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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre. A new Netflix docuseries reexamines the legacy of America's Next Top Model. The reality series premiered back in 2003 and featured aspiring models who compete in weekly challenges to launch their careers. On today's episode, we talk with a former contestant about the way the show has aged and its controversies. First, here's what's happening in New York City. The Mamdani administration is moving quickly to vacate the massive men's homeless shelter on Manhattan's east side. The mayor's office says the site is in a state of severe disrepair. Some residents there say they were shocked to learn the facility was closing and that they'd be moved to another shelter. Lamont Jones has been living at the 30th street site for four months and says he wants to be able to stay in Manhattan.

Lamont Jones: I have a relative that's on a deathbed and I'm the only one left here to take care of her, to go see her, to go check her out. If I leave and they send me to Brooklyn and I get a call from the doctor and I need to rush back over here, I may not make it in time.

Janae Pierre: The shelter also houses the only check in site for single men and families without children who want a shelter bed. Officials say those services will be relocated downtown. New York Attorney General Letitia James and attorneys general across the US are super suing the Trump administration once again. This time over a new tariff plan.

Speaker 3: This latest attempt is nothing more than an effort to sidestep the Supreme Court and impose tariffs that the president does not have the authority to enact.

Janae Pierre: The president issued a new proclamation imposing tariffs on many countries and a wide range of goods after the Supreme Court ruled Trump's original tariffs were illegal. The lawsuit argues that the new tariffs violate a federal law that requires tariffs be applied non discriminatorily. The tariffs exempt some goods from Canada, the Dominican Republic, and other countries. The White House says the Trump administration will vigorously defend the president's new round of tariffs in Court.

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Janae Pierre: The 82nd edition of the Whitney Biennial officially opens on Sunday. The exhibition is the longest running survey of contemporary art in the U.S. The 2026 biennial will feature 56 artists across the world. Together, they'll represent a wide range of art at the Whitney. This year's biennial runs through August 23rd.

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Janae Pierre: Still ahead, the problematic legacy of America's Next Top Model. The show, produced by supermodel Tyra Banks, is the subject of a new Netflix docuseries. We'll talk with one of the contestants after the break. Stick around.

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Janae Pierre: Welcome back. Do you remember a show called America's Next Top Model? It took the world by storm when it premiered in the early 2000s. The reality series was created by supermodel Tyra Banks and featured aspiring models who lived together in midtown Manhattan, while competing in weekly challenges to launch their careers. For those interested in pursuing a modeling career, New York City is arguably the best place to do it. It's a global hub for fashion and commercial opportunities. Though the Big Apple offers unrivaled exposure and high profile agency representation, it's extremely competitive and requires thick skin.

Simply put, the show aged poorly. A new Netflix docuseries looks into the many controversies it presented, including scenes of fat shaming, forced and humiliated makeovers, and even photoshoots in blackface. In a social media post, Tyra Banks responded to the insensitivity of some past moments on the show and said, "I agree with you. Looking back, those were some really off choices." Season 1 or Cycle 1, as it's called, included 10 contestants. Most of the contestants on the first season flew in to chase their New York City dreams, but one of them, Ebony Haith, she was born in it and grew up in Harlem. Hey, Ebony. Welcome to the show.

Ebony Haith: Thank you.

Janae Pierre: So, so happy to have you here.

Ebony Haith: Oh, happy to be here.

Janae Pierre: Let's get to Top Model. You were 23, 24?

Ebony Haith: Yes. When the show aired, I was eliminated, two days before my birthday.

Janae Pierre: Oh, that sucks.

Ebony Haith: [unintelligible 00:04:46] horrible. I was about going on 24, so by the time it aired, I was 24 years old.

Janae Pierre: What were you doing before then? Were you in the modeling industry yet?

Ebony Haith: Let me tell you, my grandmother had a beauty salon in Harlem since 1920s, '30s.

Janae Pierre: Oh, wow.

Ebony Haith: She started off, if I'm correct, at 124th Street, 114th street, then 116th street, across the street from Canaan Baptist Church

Janae Pierre: Grandma was part of the Harlem movement.

