OU student Cassie Grisham has been hoping for many years that
she would get the chance to become a supermodel. With the help of
Tyra Banks, she was well on her way of making her dream a
reality.

Grisham was watching the first episode of America’s Next Top
Model when she saw the search was on for the second season. The
small town girl with no previous modeling experience put her faith
in her face, applied and was chosen.

Little did she know that she would be kicked off Wednesday’s
show in the seventh episode.

Throughout the episodes many things were revealed about
Cassie’s life.

Grisham is an international and area studies sophomore and she
currently calls Branson, Mo., her home. The Daily conducted a phone
interview to get the latest.



The Daily: “How did you get involved in modeling?”

Grisham: “Actually, I wasn’t involved in modeling until
I got picked to be on the show, but I went through an audition
process which after I watched last season they said, ‘If you
want to try out the show you can print off the application on
upn.com and send in some pictures and a video.’ And I did, so
they called me back and I got on the show.”

The Daily: “What has been the largest hurdle that you have
overcome. Have you always had a dream of modeling?”

Grisham: “It’s actually been my passion for a very long
time. I’ve been in small towns my whole life so there was
never really a way to do modeling, so this was actually the first
chance I had gotten at a real chance to be a model. So it’s
always been something that I’ve wanted to do. It’s
still something that I’m going to pursue even though
I’ve been eliminated from the show.

The Daily: “Did you find that there was a huge difference
between where you are from, Branson, Mo., and New York
City?”

Grisham: “There’s a big difference from any town and
New York City.”

The Daily: “Were you overwhelmed or was it easy for you to
make the transition?”

Grisham: “When you first get to New York and you see
everything, you are kind of overwhelmed. But if this is the place
where you are planning on living , you’ve got to get used to
it really fast and I think I did. I think on the show they kind of
portrayed me as hating New York and just really unhappy, but
I’ve been back to New York City since the taping of the show
and I absolutely love New York, so I would move here in a
second.”

The Daily: “What is the one thing you have learned from being
on the show? Is modeling everything you thought it would be or did
you find any surprises?”

Grisham: “I have wanted to do it for a long time and since I
was about 12 years old I have been reading magazines, looking at
sites, learning about these women, so I think I had a pretty good
idea of how cutthroat the industry is, and so when I came here and
I got to do the photo shoots and actually feel like a real model I
wasn’t surprised at all. They either like you or they
don’t. You either take good pictures or you don’t, so
it’s very black and white and you learn to either deal with
it or a lot of girls go home cause they can’t.”

The Daily: “What was the experience that you had living with
twelve other girls?”

Grisham: (Laughs) “Living in the close quarters that we did,
any group of girls is going to get into fights. There are going to
be rumors, and I knew that coming into it because girls are just
that way. It was hard at times, but you know, I’ve made some
friends out of it and I don’t regret anything and I’m
glad I did it.”

The Daily: “Do you think that you were portrayed correctly on
the show?”

Grisham: “A lot of the show I was portrayed as someone that
I’m not and I can’t get mad at the process because we
knew going into the show that footage was going to be edited, so I
can’t blame anyone for it. But there are a lot of things that
came out on the show that were untrue. For instance, they say that
I have an eating disorder and that’s not true. They portrayed
me as being really unhappy and kind of whiny the whole time and
kind of a loner and all of that is not true. I have friends, I
don’t have an eating disorder and yes, I had instances when I
was in New York this summer that I was unhappy. Everyone did. All
the girls were unhappy at some point in time, but they only put me
on there as the unhappy one.”

The Daily: “Some people have been shocked by the fact that
you are stripping to get through college. What do you want to say
to those shocked people?”

Grisham: “A lot of people automatically assume that stripping
is something that is horrible and they can’t believe I would
do that, but a lot of those people have money and I would like to
say to them that I don’t have the luxury of being able to
afford college. I have a lot of student loans. I have two little
brothers and an older sister that my mom is still supporting and
it’s not like I can just call my mom and ask for money, so I
took on stripping so I wouldn’t have to be a burden on my
mother. I didn’t start stripping to buy drugs or to be
wealthy because I strip. I do that to pay for school and I hope
that everyone understands that. My parents are divorced, my dad
doesn’t help at all. I pay for school with student loans and
financial aid.”

 
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