by Kylene Hamulak

 

America's Next Top Model: College Edition recently said goodbye to one of the most polarizing contestants on the show, quirky home-schooler Victoria Henley. Drama seems to find Victoria wherever she is, and much of the season focused on her bizarre backstories, relationship with her mom, and eating habits. Even this interview had unexpected drama when Hurricane Sandy took Victoria off the grid for several days! When we finally caught up with her, Reality Wanted talked exclusively to Victoria about "Reality TV Show Victoria," what she felt about Johnny's criticism, and who she won't be friending on Facebook anytime soon!

 

Q. Kylene, Reality Wanted: How did your experience on Top Model compare with your expectations?
A. Victoria: I had seen the show in the past and I had seen the more "reality" aspect of it and all of the drama and the fighting and cattiness and pettiness. That was never personally my favorite aspect of the show, but I knew that it was a part of it. I didn't really know what to expect going into it, into the house with girls. I was hoping that it would be a better group this year because, you know, in the past, there sometimes seemed like it was all very calm and docile groups of girls and other times, it's just absolutely terrible. I feel like it wasn't a very good group this year pertaining to the drama and to the fighting and to the bullying and all of that. I don't think I expected it to be quite as bad as it was, I think I expected there to be at least someone in the house that I halfway related to.

 

Pertaining to the modeling aspect of it, I feel very grateful that I was able to work with the huge media personalities that I worked with. I honestly didn't know what to expect going into it regarding the modeling aspect of it because they changed the format, they changed all of the judges, the Jays would not be there, I wasn't familiar with Johnny Wucheck, so, you know, again, I think there was definitely an element of surprise this year, especially when they announced they were going to do the whole "comeback" thing. Honestly, I came into it hoping that I would get some incredible exposure. Of course I wanted to win, but I really didn't know what to expect.

 

Q. Kylene, Reality Wanted: There were some issues that came up with the other models during your time in the house - what is your relationship with them since the competition ended?
A. Victoria: I actually have not kept in touch with any of the girls since Top Model. As the number of girls were whittled away, I think that the drama and the pettiness became a lot more intense. If you look back from the very beginning, from the first episode, the girls singled me out to pick on me, and I think they just sort of saw me as the one to pick on. You know, you saw Kiara saying, "oh, what's wrong with her voice, and what's wrong with the way she talks, and what's wrong with her hair," and I was thinking when I saw that first episode, I was like, "this is college edition?" It's like arbitrary things that they're trying to single me out for, and I think as the competition went on, it became a lot more intensely focused on me negatively. There were a few girls that I actually did like. I think it was unfortunate that Jessie was one of the first girls eliminated - I wish she could've stayed longer in favor of someone else getting kicked off sooner, such as Kristin. She seemed like a nice girl, you know, you can never tell about people, but she really did seem like a genuinely nice person. Yvonne, she kind of told it like it was, but I think she got tired of the competition as it went on, but, again, she was a nice girl.

 

I've had people, I've had Kristin, ask me on Facebook, and, to be honest, I haven't confirmed her and I don't plan on it because I'm like, "you didn't act like too much of a friend to me during the competition, so why would I be friends with you over social media?" I've just been more focused on pursuing modeling, doing magazine shoots, doing runway shows. I've been focused on writing as well, like writing columns for fashion magazines, collaborating with some fashion photographers, so I really haven't been zoned in with keeping in touch with girls from Top Model. I think it's unfortunate that it did turn out the way it did between me and a lot of the girls, but I feel like it really wasn't any fault of my own. I just tried to stay away from them during the competition because a lot of them did try to single me out.

 

Q. Kylene, Reality Wanted: Your dramatic backstories really got you into character for the shoots, but some - including Johnny and Rob - thought you overthought things too much, and that hurt your modeling. Do you plan to adjust your method at all going forward?
A. Victoria: I'm going to be honest - a lot of that that you saw...I mean, I am a character in real life, I'm one of those people that when I watch movies, I just really dissect them apart. I look at the characters, and I think, "Oh, I wonder what they're thinking, I wonder what their backstory is if it hasn't already been explained, I wonder, you know, what they were like as a kid...." I've really always been like that, I've really been into characters and backstories. Like, another example I give, when I was a little kid, I would wear different costumes to school, and I would play little characters that I created, and I'd always have a backstory for it. I think that's always been something that has been fascinating for me, being able to create a character. And I've been in theater, I've done some film work, so that's definitely a part of me, but I feel like that was more "Reality TV Show Victoria" than it was "Actual Victoria."

