Last week, I got to chat with Whitney, the first plus-sized winner of "America's Next Top Model." She spoke about how she decided to get into the competition after her niece complained of being so fat when she was just normal. That led to her reading about how almost half of 9-year-olds have been on a diet, and asking herself why isn't anyone doing anything about that. She quoted Gandhi's bit about being the change you wish to see in the world as what motivated her. "I don't want my cousins growing up with no role model. It worries me that her generation may be a lost one because all of her role models are either in rehab or recovering from eating disorders. I just thought somebody should change that."

Here's more of what she had to say:

On who was her biggest competition:

Anya by far. It's so funny because Anya and I are best friends, and we kind of had an ongoing joke because literally every single week, Anya got called right before me. It was Anya, then Whitney. [On checking out this chart, I have to admit that I was surprised that this statement wasn't really much of a stretch. - R] There was only one time when I was called before her, and that was when I was called first. She was definitely my biggest competition.

On what she thought when she was named "ANTM":

I had to make sure that was me. I had to hear the name and see the picture and make sure I didn't pull a Derek Zoolander. But yeah, it's absolutely so exciting. I was so surprised. And Anya was happy for me too, which was so great, because having someone who's so close to you, you don't want them to be sad at that moment and she was genuinely so happy that I won, which was incredible because I don't ever want to bring her down.

On what was toughest about being on the show:

I think what was most challenging was not having any support system. I'm so used to having my family and my friends there to back me up, people to talk to. But even though you do make friends in the house, at the end of the day, those people are still your competition. So you've got great friends, but if they fall down, guess what? You're going to keep running. Or they are. That was just the hardest thing, because you really have no one there supporting you, saying, "It's OK. You can still win."  Because that girl wants to win. That was just really difficult.

On being labeled as fake:

Frankly, the judges only see you for 10 minutes once a week. So the judges don't ever really get a feel for your personality. And it's so difficult to prove to someone that you're not fake. That's a critique that it's like, well, if they say you're not dressing well, you can change it. If they say you're fake, what do you do? [Laughs] And so there really was nothing I could do except be myself, which I think if you watch the episode, you'll see that I am. Frankly, if I was fake, people probably would have liked me more. [Laughs] But I'm not. I'm pretty raw and realistic. I hope the viewers get a sense of that because I'm absolutely not fake. ... What a difficult critique to rebut. It's like no I'm not and then what. That was just horrible, because I'm the least fake.

On what she would say to critics:

It's almost humorous. The rumors I've heard thus far are pretty funny, about having plastic surgery and having chin implants, all this stuff. I'm like, "What??" Of course, people are going to naysay. "She'll never be a real model. She'll never make it in the fashion world." And to that, there's nothing I can do but work, work my butt off and make it in the fashion world. That's what I'm doing. I've already booked things with Elite, and I'm having a good time with them. It's all happening. I always say that the best revenge is winning well. So to the naysayers, look for my billboards, look for my magazine covers, look for what's coming up. You can keep putting me down, but it's not going to stop my work ethic.

On whether she is really a "plus-sized"/full-figured model:

Well, if you look at a regular model, they're a size 2, size 4 maximum. And I am not. I'm a size 10. And I don't ever plan on being a 4. I never have been and I never will be a 4. So in that sense, when you put me next to a model who's a size 2, and I'm five times bigger than her, that's when you're considered full-figured. [Now, I can't claim any expertise in women's sizes, but I'm guessing that a size 10 isn't five times the size of a 2. - R] I love that Tyra corrected it and said full-figured rather than plus-sized, because to an average woman, I'm not plus-sized. I'm not bigger than the average woman. I'm actually considered smaller. I think the average size is 14. However, in the modeling industry, I'm far bigger and I actually do have a figure, which you notice that the majority of supermodels other than the ones from Victoria's Secret who are emaciated with breast implants, which I don't call a body, they don't have a figure, per se. They don't have hips, they don't have breasts, they don't have butts. It's more appropriate to say "full-figured" because I have one.

On changing the mentality of young girls:

All of my prizes really do help me do that. It's really getting the word out there that I'm a girl, that I'm a size 10, and I've been been through the adversity and I've heard the "If you only lost 50 pounds, you'd be so beautiful." I've heard it all, and I've only said, "No. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to stay my size and you can call me when you change your mind. In the meantime, I'm going to go eat something." It's so important to stay positive through all of that. I want people, even girls and boys who don't watch the show, to see me on the cover and say, "Hey, that girl's twice the size of the girl on the cover next to her, but she's a model." And a lot of girls do define what beautiful is by what the modeling industry says. It's horrible, I think, but hey, if I'm a model, then hopefully they can say, "They think that girl's beautiful and she's not starving herself," and hopefully look up to that. I've already received e-mails from boys as well as girls all over the world saying, "I've sought help for an eating disorder because of you" or asking me how I found confidence and things like that. That's really the best reward that I've received.