Ebony Haith: Yes, she was. Most of my was based with my great grandmother. Totally a New York girl, went to a variety of schools. I got very early into theater, dance, sports. Thought I was going to be Olympic star. Somehow the modeling game caught me. Here I was, 19 years old. That was the first time that I started thinking. I grew up in a beauty salon and I thought about it, like, "Do I want to do hair?" I was at a place where you can't just make this quarter every week. [chuckles] I'm starving over here.

Janae Pierre: You need more than that.

Ebony Haith: I ended up becoming a makeup artist really because I was talented and I can make quick money. Back in the day being a makeup artist or working in restaurants, you can really make great money.

Janae Pierre: Especially in New York City.

Ebony Haith: Exactly. I had a friend that was a makeup artist, and she said to me, "You're just so good with colors." I never did it before. Out of nowhere, Mac called me in. She had secretly put my resume in. They called me. I ended up bringing my best friend and slayed her face and got the job and ended up learning online and watching my friends that would teach me because I had no license, but I was hired as a freelance makeup artist, so I made it work.

Amazing experience doing that. I got thrown into doing Fashion Week, and someone, as soon as I walked in, they started saying, "Why are you doing makeup? You need to be on somebody's runway." It was overnight, all of a sudden, when I changed my universe and world by moving into the makeup world, being in fashion. I didn't know what modeling was. I knew that I saw Naomi Campbell or Tyra Banks on TV, but not a runway show.

Janae Pierre: Tou never considered it for yourself?

Ebony Haith: No.

Janae Pierre: Wow.

Ebony Haith: I was more thinking of my height for Olympics, so I started from there. I was about 20, and it was about a year or so before America's Next Top Model. I decided to start auditioning. That was my first start to finding out anything about modeling after that show. I went to five different agencies, and each agency said the same thing. "Wow, you have such a great look, but we don't have a place for you." I would come in, they would give me a tour. I was thinking I was about to be signed. It was almost like a curiosity.

A lot of those auditions back in the day was very public. It wasn't something like quiet, where you go into an office, like you're doing a regular interview. You go in, it's a group of girls, the whole agency. You walk out, everybody knows you didn't get signed. It's a little brutal. Anyway, so I go. I would go. When I wasn't signed or I didn't receive opportunity, people would stay and would talk about it like, "You didn't get signed. Why?" I started realizing that, "You know what? There's other things going on here. I'm going to sit back." I realized that if this is about my race, my color, that's something that I honor, and I'm not here to change that.

Janae Pierre: You mentioned that that's the very reason why Tyra Banks wanted to produce something like America's Next Top Model, right?

Ebony Haith: Yes. Exactly.

Janae Pierre: Did that give you the aspiration to audition in the first place?

Ebony Haith: You hit it on the nail. Literally two weeks before I decided no more auditioning, I was like, "I've done this for a year now." I'm not getting anything like, "You don't have the look," but I knew that there was a place for me. In my mind, it didn't deter me. It made me feel like, "Oh, I'mma create a place." I recognized the concept that Tyra was saying she was going to represent. I really didn't watch her as a model. I didn't know much about her history, but I knew at that time she was making a change.

Janae Pierre: Top Model, in your opinion, was meant for you?

Ebony Haith: Yes. Absolutely. I knew I was going to be on it.

Janae Pierre: Representation is everything. You were one of four Black women in that first cycle of the show. There's been a lot of discourse about how poorly the show has aged from makeovers to people not understanding your moisturizing routine. Did you feel like there were cultural differences in the show that really affected and impacted you?

Ebony Haith: Yes. There's so many layers in this. I'm going to sum it up. I think for the time at 2003 wasn't acceptable. I think that's one of the things people are battling right now revisiting the show. I think it's two different generations with two different opinions.

Janae Pierre: Absolutely.

Ebony Haith: When I tell you 23 years later, I don't feel forgotten at all. It is an everyday thing. On the train, the bus. It's constant conversation.

Janae Pierre: Because you look the same. [laughs]

Ebony Haith: Thank you so much. I also love that it's infusing the conversation that we are having right now. When I think about being on America's Top Model 23 years ago and today, the big conversation is, did we know better? That is very important. For me, there is no it was 10 years ago, it was 20. That's ridiculous. We were conscious in 2000.

Janae Pierre: Did you feel comfortable standing in your own self on the show? Did you feel empowered?

Ebony Haith: I did feel empowered because I knew that I wasn't going to allow my light to be dimmed. I definitely think it took away an innocence of being 23 and going in to have fun.

