Winnie Harlow is arguably one of the most successful contestants to ever compete on America’s Next Top Model — and, yet, she did not look back on the show for Netflix’s 2026 documentary Reality Check.
After competing on ANTM in 2014, the Canadian model made history as the first person with vitiligo to walk in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in November 2018 and has appeared in campaigns for elite fashion brands such as Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger and Steve Madden. (Per the Mayo Clinic, vitiligo is a condition that causes the loss of skin color in patches. Jon Hamm and Martha Stewart also notably have vitiligo, as did the late Michael Jackson.)
Harlow dipped her toe back into reality TV by joining forces with Project Runway’s Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn as a judge on Amazon Prime Video’s Making the Cut. However, Harlow has said in the past that her time on America’s Next Top Model was not a true springboard in the fashion industry.
“After being on the show no one would book me and no agency would sign me because of the Reality Tv stigma,” Harlow claimed via Instagram in December 2018.
Keep scrolling for more on Harlow’s history with America’s Next Top Model below.
When Did Winnie Harlow Compete on ‘America’s Next Top Model’?
Winnie Harlow competed on America’s Next Top Model’s 21st cycle in 2014 under her birth name, Chantelle Brown-Young. (She briefly used the name “Chantelle Winnie” after her time on ANTM before definitively choosing the stage name “Winnie Harlow.”)
“Look at this elegance walking in,” Tyra Banks beamed as Harlow walked in for her ANTM audition.
Banks took credit for discovering Harlow through her social media posts. The ANTM host said she found Harlow visually striking since she’d “never seen vitiligo that way” before.
“It’s symmetrical fantasticness,” Banks said of Harlow’s skin condition.
Winnie Harlow in November 2025. Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Harlow stated in her audition that she wanted to compete on America’s Next Top Model to change the public’s perception of physical differences.
“For anyone who thinks negatively of me or my skin, I want to help you see the beauty in every other person who has a disability, a mark, a scar,” she explained. “How can I show you the beauty in differences?”
Harlow confided in Banks that she dropped out of high school because of intense bullying over her condition.
“People ask me if my mom was white and my dad was Black and I wasn’t ‘mixed properly in the belly,’” Harlow recalled.
Banks offered “harsh” feedback from the beginning, warning Harlow in her audition that she would not “soft tread” with her because of her condition.
“I will be just as hard on you as everyone else,” Banks vowed.
In one of her early confessionals, Harlow said she had “the advantage of people loving the underdog winning” but wanted to win ANTM on her own merits.
“I don’t need anything [extra] … I’m just going to be myself,” Harlow pledged.
Harlow ultimately made it to sixth place after being eliminated in episode 13. Keith Carlos became the first male winner of ANTM that season.
What Has Winnie Harlow Said About ‘America’s Next Top Model’?
Winnie Harlow offered a blunt assessment of how America’s Next Top Model impacted her career during a May 2018 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. She surprised host Andy Cohen when he asked about a time where she felt like she’d “made it” as a model.
“I really started after the show because that really didn’t do anything for my career,” Harlow said. “[ANTM] really doesn’t do anything for any model’s career, realistically.”
Cohen asked Harlow to clarify whether there were “opportunities that you thought were going to come” from America’s Next Top Model that “just didn’t happen.”
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “That’s why I went on. I thought it was going to be a career-starter but it was really like a reality TV show. That’s not what I signed up for.”
Asked whether she felt like she “made it in spite of the show,” Harlow clarified, “I wouldn’t like to say that because it’s still a part of my history and I am really grateful for everything I have done to get where I am. But, you know!”
Later that year, Harlow posted a thoughtful response to fan complaints that she was “ungrateful” after “shading” Tyra Banks and America’s Next Top Model.
“It has nothing to do with being ungrateful, and more over [sic] nothing to do with ‘shade’ to Tyra,” Harlow insisted via a now-deleted December 2018 Instagram post. “She was the first person of higher status to make me feel like I could be a model and not only am I grateful for that, it’s something I’ll never forget.”
The model pointed out the reality of having to largely start from scratch in building her modeling portfolio after doing ANTM.
“After being on the show no one would book me and no agency would sign me because of the Reality Tv stigma,” she went on. “Once I realized that, I stopped talking about it and grew my work base in Europe.”
Harlow singled out her brand partnership with Desigual in 2014 as a moment when she was finally taken seriously in the fashion world.
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“That was when I realized you could be successful off the show in some ventures, but I had never really seen a Top Model in the fashion industry off the show,” she argued. “I understand people know me and have seen me on ANTM, but I never really talk about it because my goal is to always be honest but never to bash anyone’s empire.”
Harlow defended her candid comments about ANTM on Watch What Happens Live, pointing out that it’s “just difficult to get around questions I usually would avoid” on a live TV show.
“My truth is, I stand by what I said and I say it because I don’t want girls thinking it’s a jump start to a modelling [sic] career because of me,” she wrote. “I learned that the best thing to do to become a model and to be taken seriously is to take plain head shots and find a reputable modelling [sic] agency.”
Harlow insisted that she was “always grateful for every experience I have to learn and grow” throughout her career.
“I also want to be real with young guys and girls whose dreams are to become models,” she concluded.
How Did Tyra Banks Respond to Winnie Harlow?
America’s Next Top Model creator and host Tyra Banks seemed to brush off Winnie Harlow’s criticism when asked about it on a December 2018 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
“I discovered her on Instagram and she is 1771467736 on this show [WWHL], so what do you think that means?” Banks quipped.
The ANTM alum denied that there was any real beef, stressing that she had “nothing but love for my girls.”
Andre Leon Talley and Tyra Banks on “America’s Next Top Model” Eric Liebowitz / The CW / Courtesy Everett Collection
“My girls come from so many walks of life and so much pain and so much hardship and so much story,” Banks noted. “And a lot of times when people express themselves in certain ways, there’s a reason. And I will respect her confidentiality and her life but I have to give love to her.”
Banks added, “They’re all my babies, they’re all my babies, even the ones that act out are still my babies.”
Is Winnie Harlow Interviewed in Netflix’s ‘Reality Check’ Documentary?
No, Winnie Harlow did not give an interview for Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.
Footage of her time on ANTM does feature in the docuseries, in addition to Tyra Banks specifically mentioning her as one of the most successful models to come from America’s Next Top Model.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is streaming now on Netflix.
