For any Gen Z among us who are too young to remember, being a young woman in the early 2000s was…rough. If you think diet culture is intense now, what with the rise of weight-loss drugs and social media exacerbating toxic beauty standards, then let us take you back to the year 2003, when thin truly was in.
Around this time, Kelloggs dropped its Special K “Drop a Jean Size” campaign, and many of the women in our lives subsisted solely on the cardboard-like cereal for sustenance. Weight Watchers made nearly $1 billion in revenue. “Heroin chic” was still prevalent in fashion and beauty, and Kate Moss’s infamous quote, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” was seen as “thinspo” rather than troubling. Oh, and the TV show America’s Next Top Model premiered.
Over 20 years after its release, Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model revisits some of the most troubling aspects of the uber-popular series.
It’s hard to describe what a pop culture behemoth ANTM was at the time. And while there were some heartwarming moments, there was also a lot of toxicity for the sake of “good TV.” Remember during cycle 4 when Michelle cried from the pain of an allergic reaction to the peroxide used to bleach her hair (which later prompted an impetigo outbreak)? In retrospect, a lot of the behavior wasn’t as funny as the hosts made it out to be at the time.
But where are the women today? Keep reading to find out what the winners of America’s Next Top Model are up to now.
Cycle 1: Adrianne Curry
