"America's Next Top Model" PlusSize Winner Whitney Thompson 'Would Cry in the Shower Every Day' While Filming (Exclusive) Hedy PhillipsFebruary 13, 2026 at 6:00 AM 0 Whitney Thompson in 2008 (left); Whitney Thompson in 2024. Chelsea Lauren/Getty; Whitney Thompson/Instagram Whitney Thompson, the first plussize winner of America's Next Top Model, revisits her time on the show ahead of Netflix's Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model documentary Thompson tells PEOPLE that she cried "every day" while on the show The mom of two retired from the modeling industry after 10 years Whitney Thomp...
- - "America's Next Top Model" Plus-Size Winner Whitney Thompson 'Would Cry in the Shower Every Day' While Filming (Exclusive)
Hedy PhillipsFebruary 13, 2026 at 6:00 AM
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Whitney Thompson in 2008 (left); Whitney Thompson in 2024.
Chelsea Lauren/Getty; Whitney Thompson/Instagram
Whitney Thompson, the first plus-size winner of America's Next Top Model, revisits her time on the show ahead of Netflix's Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model documentary
Thompson tells PEOPLE that she cried "every day" while on the show
The mom of two retired from the modeling industry after 10 years
Whitney Thompson may live in history as the first plus-size winner of America's Next Top Model, but her time on the show was rife with emotionally traumatic moments.
Thompson, 38, won cycle 10 of the show in 2008 and went on to have a fruitful modeling career. But in the upcoming three-part Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model (premiering Feb. 16) Thompson recalls some of her low moments on the show, including feeling like some things were made purposefully more difficult for her as a plus-size model.
In the documentary, Thompson mentions Toccara Jones, a plus-size model from cycle 3 of the show. She notes the circumstances of Jones being eliminated from the show after she spoke out about production not providing clothes in her size for photo shoots — which Thompson says also happened to her.
Cycle 10 contestants of 'America's Next Top Model'
John Paul Filo / The CW / Courtesy Everett
"I would go to set, and they would have nothing that would fit me," Thompson says in the documentary. "They would have to cut open the back and clamp it. It just makes you feel like s--- to not be the right size. It was just demeaning."
She continues: "But there was a model named Toccara who was on previously, and she went to set, they didn't have clothes that fit her, and she kind of, you know, let them know how she felt about that. And she got cut that week. They could easily have gotten clothes that were my size, but that was a choice that they made, and I dealt with that as well as I could because if they see weakness, you're gone."
Talking to PEOPLE ahead of the documentary's release, Thompson says that behind the scenes of the show, which ran from 2003 to 2018 and originally aired on UPN before moving to The CW and then VH1, not having proper clothes for the plus-size models "felt intentional." She adds that she tried to brush it off because she was afraid she would get eliminated like Jones did.
"I just pretended like it didn't bother me, but, and I'm sure most of the girls would do this, I would cry in the shower every day because the shower is the only place that the cameramen couldn't come, so that was your safe place to release and be like, 'Why are they doing this to me?' " she tells PEOPLE. "I knew that they were trying to poke me and get something out of me, so I just played it cool, like, 'That's fine. We'll just duct tape my dress. No worries.' "
Thompson was 20 years old and wore a size 6 when she started on ANTM. In one of her early castings, which was shown on the show and is included in the documentary, Thompson tells the judges she is a "healthy" size and represents real women.
ANTM creator and executive producer Tyra Banks often spoke on the show about how it was opening people's eyes to new forms of beauty — whether it was skin tone or body type. In Reality Check, Banks reiterates that mission of inclusivity and breaking open the fashion industry.
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Whitney Thompson on 'America's Next Top Model'
Elizabeth Carrillo / The CW / Courtesy Everett
However, on ANTM, Thompson could be seen meeting with designers and casting agents who told her she was a bigger size than they'd be willing to send down the runway, confirming that the fashion industry still wasn't curve-friendly.
After she won cycle 10, Thompson's prize package included a contract with Elite Model Management, which at the time didn't have a plus-size division. Thompson tells PEOPLE that they simply didn't know what to do with her.
"I was going on castings for straight-size models," Thompson says. "I think [Elite was] surprised that I actually moved to New York to work."
As time wore on and the industry shifted, Thompson says being plus-size became more acceptable — within reason. She tells PEOPLE that if you were plus-size, you still had to look a certain way, and if you didn't quite fit that plus-size aesthetic, your agency might send you to get "padded."
"We would go with our pads to castings and photo shoots, and the padding would make our waist larger, our hips larger, but we'd still have the same jawline, arms and ankles. You could have a belly, but you still had to have a cut jawline."
Despite booking a number of big-brand gigs and photo shoots, Thompson grew tired of the constant "gain wait, lose weight, gain weight, lose weight" that she was doing to keep up with the industry and casting agents. She also had to deal with being a "personality" who came out of America's Next Top Model, which some brands didn't like, something cycle 6 winner Dani Evans also mentions in the documentary.
"You were buying who I was on Top Model," Thompson tells PEOPLE. "If a brand wants a girl to just show clothes and they don't want someone [recognizable in a catalog] because that takes away from their product, then you're not going to get that job."
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After 10 years in the industry and checking off bucket list items like modeling for Italian Vogue, Thompson retired and started a family. She's now married with two sons and lives in Florida. She and her husband opened a restaurant in Nashville and then opened a restaurant and ice cream shop in Florida (which they recently sold).
Looking back on ANTM now, Thompson has mixed feelings. She candidly calls the show, which ended its 24-cycle run in 2018, a "nightmare."
"I took Xanax before every judging," she says. "You're standing there for eight, nine hours under those hot lights waiting for people to tell you that something is wrong with how you look. It was emotionally exhausting."
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She is grateful, though, for the opportunities the show afforded her, especially the ability to be a voice for plus-size people and a gateway into opening the industry to more plus-size models. She also heard from fans all over the world who told her what an inspiration she was.
"I didn't realize at the time what a big deal it was," she says. "People saw me on the show and felt inspired. I felt like I was actually making a difference in people's lives or with brands that hadn't worked with plus-size models before. Me winning the show definitely made a shift in the fashion industry."
Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, a three-part docuseries, drops on Netflix Feb. 16.
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Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: February 13, 2026 at 04:09PM on Source: RED MAG
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