Janae Pierre: Yes, because you all were so young.

Ebony Haith: Yes. I think having to deal with that back to back, constant situation, it wasn't where society is watching the show and they're going, "Look at those girls getting an opportunity. They must feel so good." There was none of that for me. I feel like that's what the producers and Tyra Bank took from me in the experience.

Janae Pierre: On that theme of culture and identity, we can take it back to your audition. One of the first questions you were asked by Tyra Banks involved your sexuality. Tyra asked if you were comfortable being identified as a lesbian on national television. This was 2003, so the way we talked about sexuality back then was really different. What did it mean to you to be open like that and later share your relationship on the television screen?

Ebony Haith: Everything was very raw. When I say that, nothing was pre-planned. When Tyra Banks, and then meeting her for the first time, one-on-one, and her first words are, "You're gay?" I was definitely surprised. I thought at least she'd say, "You're Ebony." When I came in to meet with you and we were preparing for our interview, the first thing you did was say, "Hello, my name. Hello, Ebony." That's what I expected. When she said that right then and there, it was almost for me in the experience that this is not just a competition. This is not just about ratings. There is a different narrative that's now becoming a little dangerous, and people are choosing not to be conscious of it.

Janae Pierre: You saw that early on.

Ebony Haith: Yes, very on. What I can say is, with that situation, I realized that I was going to have to be okay with who I am. I knew that I walked on that show with that level of confidence. It was funny because even when she asked me the question, that's why I was very moving on with it. "Yes. I'm gay. Fabulous. Next," because I wanted to give people, "Why are you worried about it? I thought this was a fashion show, but we're going to talk about me being gay instead of putting me in vogue."

Let me tell you something. I am a comedian. You don't even know what I wanted to say to Tyra Banks at that time, honey. I was like, "Let me just play this game. I just hoped in that moment that I represented the gay community well.

Janae Pierre: Now that I know you a little bit and know that you grew up in a beauty salon, can we go back to that episode where you had that botched makeover? Just looking around the space and looking at the stylist, did you have a feeling?

Ebony Haith: I'm going to clash the skincare and the hair altogether? Growing up in a beauty salon, it was interesting being on set, watching the girls. Robin's hair turned green. There was a lot of things that happened that they didn't show. Growing up in a beauty salon, I'm sitting here laughing, knowing all the girls are about to look like a hot mess. I'm like, "I don't know what's happening here," but I'm thinking it's also part of the test. It's a competition. This is probably part of what they're creating.

As I'm sitting there with gel in my hair and supposed to be at this top salon realizing, "Oh, my God, the girls, some of them are looking like a hot mess," and watching them having to call other stylists because there's no Black stylists here. The problem was all of the girls, after being on the show for two weeks, were running out of our products. We're young girls. We're not carrying two months worth of moisturizer and shampoo and toothpaste. We ain't got no pads. Where's the hot mess up in here? We're running out of salads in the refrigerator. You're giving us a couple of dollars a week. We don't know what's happening.

Also, young girls that are quitting our jobs to take a chance. Oh, layers and layers of young youth being brave, which I don't think that we got enough credit for, and taking a chance on our dreams. In that, telling Tyra and needing to make a joke out of it, like, how uncomfortable Tyra brought all of us. When I was sitting in front of the judges and we're getting critiques, and I think this was the second week, and I couldn't believe what came out of her mouth.

Janae Pierre: What exactly did Tyra say now?

Ebony Haith: Now, what she said was, "I've been talking to all the judges, and they had been talking about you've been showing up ashy every day." Then I responded and said, "Tyra, you know we've run out of products. None of the girls got toothpaste." I said, "We're in here starving." Everybody starts laughing because I had to break that ridiculous moment and I had to bring people back to reality.

Then they all started laughing and Tyra was like, "Oh, okay. I'll get somebody to drive you. They brought me to Walgreens or Duane Reade. Them to sit there and watch me and be talked about and pick over my hair. I remember at that moment not being my natural self, giving my real response. I knew that my authentic self today is so important because reality is I would have never allowed that. Immediately I was going to stand up and say, "I need Tyra right now and where's the next salon?" I would have told them where. We can go to mine.

