Remember back in the innocent days of America’s Next Top Model, when the most controversial thing about a winner was that she’d made a sassy remark to Nigel Barker?

Yes, before we had the win of Jaslene Gonzalez (who, even if you don’t think her second-time around audition is particularly sketchy, must be noted to be among the most-questionably qualified for the spokesmodel part of the role) and Saleisha Stowers, we had CariDee English.

 

CariDee’s bubbly personality sometimes bubbled a bit too over-the-top, including that comment to Nigel in Spain, and she could photograph a touch hard or older, but all in all, her America’s Next Top Model win seemed to please many of the viewers of that season. So what has CariDee been up to lately?

CariDee’s taken advantage of her America’s Next Top Model limelight to help raise awareness about psoriasis, a skin disease that she’s battled and that she was open about on the show.

She recently headed down to Miami to participate in a walk-a-thon about the disease. While in the city, she talked about her prior experience as a model in Miami.

“I used to model in Miami,” CariDee said, “I lived here my senior year of high school and worked with Mega Models. They sent me home immediately after they found out I had psoriasis, a hereditary skin disease that I have had for 16 years, that’s now under control by medication. I moved on and eventually ended up being America’s Next Top Model, and now I’m the spokeswoman for psoriasis around the world.”

If someone does want to try to make it in the modeling industry with a start in Miami, she says, the place to go to find an agent are the “malls and the beach.” She continues, “I hear agents from Elite go all the time to scout.”

But the best piece of advice she has to give is, “Have a strong heart and mind, as this industry will love you and spit you out in a second.”

– Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist

Source: MiamiHerald

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

 

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Staff Columnist, BuddyTV