimistic right now. So I promise you all that I am not letting him off the hook for any of his atrocities and I now know what my real hell feels like. Anyway, I will be writing more here about the process of doing Sassy again and will include you in every step that you want to be part of.
Next up: Whenever I do any public speaking (I am doing three appearances today, because I have been saying yes to everything - which sounded like a good idea at the time and is about to come to an abrupt halt because panic attacks are so derailing), I like the Q&A part best. That’s because I know that at least one person wants to hear what I’m saying. So I’m using the same method with this deep investigative “story” you requested about our time with America’s Next Top Model. I'm not going to try to tell you that this is the most astounding exclusive world-changing scoop I've ever published (because that was last week).
If you’re new here, today’s piece is a little bit of a diversion from the norm (the abnorm norm). I’ll be back in two days with our regularly scheduled programming like your beloved It Happened To Mes and all those extremely messy stories you (and I) love so much. So enough preamble, and here goes, by popular demand…
Also: I love you no matter what.
Jane
PS Here's another great thing: I am extending this giveaway offer because so many of you used it, so if you become a subscriber today, a month of access to all of our best stories ever and all of those coming up in the next month are yours for free free and free! Take advantage of me and that here!
By Jane Pratt (but all credit to Eric Nicholson)
Way back in the now-trendy then-vaguely-boring ‘90s-’2000s, shortly after I started Jane magazine, my fashion editor and handful-of-favorite-people person Eric Nicholson walked into my relatively-fancy-in-retrospect – though I didn't appreciate any of it at the time - office to tell me he had been approached about being a judge on some show called America’s Next Top Model with Tyra Banks. It was between him and an editor from Glamour magazine, but they wanted Eric.
Of course I immediately said yes. Because I was in the middle of an intense editing session with another editor over these lost Courtney Love interview tapes that never did materialize, but also because being the publishing partner for ANTM meant that on a (minor) network show every week there would be mention of our still fairly new magazine - thus exposure to a broader audience. Equals more readers. Equals more ads. Etc in the simple days before algorithms.
The trade-off of having to orchestrate and publish a photo shoot with whoever became “America’s Next Top Model” was not an ideal arrangement, because editors like to pick – usually along with a photographer – the models they use in their valuable expensive print pages. They want to carefully choose the models, photographers, clothes, messages, etc., that will do the most for their readers and secondarily advertisers. (Though sometimes the advertiser was the first priority – especially if you got monthly notes like I and many of us did from people like our beloved Giorgio Armani, who went through each new issue and counted the number of editorial credits we gave to Armani versus Versace compared to the advertising pages that both ran in that issue. But that’s another thing.)
“I remember pushing back on criticism of Yoanna’s body not being thin enough. And when some said Shandi was too thin.”
Okay, back to Tyra. So Eric did the show while still working his regular job at Jane where I would see him every day and he would come in to my office with stories after taping ANTM. I was so busy with the magazine and I’ve still never had time to watch the show, but over the years people would mention to me that they had seen Jane magazine featured. A lot of times that would be the first thing people would say about the magazine when they approached me. Mission accomplished.
“Nigel said that Yoanna was flat-chested and looked like a boy, or had a boyish body.”
When all the interest in Tyra and ANTM sparked up again - starting with that podcast “Curse of America’s Next Top Model” which I loved because the host was so sassy, and then of course the Netflix documentary that everybody seems to have watched and then the E! series on the same exact topic, which got less attention because it came out last, I guess, but did feature Janice calling Tyra a bitch twice - of course I texted Eric about all of this.
Eric had been asked multiple times by the producers of the E! series to be featured on there. But he’s classy and said no. He was raised in the fashion business at a different time (as everyone now gets from the scenes in Love Story where Carolyn aligns those heels in the Calvin showroom maybe a dozen times in the first episode). This was the same era where I was, as Jane Editor-In-Chief, made to fire someone because she insisted on wearing the wrong lipstick in meetings with our boss. It wasn’t my call, but after the third infraction, even I knew I had to follow through. In any case, Eric has standards, holds his head up high and only does publicity, and work, that he’s proud of. And it’s good work.
