#Roommates, earlier this week (and super randomly) old episodes of “America’s Next Top Model” began trending on social media, specifically the episode where “ANTM” winner Danielle Evans was confronted about her decision not to close her gap. Social media users began to hurl harsh criticism at series creator Tyra Banks for her comments—and now Danielle is speaking out.
Maybe it’s due to the quarantine providing limited options of entertainment or just people feeling extra messy these days, but for whatever reason, a 15-year-old clip from “America’s Next Top Model” featuring Danielle Evans (who went on to win the show) being asked to close her gap by the judging panel, led by Tyra Banks, has started to resurface online.
Apparently, social media critics believed that Tyra was being toxic and problematic with her comments about Danielle’s gapped teeth. After trending for the past few days, Danielle decided to add her opinion on the matter—and made it clear that she would not be attacking Tyra.
In her nearly 7-minute video, she explaining what happened during filming of the episode:
“I had one goal in mind, and that one goal was to get out of my hometown. To create a different, better life for myself. That was it, I wasn’t concerned about challenges or the things that would be set up in place to deter me and knock me off my game. I was so focused, I wasn’t even hungry, I was starved to get out. So any and everything, the opposition that came my way, I was so deaf to it because I had a goal.
I’m giving you guys the behind the behind the scenes. [The dentist] kept asking me if I wanted to close my gap. Nah, bruh. Super cool, I’m super secure with my gap. Of course, like any other kid, I’d be lying to you if I said I grew up loving my long neck, my jawbone and my gap. I did not. I hated it all. I used to cry and ask my mother for braces. We couldn’t afford braces. What did my mother say to me? She reminded me that my two grandmothers who I absolutely adored had gaps. They’re queens. ‘You’re just like your grandmothers.’”
Danielle continued, adding that once she returned from the dentist she realized that production decided to make a storyline out of her refusal to close her gap:
“…Tyra looks off camera right to production, which none of you guys ever see. I look off camera right to production, and [producer] Ken Mock gives me one of these [shrugs]. In that moment, I knew what was happening. I knew that I was basically set up and not being told that Tyra wants me to get my gap closed so that it’s good for TV.
In that moment, the 19, 20-year-old Danielle stood there realizing that it was my one way ticket out on this side, or keeping my gap on this side and going back to Little Rock, Arkansas. What you think I’m going to choose, fam?”
As of right now, Tyra has not addressed the new criticism from past “ANTM” episodes.
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