On the friends she made:

Anya is one of my best friends now. I just visited her in Hawaii, actually. I've talked to Marvita, Stacy Ann, Claire, Lauren, who else lived in my house? I stay in touch with a lot of girls. I just went out with Fatima and Anya the other night. We've all become really close after the show is over.

On advice for people who want to be on the show:

I can tell you exactly what I did. I went to my audition in Orlando with I think about 1,000 girls there. Every girl in my audition, you have to go around in a circle and say your name, height and weight. And all these girls said, "I'm a size 8" and they sounded really sad about it. I was the last girl, and when they got to me, I was like, "I'm 5'10" and I am a size 10 and I love it!" I was excited I was bigger rather than "Oh, I'm so sad about my body." My body rocks. You guys can not bring me down, essentially. I think they really liked that. It's true. That's how I feel. So go in confident. If you're not confident, they're not going to believe in you.

On Fatima, who said that Whitney sets a bad example for plus-sized models:

She's such a lovely girl. [sarcastically] Fatima doesn't know a lot about plus-sized modeling. She's not a plus-size model. She's actually a little too skinny to be a regular-sized model, and that's saying something. Being a plus-sized model doesn't mean that you are fat by any means. It means you are regular. It means you have breasts. It means you are a size C-cup, OK. It means you're a size 10 in pants. It doesn't mean that you're a Double-D and you weigh 300 pounds.  I think a lot of people don't understand that, and that's one of the reasons I wanted to go on the show as a plus-sized model, because so many people are like, "The fashion industry, blah, blah, blah, you have the big girls and you have the small girls." Well, no. The big girls aren't big by any terms. If they were walking down the street, you'd be like, "That girl's hot." But if they're walking down the runway, she's Fatty Fatty Eats-A-Lot. It's a completely different perception.

On her plans to be a successful model:

Never say no. I've completely mentally and physically prepared myself to do everything I have to do to get out there. And I'm the only plus-sized girl that Elite has at their agency. They don't even represent plus-sized girls, which is so exciting and great, because they're already booking me for things, people are already calling them. I'm being booked for things that are editorial and high fashion as well, because that's their main thing, which I love. I love, love, love it. I'm trying to do everything, and I think that's great because I really want to get my image out there. The fact is, the publicity from the show has made it so that people do want to see me. As long as I have a fan base, I'm going to continue to work. It's just important in that sense. You know, it is a total crapshoot. You never know what's going to happen. But I'm really confident I'm going to have a successful career in the modeling world.

On her mentality going into the show:

You know, I didn't even consider going home early on. I don't know how well thought-out my plan was. ... I try not to let negative thoughts get into my mind in that show because there is so much negativity going on. You can't compare yourself to the other girls, which I know the other girls did with each other. They were constantly "Oh, but her pictures are so much better than mine." You can't do that. You have to completely clear that out and know that your biggest competition is yourself. The only thing I could do is be the best me, and that's what I really focused on the entire time. Which I don't know if that was a good play or not, but I did win, so it worked for me.

On her favorite and least favorite photo shoots:

My favorite photo shoot was definitely the final Cover Girl photo shoot, the shoot where I didn't have to wear beef panties or have people throw paint at me. It was totally just beauty and a breath of fresh air to be able to just do a photo shoot and not have a billion hectic things going on or smelling like dead carcass or any of those. My least favorite photo shoot, hmm, that's a good question. Probably the beef one. How could anyone enjoy that? Beef panties? Really? The smell was so bad. It was just so gross. It was like, "Who wants lunch?" [Laughs] And the blood stained my hair. It was just horrible. I would say that one.

On photos showing a thinner Whitney on the Internet:

There's pictures of me in a bikini in like 10th grade, and then, even I'm a size six. But that was four years ago. I've been pretty curvy since I hit puberty and all that.

On drama with Dominique:

We cleared the air when we were in Rome even. On the last photo shoot with Nigel, we were in the hair and makeup room together. It was just us. We both kind of said, "In another time and another place we would have been really good friends." It's just that living with each other we have really big personalities and they just clashed. Dom and I were like, "That was stupid." But I guess it made for really good TV, so whatever. But we're fine now. It was stupid. Funny to watch, but stupid.

On what she enjoyed about Rome:

I loved driving around the first day and being able to see all the ancient Roman ruins. I was a total nerd and member of the Latin Club. I studied it for years. I was so excited to go to Rome and so excited to see the history there. I know it's like, "Whitney, you're a loser," but it's the truth.

On how she's grown through being on the show:

I definitely think the show has changed me. I've done a lot of growing up. I'm 20 years old. I'm not that old, and I think being out on my own and not having anyone else to depend on but myself really kind of forced me to grow up and figure out things about myself. There's definitely things I need to work on, but yeah, it's a greater independence that I have.