[When I was searching for pictures of me at Jane magazine, two things from that era kept coming up: This sort of goofy picture above of me and Mike D attending an event for Food Bank of New York, and this interview from right before I started Jane, which there is zero reason to watch unless you want to.]
Anyway, finally, here’s Eric:
It’s fascinating, but not at all surprising, the amount of attention the show has been getting. I feel for Shandi, and remember her being your favorite. [She was and I was always pushing Eric to make her the winner.]
I truly was focused on my career being a fashion editor at Jane and was happy to do the show to help promote the magazine AND hopefully inject some of the spirit of Jane into the show. Like when they were I remember pushing back on criticism of Yoanna’s body not being thin enough or when some said Shandi was too thin. I had absolutely no contact with any of the models other than the weekly judging. ZERO insight into what was happening at the shoots or the models apartment, etc.
I think the backlash is a testament to how far the culture has grown and that what you/we were doing at Jane did make a difference.” [He knows just what to say.]
Though I was a fashion editor at Jane when I appeared on the show for 12 episodes, I approached judging America’s Next Top Model through the lens of choosing the best model overall. After all, it was called America’s Next Top Model, not Jane’s Next Top Model. I understood the assignment.
That said, I was also representing Jane — the magazine and the brand — so I inevitably judged through that perspective as well.
.
Here is my take on some of the standout Cycle 2 Contestants:
Yoanna
She was somewhat of an underdog, and I’ve always loved an underdog — and always will. Her face was striking in a classical way: impossibly symmetrical, with large, wide-set eyes and full lips. Her short, choppy hair felt fresh and fashion-forward.
Her face reminded me of a young Carol Alt — whom, coincidentally, I had the privilege of styling for the launch of xoJane. [Carol was my favorite model when I was a teenager too, and I was so excited we got to photograph her for the xoJane launch.]
Nigel said that Yoanna was flat-chested and looked like a boy, or had a boyish body. I remember saying — though it was edited out — that she was the only contestant I could realistically see being cast in a Marc Jacobs show. At the time, Marc was the hottest designer in the industry and represented a somewhat new take on beauty. He championed models with distinct personalities and often cast his friends in campaigns — Sofia Coppola, Winona Ryder, Lil’ Kim, Kim Gordon (young, old, short, tall, etc).
Yoanna radiated a genuine love of fashion and style. She had that extra special something — a personality that elevated her beyond just a pretty face.
“Janice sits down, takes one look at me and announces: “You’re SHORT. Sit up straight! Don’t slump. Get a pillow!”
Xiomara
During one judging panel, I said that Xiomara was the only model there who could walk in a Jean Paul Gaultier show — and I still stand by that. She had the height and physical presence of a traditional model, but with an interesting, powerful edge. Gaultier is known for casting memorable, sometimes unconventional faces, and that’s where I saw Xiomara fitting into the fashion world.
This will definitely date me, but about a year after the show ended, I was at the Limelight club in NYC and Xiomara was bartending. She leapt over the bar to give me a huge hug. If you remember, she wore bright blue contact lenses on the show — way over-the-top, obviously fake, and they made her look… bizarre (though, again, very Gaultier).
She told me she had worn them to the auditions, but once filming began, she hadn’t planned on continuing to wear them. According to her, producers insisted she keep them in or risk immediate elimination. How manipulative is that?
I’m sure each contestant has her own story about manipulation — as we saw highlighted in the Netflix special — and I genuinely feel for them. I’m sensitive — Jane can attest to that — and every time a girl was sent home, it saddened me.
Judges
The first judging session went something like this:
A producer tells me which chair is mine behind the judging desk. The lineup is: Nigel, Tyra, me, Janice.
I’m five-foot-six. They are tall. Very tall. Especially in wigs and heels.
I’m chronically early, so of course I’m the first one seated. Janice sits down next, takes one look at me, and announces: “You’re SHORT. Sit up straight! Don’t slump. Get a pillow!”
So I get a pillow. It helps.
