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"America's Next Top Model"
Byline: Former “America’s Next Top Model” contestant Shannon Stewart speaks about her faith, fashion and the pressure to compromise her beliefs.
“ There are thousands of girls more beautiful than me, but He sent me up there not only to allow me to experience this dream of mine first hand, but also to be his witness for those who may have never heard about Jesus and His amazing love for them.”
Click here for the entire interview
- Shalleen Hern & Andre Afamasaga (2098 words)
Is reality television an oxymoron and is Christian supermodel a gross contradiction in terms? The reality TV show America’s  Next Top Model has proved to be so popular that the UPN network has just signed on for a further two seasons.But it was in the first season that we were first introduced to outrageous “fat” accusations from the self-proclaimed “world’s first supermodel” Janice Dickinson, and the pouty protestations of “top model etiquette” from Tyra Banks.There arose a different kind of beauty - a phoenix from the noxious embers of reality TV - dedicated Christian, Shannon Stewart.
Stewart, a wholesome blonde stunner standing at 5’10 from Franklin, Ohio placed second in the initial series of television hit, UPN’s America’s Next Top Model (ANTM), an American Idol-esque pursuit for aspiring models.Thousands of hopefuls are slashed to 10 girls with the humiliating scalpel that “real TV” consumers have come to know as the “Judging panel.”The final ten who show the most potential are brought to New York where they will live and compete against each other to vie for first place.The hopefuls undergo a series of tests before a panel of judges who based on a number of tests and photo shoots deliver humiliating critique, then deliberate over who should be eliminated that week, until eventually there is only one left.The last one standing wins a modelling agency contract with a leading New York agency as well as appearances in magazines and advertisements.In shows like ANTM it seems there are few humiliations or exploitations that people willing to endure for the shallow entertainment of strangers that are TV viewing public.And what is a Christian doing in the shaky and superficial milieu of fashion anyway?
Stewart says she knew without a shadow of doubt that the Lord placed her on the show. “There are thousands of girls more beautiful than me, but He sent me up there not only to allow me to experience this dream of mine first hand, but to also be His witness for those who may have never heard about Jesus and His amazing love for them.”Her mother Mary Ann Stewart, a Materials Management for Delphi, had been apprehensive from the start: I have never wanted the modelling scene for Shannon, yet after much time in prayer before Jesus, His utterance to me was, ‘Give her to me, she is Mine.’ His will for her life was all I have ever wanted. Watching her on TV opened my understanding to learn of her amazing ability to be in the public eye. I was thrilled at her ability to be who she is regardless whether she was with a famous or non-famous person.
Reality TV and a show about fashion models, seem unlikely places for Christians to minister to the unchurched but anyone who saw the first series, even a glimpse, could not escape a recurrent theme of Christian versus atheist and non-Christian models.Of the 10 contestants, Stewart along with Robin Manning and Kesse Wallace were all Christians.The producers capitalized the moral divide between the two camps; the Christians generally came across as dogmatic and didactic.Accusations of them being self-righteous, homophobic and prudish for not devolving personal sexual experiences were aired in the ubiquitous confession room - the engine room of the factory that is Reality TV.This is where contestants can backstab, pontificate, confess and spill secrets. But according to Stewart, a lot of the drama and  tension portrayed on the show was the result of selective editing and in a couple of cases, complete omissions of the truth.Still, Stewart is gracious and respectful to a fault, excavating dirt and soliciting ill comment about her fellow contestants is useless, her benevolence and fairness are resolute in all our interviews. Even so, the raw contemptuous real world of modelling wasn’t ready for the moral high ground taken by Stewart and Manning when required to pose nude.Manning was swiftly eliminated and Stewart was given a severe warning by the judges to either comply or get out. Stewart still maintains, “I don't care if I ever reach ‘supermodel’ status, and I know I probably won't, seeing the trend with supermodels, most having taken off all or most of their clothes.But I am fine with being me and content in my own body.”Another industry insider, faculty at the world’s most prestigious fashion design school, who wishes to remain anonymous, says Christians can definitely sustain a successful modelling career so long as they are upfront with their agency and booker about their boundaries.“Even if the agency or booker disagrees with them, they will respect them.”However, the show continues to throw these moral busting curve balls to retain and shock viewers by adding more challenges and tests, which turn out to be not so much a test of the contestants’ ability to model, as they are an indicator of the values and character - arguably lack thereof.In the very first episode of the second season, Anna Bradfield, another Christian is eliminated for refusing to pose naked with a nude man for a contact lens advertisement.Rather than the obvious question of the need for nudity in a contact lens ad, the issue for the shows judges is Bradfield’s refusal to participate in the challenge.
Critics say reality TV is just a synthetic journey leading to bogus fame. They say it’s just another reality programme manufacturing made-to-order stars, rotating the ratings cogs, without the creative and commercial risks associated with making “real unreal” TV programmes.If you agree or disagree, one thing is sure, both Reality TV and celebrity are addictive and show no signs of waning.Ex-reality TV stars seem willing to do anything to stay in the limelight, selling their expose and exposing their bodies to any publication and TV programme that will listen.And the celebrity-crazy public eat it all up.
