Profile for Amelia McDonell-Parry

America’s Next Top Model is kind of a reason for living. Which may explain why so many of the contestants have insane sob stories to tell during the audition process. Each year it seems like there’s always one girl who’s been through a really hard time — Tiffany grew up in the ‘hood; Amanda, the fair beauty who’s going blind; Brittany, who got into a car accident and suffered brain damage that affects her short term memory; the list goes on and on. But this year, for Cycle 10, Tyra and Company found some girls from the school of hard knocks that made our jaws drop. Dominique was in an abusive relationship; Marvita was raped; and Fatima, who was born in Somalia, was circumsized as a child. Umm, isn’t this supposed to be a light-hearted show about modeling and drag queens and being fierce? Tyra just loves to exploit the sad back stories of her contestants for ratings and very rarely does one of these women actually win. That said, we have a feeling gorgeous Fatima is going to go far and if her story, featured on a craptastic reality TV show, gets the issue of genital mutilation more attention, than so be it. [CW: America's Next Top Model] Keep reading »