Tyra arrives. We clap, we gush, she sits down. She immediately clocks my pillow and asks for one too. Then Nigel and Janice ask for pillows. Before I know it, I’m balancing on three pillows.
That’s how judging began.
Tyra, Janice and Nigel are exactly as striking in person as you’d imagine. Cameras don’t exaggerate them — if anything, they understate.
Tyra
The fashion nerd in me was constantly debating whether to ask her about her true high-fashion era — pre–Sports Illustrated, pre–Victoria’s Secret bombshell mythology.
I was dying to ask:
• What was Karl Lagerfeld really like?
• Was Naomi Campbell actually awful to you?
• Is it true Tina Turner recommended you to Azzedine Alaïa?
• What Alaïa do you still own?
But Tyra was always impeccably professional with me — warm, lighthearted. Cordial. I never quite felt the opening to dive into fashion-history interrogation mode. That may have been her boundary… or just my hesitation.
Nigel
Nigel modeled before becoming a “noted” fashion photographer. I’ll admit — I’d never heard of him, so I didn’t arrive with burning questions. [I remember thinking this was hilarious in the same way that they get Bachelorette contestants to squeal in delight about a country music performer they could not possibly have heard of suddenly joining their date - or Abbie Lee Miller introducing a ‘world-famous’ guest choreographer. I had never heard of Nigel Barker either and had worked in magazines for decades at that point. No offense.]
“He was always kind to me, though,” says Eric, more diplomatically than me. “ “And whenever I ran into him and his wife, Crissy, they were genuinely lovely.”
Janice
Janice is the one I became closest to.
Her stories are endless — and she tells them freely. You don’t have to ask. But of course, I asked anyway.
“What was Diana Vreeland like?”
Janice told me Vreeland once warned her, “Janice, don’t ever MAR yourself with ink,” when she was considering a tattoo.
“Weren’t you terrified posing with a cheetah for Peter Beard?”
“Did you really fuck Peter Beard?”
“Tell me everything about Irving Penn. And Richard Avedon.”
Four months with Janice could fill a book. One day, maybe. For now, I’ll keep it close.
On the very first day of judging she told me, “Someday you’re going to be a CEO — so act like it. Let me be the bitchy one.”
Honestly? That might have been the most valuable critique I received all season.
I do think Eric was too sensitive for what the show actually was. Don’t get me wrong, he has the snobby seemingly-insensitive fashion side that I adore, but thank God he didn't know about what was all really going on behind the scenes because you could see in his eyes that he was upset even whenever a girl simply got cut. So I can only imagine if he had known what was going on with Shandi for example (filming and exploiting her drunken sex with someone not her boyfriend), he wouldn't have been able to take it. He's a good person. “I feel terrible for Shandi,” he still says.
After talking to me about ANTM - and other gossip we fit in, of course - Eric texted me the post below with this note: “Someone sent me this from Reddit about my judging and I hope this is how I came across on the show and it reminds me that the best advice I could give to anyone who’s trying to succeed at work is super simple ‘don’t be late.’ I tell this to all the new assistants I work with to this day.”
“ibuycheeseonsale • 2y ago
I always wondered if they got rid of him because he was too representative of the working professionals in the industry, as opposed to just manufacturing drama. Like the episode when they got rid of the contestant who wouldn’t pose nude- and made a really big deal to her about her not giving them anything to judge her on- and he just shrugged (because no, not all working models are willing to pose nude and that’s fine) and said he had more of a problem with the girl who was late. It just felt too realistic to me compared with what they seemed to want— which is at least one habitually late contestant who creates drama when the rest of the house is ready to go, or who gets their challenge partner lost and unfairly ruins someone else’s chance, etc.”