But Stewart is not your typical, cut and paste reality TV contestant.Firstly, she is now represented by IMG, arguably the foremost modelling agency in the world with the cream of the world’s superstar models, so famous they are known by their first names, like Giselle, Kate, Tyra, Heidi, Liya, Bridget and Carolyn.The way she selected IMG to represent her is pure Shannon - a combination of absolute faith in God and intuition.“I was prompted to call several agencies, trying to feel the vibe that I got from them, if they were somewhat excited, really excited, or just so-so about me. I prayed that the Lord would cause whatever agency He wanted me to be with, to become so excited about me that I would be able to feel that even over the phone. After calling all the agencies, I was sold on IMG. It is cool how this all worked out because I have always wanted to be signed with them and now I am.”But being signed is just the start. New York agencies field thousands of calls a year from hopeful wannabes yet only a selected few are ever taken on.Being signed to an agency as big as IMG means they can spot a future goldmine in you, covers, campaigns, contracts and fame.It would be so easy for a venerable 18-year old to get caught up in the excitement of being around the biggest names in the biz that you’d do almost anything.Most might, but not Shannon.“I told my agent at IMG that I won't do nudity and lingerie, which is fine. It is better for them to know up front, so they don't send you to a casting or job that would waste your time and others… No matter how many people around you are telling you to do this or that, it is important to be you.If the Lord wants you in the business, He is more than able to supply some jobs that are suitable for you.” When prompted of her dream job Shannon diffidently recalls a Maybeline cosmetics ad when she was younger, it was then a dream vocation was born.Years later and possibly closer to her dream, one day Stewart would like to a spokesperson for a major cosmetics company or fragrance.But in her typical manner, all without sounding contrived, she is quick to point out “If it is His will, there is a way.I would not want to model if I couldn't, no matter how long I've had this dream of mine.I would give it up, if I couldn't be me!” Veteran model Jeff Calenberg, co-founder of Models For Christ, a non-profit organisation who are involved with outreach service projects and bible study and prayer groups for the fashion industry since 1984, says he admires Stewart for not being afraid to stand up and be different for Jesus Christ when most others don’t, “When the pressure is on, what do you do? Talk is cheap. Your decision to stand is what speaks out. That is the light in the darkness. Principles pay off.”Stewart is aware though that principles could cost her opportunities but she is unwilling to relent.
Secondly, Stewart is willing to endure the hard yards to succeed, and all paths seem to lead back to her faith.“Well, those comfy BMW's that everyone saw chauffeuring us around to different places on the show, are now just a memory in my mind. It is definitely not all glamorous being a model. You have long hours, you have to tread the pavement all around the city in a short amount of time trying to make it to the page-full list of castings that your agent gave you.”After the show, she stayed at the IMG Models home for new models, a New York apartment that could not possibly be more opposite to the apartment that she and the contestants lived in during the show.“It had mice and the most gigantic cockroaches that my eyes have ever seen.Girls running in and out at all hours of the day, not even considering if you were in the midst of sleeping.One shower to share with up to six girls, one bedroom with six girls sleeping in three different bunk beds, other models stealing your expensive New York food right out of the dirty refrigerator, and the list could go on and on.”It was at the apartment however, that Stewart got to reach out.“I found out that a lot of young girls were drawn to me because I was ‘different.’I read the Bible every morning and night, prayed, and spoke openly to them about the Lord if they asked. I taped scripture verses on the bottom of the bed that was over mine. Reminders were everywhere for them to see my stance on things. At night we use to share our different beliefs, not even realizing our tiredness from the exhausting day. I even got a letter from one model that was secretly placed in my bag at the airport, it said how she knew the reason she came to New York was to meet me. She had started to drift away from God and needed someone like myself to help draw her back. The Lord sometimes uses us and we don't even realize the impact we have on other people's lives.”
If it isn’t already obvious, the most decisive reason Stewart is different from her reality TV peers on any show, is her absolute trust and deep relationship with God.Because despite everything that has happened to her, Stewart is keener to talk in earnest about God than on herself and her career.For us non-models it can be staggering at how Stewart and the hundreds of models who identify as Christians look beyond the exterior focussed world of the fashion industry, shunning its idiosyncrasies and alluring delights to focus on God.Stewart has taken a reprieve from the competitive world of New York modelling to find a publisher for a book she has been writing about her modelling experiences, “My book is about my life and the experiences that the Lord has allowed me to have with modelling, my number one dream that I have had all of my life. The major theme is what will you be willing to do to reach that dream? Will you sell yourself out, compromise your standards? How far will you go if your dreams are now staring you in the face? I want others to see through my life and my testimony that it wouldn't be worth it if you have to loose yourself for those dreams.”
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