Are They on Top? Checking In With the Winners of America's Next Top Model Now

            Are They on Top? Checking In With the Winners of America's Next Top Model Now

They gained knowledge on how to tooch and smize their loot. But did Tyra Banks's personally selected models really emerge victorious from America's Next Top Model? 

Do you want to lead? 

That's exactly what hundreds of thousands of rookies on the runway did for 24 nonstop seasons (sorry, cycles). 

Tall natives of Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Joliet, Illinois came to the America's Next Top Model set to learn how to do the booty touch and the smize, but most importantly, how to pursue a career in fashion like host Tyra Banks, who dominated the industry from 1996 (when she debuted on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue) onward.

Yes, some of the criticisms and difficulties do feel off-putting now, as veteran creative director Jay Manuel has recently pointed out, even though they were just as dubious in the early 2000s. 

(Banks undoubtedly agrees that Blackface, in any form, is unacceptable; she tweeted, "Looking back, those were some really off choices.") However, the reality series was huge when it debuted more than 20 years ago, first on the now-defunct UPN, then The CW, and finally on VH1. 

At one point, it drew audiences of up to 6 million people who were excited to watch aspirant cover girls cry through their pixie cut "Ty-over" and try to make the ideal LashBlast Mascara commercial.