I had my own snobby editor side and I was somewhat bummed when we actually did have to run a feature using the contest winner, not because of Yoanna but because it felt like a promotional shoot more than an editorial choice (as I already whined about above). But of course we were going to follow through. We did an accessories story, which can be a little more utilitarian and less fantastical and aspirational, in the front of the book so that we could run ads adjacent to it and not call as much attention to its aesthetics. We gave it six pages which I think was honorable of us because we could’ve tried to run it at 4 or even 2. The story wasn't something that I promoted on the cover because it would not have helped sales (now with all the notoriety of ANTM maybe, but not then). So it just kind of flew under the radar, as I hoped it would, and that was that and this is what it looked like:
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One of my editors called me after watching Tyra’s interviews on the E! series, saying Tyra reminded her of ME. Wtf?! But here is where I do relate to the situations Tyra was in:
Sometimes you get into a job where you are hosting a show that is exploiting people. This happened to me with my talk show Jane that ran on Fox in the 90s. Your name is on it but you feel like you have no control over who the guests are or how they are prepped, etc etc - especially when it is live TV like my show was most days. I hosted shows where people would stand up and announce that they were pregnant to their mothers or start stripping in front of their dads. But here’s what you can do in that situation: Quit. Which Tyra didn’t do.
'‘A photographer on the currently airing Cycle of ANTM said something to me along the lines of ‘I only really like young boys. I’ll never act on it because I know how wrong it is, but I can’t help it.’ His episode aired a month or two later.”
Another scenario that has happened to me too: Being made to compromise and release content that is not what you want to be promoting but feeling like you shouldn’t quit because of your staff, who may lose their jobs if you go (this happened to me at both Sassy and Jane magazines, where I stayed longer than I would have because I wanted everyone to keep jobs that I had hired them into). But in Tyra’s case, she fired her whole staff anyway when the show was at that compromised crossroads. So it is hard to relate to what she did or why.
I would love for her to come back with something actually altruistic. That’s my goal for Tyra. I have hope. That doesn’t mean we can’t trash her or anything else about ANTM in the comments because that’s fun.
AND one little addendum that came up when I was telling the Jane staff that I was going to be posting this:
From former Jane magazine editor Josh Lyons (who incidentally is one of at least three former employees to include scenes in their memoirs where they were on drugs in meetings with me and I didn’t know it and thought that I must have been off that day because we weren’t connecting. His awesome book with that in it is Pill Head.):
If you need any additional ANTM Jane content, I was so obsessed with the first season that I somehow convinced you to let me fly to Albuquerque where me and Elyse (3rd runner-up) hosted America’s Next Top Med Student (cuz Elyse was in med school and they kept talking about it on the show) and she judged a bunch of women on how well they could draw my blood.
I also helped write Miss J’s book. And one more ANTM story: Around 2004/2005 I was at a gay bar and got hit on by a guy who told me he’d been a photographer on the currently-airing cycle. We got super wasted and started trading deep dark secrets and his last one right before I bolted was something along the lines of “I only really like young boys. I’ll never act on it because I know how wrong it is, but I can’t help it.” His episode aired maybe a month or two later. Oh and one last random detail and then I swear I’ll stop blowing up your phone: Elyse was dating/living with a member of The Shins at the time, which made the whole experience even more early aughts.
Thanks for the perfect ending, Josh! I forgive you for doing drugs in meetings with me AND taking advantage of our expense accounts for your own follies (which was pretty close to Jane’s Mission Statement anyway). Thanks to the greatest crew of editors, thanks to Yoanna and everyone else involved in that crazy magazine and that crazy ANTM chapter. Josh’s visual proof below…
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What a fun article- and fantastic photos! Thanks Jane! I can't wait to hear more about your plans for a print Sassy revival! Are you envisioning something for today's young women, for those of us who read the original, or for....anyone and everyone? I, for one, would love to be guided through my 50's by the same amazing women who were always there for me during my teen years! 🤗
I’ve only read the intro so far, but wanted to jump in since I somehow managed to miss yesterday’s note. I SO understand the weirdness of feeling g optimistic right now even though everything’s ablaze. I think my optimism comes from things being ablaze. One of the things that’s going to get us out of the white couch nightmares is putting good stuff into the world. I’ve written more since getting g laid off 13 months ago than at any other time in my life. Mostly because we have little to lose at this point so I might as well do whatever the fuck I want.
New Sassy? I’m in! And now I’m going to distract myself with ANTM dirt. So necessary in these times. 😉