On how fans can contact her:

I have a Facebook, which I probably shouldn't even have, but I had to have one because my fans were all over, and I really wanted to be able to get in touch with them. So I do have a Facebook, but it's not under my name. It's under Whitt Dizzle. People always make fake ones. Originally I was like, "I don't want everyone to be able to find me," because I have people that write mean things as well as nice things. But I have 700 people who have found me in Facebook under Whitt Dizzle, which is really funny. I don't know how it happened. But it's W-H-I-T-T-Space-D-I-Z-Z-L-E, and that's at facebook.com. I will add everyone and if you write me an e-mail, I will respond.

On whether she worried that she couldn't break "ANTM's" plus-sized barrier:

I forced myself to stay super optimistic during the show. The thing that makes me different from the other plus-sized models is that I'm not just going in saying, "I'm really pretty and I don't want to diet. So I'm going to be a plus-sized model." That's not my mentality at all. I'm saying I'm here to change things so that little girls have someone to look up to. I'm here to fight the eating-disorder battle that millions of people are having. It's everywhere and it's all over. I'm just standing up and saying, "That's not OK." And frankly, I can't fail. I will not fail. Because if I fail, who's my 13-year-old cousin going to look up to? And what's going to happen to those 9-year-old girls who are on diets? So I said it on the show: failure is not an option. It's so true. Even though there were times when I felt like, "OK, this is it. I'm going home," it was still a point right after that when they called my name where I was like, "OK, let's not do that again."  Keep going on, keep going on, and don't think about those negative things.

On why she thinks she beat out Anya:

I think a big chunk of it had to do with presentation and personality. I love Anya to death. She's one of my best friends in the world. She's so great. But I think that the judges kind of saw her -- I don't want to say anything mean, because it's not necessarily true. But the judges...I don't know. Her personality looks a little too light-hearted sometimes, you know what I mean. Not serious enough. She's so sweet, but does she have the drive. I think the judges could see how badly I wanted it and how hard I had worked. I broke a lot of barriers on the show. It wasn't just that I was the first plus-sized model to win. I was the first plus-sized model ever called first in panel or second in panel. I did a lot of barrier-breaking on the show, which is great and exciting. I think the judges saw my work ethic and saw how hard I was working and that's something that probably had a lot to do with it.

On what she was thinking just before she won:

Before in panel, they went through Anya's and my pictures and they did this in front of us. They went through each one and said what they thought about them. The majority of the time, Anya's picture was better than mine. I'm a very logical person. Anya's never been in the bottom two. This is my fifth time in the bottom two. So I thought, logically, it's not going to happen. I'm going home. Anya's a great friend of mine, she'll be a great model. But it (would have been) a great disappointment if I had gotten sent home, because I felt like I had such a great message I was trying to get out there. It was funny because after that, after the judges ripped me to shreds, we went in the back while the judges deliberated. Anya and I, we were so funny because we started singing "Little Mermaid" songs and we were dancing around trying to keep our hopes up. But when you see Anya's face and Anya's reaction after the show's up, she's genuinely so happy for me that I won, which she's just a really great friend.

On being called a "ham" by Paulina:

I don't necessarily disagree that I have a very outgoing personality, and I've done theater before in my life so I understand where Tyra says I have a presence. Paulina sees that as showing off, which if you're in a runway show, wearing a $100,000 Versace gown, I feel personally you should look confident in it. [Laughs] But I think if you watch the other episodes, it does seem Paulina has something against me. I don't know what that is. I don't know why. I thought she was really great, personally, but apparently she doesn't think the same thing about me. I don't really know how to respond to that.

On the notion that Whitney won because Tyra finally wanted a plus-sized winner:

I feel like if Tyra wanted a plus-girl to win, she wouldn't have waited five years to do it. I mean, really? It would have been better publicity for the show if she had done it like Cycle 3. And  I think people should watch the show. Because if you watch it, in the beginning, Tyra doesn't really like me. She says a lot of bad things about me, even when all the other judges are like, "Oh yeah, I like this picture, and this one's great and this one's great," Tyra is like, "Uh, I don't know about it." I'm like, "What?" So if you watch the show, you can figure it out that's a stupid thing to say.

On her growth as a model:

You learn everything. You learn how to work your body, work your face. You learn how to deal with people being nice, being mean, being everything, and hair and makeup and styling. You learn every in and out of the industry, which is absolutely great. I learned a tremendous amount on the show. I kind of went in with the mentality of a sponge, soak up everything. That's what I did. And hopefully now I have all the tools to be a top model and really make it in this industry.

On how all four semifinalists messed up the paparazzi shoot:

That shoot was just difficult, because every single week, they were like, "You're fake, you're fake, you're fake." And then you get to the shoot, and they're like, "OK, now pretend that you're this." I'm like, "What?" You want me to be real. Tyra always does that to people though. With the dancers, she's like, "You're too dancey, you're too dancey." And they go do a photo shoot and she's like, "You weren't dancey enough. You're cut."  [Laughs] You have to find a happy medium, which for me was hard and took a long time. I love Nigel to death and Jay and Nigel both tried to help as much as they can. But all four of us really fell apart on that shoot. I don't know if it was us or just kind of the idea of the shoot. When all four of us can't get it, maybe it's not our fault.

- posted by Raoul