I’ve watched every season of America’s Next Top Model (that’s seventeen, if you’re out of the loop--yes,I'm pathetic), but I can hardly remember any of the contestants. They sort of disappear back into suburbia, to sign photographs of themselves and judge preteen beauty contests at the mall, I suppose.

Even when I was looking through some of the models who “made it” in the modeling industry, I couldn’t remember most of them. And I didn’t really understand how their single shoots meant that they had made it. Nevertheless, let’s take a look at what some contestants of ANTM have done since their time on the boob tube:

Adrianne Curry. Tyra hates Adrianne Curry because she made a million bucks on a Playboy shoot and now is married to Peter Brady (Christopher Knight, technically). She’s pretty grungy and nasty, and I’m pretty sure doesn’t model in the high-fashion campaign Tyra intended for her girls. But she did make $250,000 on the reality television show My Fair Brady (obviously with her husband).

Yaya DaCosta. The Cycle 3 runner-up has made one of the best careers for herself of any of the models. She’s had significant roles on television shows like Ugly Betty and All My Children, and even starred with Antonio Banderas in the movie, Take the Lead and in The Kids Are All Right as dad Paul’s lover. She’s done enough now that nobody remembers her as that girl from ANTM, not even Yaya herself.  

Nicole Linkletter. Nicole Linkletter is the fresh-faced, North Dakotan winner of Cycle 5. Linkletter has moved up from her prize package from ANTM and is now signed with Elite Model Management and several agencies in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. She also judged the Miss USA 2006 paegant and appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine.

Whitney Thompson. The winner of cycle 10, Whitney Thompson, was the first plus-sized girl to make it too far on ANTM. She’s done pretty well for herself, modeling for the plus-sized lines for JCPenney, Forever 21, Torrid and Saks Fifth Avenue. Obviously, she won’t make it into high-fashion shows until the industry changes.

Elyse Sewell. A model that I bet nobody remembers from Cycle 1 of ANTM has made the most waves in the high fashion industry of any of the Top Model girls. Still, it was a rather sad turn-of-events: Sewell dropped out of medical school to become a high-fashion model in Asia. Thank god we gained a new high fashion model! We need more of those than we need silly old doctors.