Follow Zap2it:
Zap2IT ON THE SCENE
'America's Next Top Model' winner Ann Ward: 'Different is beautiful'
At The CW's viewing party for the "America's Next Top Model" finale, Zap2it had the rare opportunity of watching alongside the two finalists. Afterward, we spoke to Dallas native and Cycle 15's high fashion winner, Ann Ward, about what it was like to relive the experience.
"I was really nervous about it," Ann, 19, told us. "But it was really, really fun, because Chelsey was there with me and we got to laugh at all the goofy things that we were doing. Yeah, it was really exciting."
Watching the finale, the girls made it really hard to pick a clear-cut winner. Even Ann thought Chelsey would run away with the title.
"During the filming of it," she says. "I actually wasn't expecting to win at all. I thought it was really close, but I thought Chelsey might have had the upper hand just because her walk was better than mine and her confidence was better than mine. So, it was a really big shock when they showed my name on the screen."
Aside from the actual announcement of the winner, the girls also got very emotional when their family made a surprise visit to the Italian set during the Cover Girl challenge. And Ann's parents were clearly surprised by the changes in her.
"Having my parents there was just really, really awesome," she says. "Just because you can just tell by looking at them that they were really proud of how far I'd come. And I had just built up my confidence so much. They were just really, really happy to see that."
Ann started the competition strong as she broke "Top Model" history by winning five back-to-back photo challenges. Then, things changed as the personality-driven challenges became more frequent and she definitely began to show signs of her confidence slipping.
"There was a lot of stress involved with all the criticizing I'd been going through with like confidence and stuff," she says. "I think at the time I just didn't really know what to do. I was kind of lost, because I didn't know how to improve on these things."
In the end, she recovered by continuing to deliver on the photo challenges and then going on to win the motion editorial challenge. "I was able to pull through to the very end," she says.
In the end, it seemed the judging panel were more interested in Ann's high fashion editorial potential. And while her height used to be a major issue for her, the competition has given her a new way of looking at her 6'-2" frame.
"I thought my height was such a bad thing about me," Ann says. "But after the competition I learned that's what made me unique. You know different is beautiful."
How do you feel about Ann's win?
Follow Zap2it on Twitter and Zap2it on Facebook for the latest news and buzz
Photo/Video credit: Jethro Nededog, Zap2it; The CW
Related pics
Zap2it Elite Sheet Must Reads from the Web's In-Crowd
Our Partners
This was the let's have self-esteem cycle. Take a freakishly thin girl with crooked teeth, big ears, a huge adams apple and call her ANTM. Not all tall guys are made to be basketball players, and not all tall girls are meant to be models...in my opinion.
I think Chelsey should have one. I definitely don't get fashion I guess, because I don't see how any girl or woman would pick up a magazine, and want to look like an 8 foot gawky girl, who looks at a camera like she's a deer in the headlights.
should have *won* that is...typo.
I have been friends with Ann for quite some time. I attended High School with her and she truly has a great personality and she is very artistic! She did struggle with people bullying and I couldn't be more proud of her right now for overcoming all of those struggles to pull through and win ANTM. I was astonished when I found out that she was on the show. Just to think, that shy Ann is now competing to be a model?! I was so excited for her! I remember being in English class with her telling her that she could totally be a model, she would just laugh it off and pass it as wishful thinking. Shes truly a beautiful person inside and out and any of our other friends would say so as well. This competition has really boosted her self confidence and I love to see the real Ann finally shine through, this time not to just her exclusive friends but to others and the world. Its still a work in progress but she has greatly improved and I feel that she really deserved to win this competition! I am so very proud of her that I cant even express it to the fullest extent!
i am glad, she is a different sort of high fashion gorgeous
"Different is beautiful" How is she different? she looks like every other tall overly skinny model.
Like Barbara, I have been really close friends with Ann for a long time (close to 8 years). Me and Ann had quite a few classes together in high school and we would always draw together, which she is amazing at. Me and all of our other friends would always tell Ann that she should definitely pursue a career in modeling but she would brush it off and continue to draw in her notebook. Ann has really blossomed into a truly magnificent woman since being on the show and I know that she has a promising career in the fashion industry. Words cannot describe how proud of her I am! Ann is absolutely amazing!!!
I'm happy Ann won. I would have been happy for Chelsey too but for a different reason. Ann won because it made for good TV, I found myself rooting for her because she's the underdog, and was the least backstabbing of all the girls. Chelsey on the other hand had the drive and knowledge it takes to actually BE a model, so in that sense she deserved it. She does have a relatively forgettable look, though. In the end, I think they got it right.
WOW now all the people from high school want to jump on the we love Ann band wagon....she's going be eaten alive by a very uncaring industry and will go running back home to hide because she is truly a joke as a model.....
ann deserved to win ANTM she is one of a kind; totally high fashion and totally one of the most "bankable" amongst all the ANTM winners, shes grown from a weed to a beautiful flower on the show. and to put it into perspective, if all the winners of ANTM should compete with one another, she'll still rise amonst them...congrats ann hope to see whats the next thing you would do...:)