 

In the photo shoots I've done since the show, to be honest, I show up, I pose. I am a good model, probably a much better model than I come across as on the show. You know, I'm a very good poser, I'm very easy to work with. I actually do very little talking during most of my photo shoots. When I was on the show, it is something that got me noticed, it is something that built my brand, and it is a funny thing because I tried doing the "nested" modeling as I like to call it, and Johnny was like, "Oh hey, that's really great that you have the backstory." Then I didn't do it quite as much for the next shoot, and if you look back at that episode, Rob was saying, you know, "I've very disappointed in you, you didn't analyze your photo, you didn't come up with a backstory, and it showed through because your photo's just so bland." So I said, ok, this guy really wants to see a backstory, so I made my bit, I was doing backstories left and right. Then when it came up, I feel like that was a big factor in my elimination.

 

Johnny behind the scenes was constantly criticizing me, but he wasn't doing that in person. I wish he had actually told me what he thought in person. And, Rob at the elimination said, "Oh, you know, I'm just sick of it, I'm sick of your backstories." I just felt like he was looking at me as just very disposable, and you know, I'm just sick of that, I'm tired of it. I feel like I just got some conflicting advice from the judges, and I feel like that was very disappointing and unfortunate. I can definitely take a good photo without a backstory, but I just felt like I was getting some conflicting advice - some people did like the backstories, others not so much.

 

Q. Kylene, Reality Wanted: Where do you see yourself as a professional in five years?
A. Victoria: I see myself professionally in five years doing a wide array of things. I've been working really really hard since I got home from the show, building on the exposure that I've gotten. I've been connecting with fans in various contexts, some social media. I've actually had a few pretty big projects contact me out in California, some photographers who've tried to contact me, I've worked with photographers back home who have their own magazines, I've been on magazine covers. I did something in Australia. I've built some contacts from New York Fashion Week, which I'm really hoping to model in next spring. I actually already have one designer that I lined up, so I feel like I've already made some very good headway and progress.

 

I don't see my goals in five years as lofty, I see them as very attainable since I beat out so many girls to be on this last cycle of America's Next Top Model. Of course I'd love to be in Vogue Magazine, I'd love to model in an editorial in that. Elle, some of my favorites, maybe when I get a little older, Harper's Bazaar. I'd love to do some writing, I would love to direct my own films. I'm actually working on some scripts right now and trying to get some independent films together that I might submit to some film festivals like the California Film Festival. I've already been in a film that's actually won there, so now my goal is making one of my own and hoping in a few years to really expand upon that. I'd love to do some hosting work as well because I love being interviewed and I love interviewing people, I'd like to kind of work upon that too.

 

You know, I just I feel like the sky's the limit. I don't want to limit myself to just being a model, or just being that girl from America's Next Top Model. I want people to really remember me as really having some diverse talents that I can use and built upon to make a successful career for myself in a lot of aspects in the industry.

 

Q. Kylene, Reality Wanted: Being away from your mom was difficult for you, but as a professional model or even actress, your work could potentially take you away from home often. How do you think you'd handle that?

A. Victoria: With the show and how it came across...you know, I love my mom more than anything, she's my rock, my support system. Mentions of other family members had to be edited out because my other family members didn't sign release forms, but my mom is, she's the main person that's helped me with all of my modeling pursuits. I'd say that the "Mom Saga" was definitely overdramatized because, I mean, it IS a reality show, and everyone has their own little character that they're pegged as. I think it was really unfortunate that other aspects of my personality weren't really shown. Some of the other things that I said and that I talked about in the show were edited out, so you don't really know these other interesting things about my personality. It really made it look as though I just constantly talked about my mom.

 

Regardless of how it looked on the show, I have traveled away from my mom, I've been to countless sleepovers and things like that. It's not that I haven't been away from her, but being in the bottom two, consistently getting a lot of bad scores at panel, and then coming back to a house full of girls that you can't talk to, that you can't relate to...I think for anybody it's just human nature for that to be a little bit frustrating. And, you know, I had such limited time to call my mom on the phone and talk to her, and I feel like that definitely was hard on me, as it came across, but I feel like it was over dramatized. It in no means means that I'm not functional or couldn't function in a professional world. I think it's an interesting thing that Tyra, for the show, has all the girls living in a house away from their moms, because Tyra herself says in interviews that she takes her mom along with her. It was actually she and her mom that came up with the idea to do America's Next Top Model over a dinner together. So I think Tyra's got a really great relationship with her mom, too, and I don't see myself at all as a pariah or as not functional in a creative or professional world because I'm close to my mom. I mean, for most of my shoots, if she comes, she goes, it's not like I'm joined at the hip and have to have her standing near the photos with me. I have great hopes for myself in the professional world and definitely hope I won't be held back because of the way I might've come across on the show.

 

 

America's Next Top Model: College Edition airs Fridays at 8e/7c on the CW!

 

(Image courtesy of the CW)