Janae Pierre: I hear you talk about these layers of ridiculousness, and what I hear you saying is like you expected more from Tyra Banks as a Black woman.

Ebony Haith: Absolutely. In 2003, there wasn't an excuse for the directors and the producers not to know how to call a Black salon or how to be able to work with different cultures. You had a show that you created and you put all of your talent, skills. That's what you said as the director and producers, but you didn't think the girls' basic needs and the way you were going to express their journey, which is part of their culture because obviously it's their features, their beauty.

I realized the thing that was so unique about it, remember, we were on one of the first five reality TV shows. This is another thing when you have different generations opinions where you have even some of the reality judges on emerged Top Model have tried to blame the contestants where we should have known no. I think for the first five episodes, what did we know?

Janae Pierre: Nothing much.

Ebony Haith: First of all, I think that when you're taking from 18 year olds, it just changes the narrative and it also changes your responsibility. It's just common sense.

Janae Pierre: You were eliminated from the show in episode 4. I want to talk about what life was like for you after the show aired because for a lot of the girls, they had to go back to where they came from. It seems like you just had to hop on the sea and get back to Harlem.

Ebony Haith: [chuckles] Being from Harlem, and it was interesting because the hotel was on 50-Something Street. At that time I was in Harlem, but also living in the Bronx with my girlfriend. When I was eliminated, I ended up staying the night at the Hotel. Then from there, my girlfriend picked me up and we drove on home. My experience as an artist afterwards was very interesting. I was lucky enough that I had an agency that signed me. From there, I started auditioning.

For me, it wasn't about dwelling or even thinking about the anger from that. It was like, "Now I'm going to move forward. I can use this in publicity. What am I going to do as an actress, as a model?" I wasn't sitting still. Agencies were calling me. They were not necessarily very well known, but there were two gentlemen that used to work with A, B, C, different positions. They decided that they got so angry with the show, they wanted to make a modeling agency. They came together, launched a modeling agency. I was their first model.

In my journey, my plight was not learning to love myself. I went on America's Top Model because I take pride in being Black beauty, which is the meaning of my name, Ebony. I come from a long line of very powerful women, and not just the women in my family, but my community. I was very confident in myself.

I think one of the things that I recognized that was really important in my history and the way I was raised in culture and being an artist, that when I dealt with the situation of being on America's Top Model, I already had an idea. I had an idea of my presence as an artist, and then as a Black artist, as a woman, [chuckles] so I didn't go in without words of education or encouragement.

I think that when we talk about beauty and I look at Tyra Banks and I look at 23 years later now, her response, I would love to coddle everybody in the perfect world, but the real reality is that Tyra Banks did affect people. I think that this is a new time, a new way of looking at things, and we have to be more responsible. I wish our apology could have been more heartfelt. I think that the rest of us on the show also take responsibility for being on the show. I hope that all of us get the healing that's needed.

Janae Pierre: I know that you believe and trust in the universe. Is it safe to say that you don't regret auditioning back in 2003?

Ebony Haith: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

Janae Pierre: It's been years since the show aired. What are you doing now?

Ebony Haith: I'm working on an amazing project that I'm really excited about. It's called Rough Skin. It's a one-woman show. We're trying to figure out how we're going to go about it. Right now we're just working on funding and seeing if the network will pick it up. I'm not sure where this beautiful journey is going to bring me, but I have a team that is so supportive and believes in the talents that I have. That is the dream.

I don't want to just say I have my own show. I feel like I don't know where the universe will bring me. I'm an actress, I'm a model, I'm a motivational speaker. I think now in my one-woman show, my goal is to bring laughter to our delusions. I didn't get to really show my full personality on America's Top Model. I'm really crazy, but that's okay. It's all in a good way.

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Janae Pierre: That's Ebony Haith, artist, performer and model. You'll notice her from Cycle 1 of America's Next Top Model. Ebony, thanks so much for joining us.

Ebony Haith: Absolutely. I'm so happy that you would have me.

Janae Pierre: This conversation got us thinking. So much has changed since the early 2000s, but so much hasn't. We wanted to talk to you, New York City. How has your New York changed and how hasn't it since those times? Send a voice note or an email to NYC Now at wnyc.org. We'd love to hear from you. In fact, we might use your comment in a future episode. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. Have a nice weekend. We'll be back next week.

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