The Final Exit: Tara

Photography by John van der Schilden
Photography by John van der Schilden

After her second consecutive appearance in the bottom two, Tara Didon was sent home.

Which part of this experience was the most fun? Which was the most stressful?

“The most fun was to get to meet all these people, like Jay and Yasmin, and to hear what they had to say about you. They’re professionals; they know what they’re doing. Just going to the challenges was fun too. I’m going to be watching this and having a blast thinking, ‘Oh my god’ I totally remember this. This was so fun.’ I made a strong friendship with a lot of girls–Tiffany, Ebonie, Linsay–the show’s going to be over but our friendship will never be over.

“The most stressful was judging day. We wouldn’t know what to wear and just waiting was stressful. Everybody would think, ‘I know my picture is bad. I know my picture is bad.’ It was kind of stressful because you wouldn’t know what to expect and even if you thought you did a good shoot you just never knew what the judges were going to think of it. So it’s kind of good to be confident but too much is not so good. You don’t want to be down after.”

Anything you wish you could do over?

“If I had to do anything over, I would maybe redo the last two photo shoots. I would definitely want a better picture from them. Other than that, no, nothing.”

Do you think it was your turn to go? If not, who should have gone?

“I know I messed up in the last two photo shoots, but obviously I do not feel like I should’ve gone. I mean any girl who leaves is going to feel like, ‘No, I should not have gone.’ Yeah, I’m feeling the same way and if I had to choose someone to go in my place I would have to say Rebeccah. The reason why I say her, as much as I love her, is because I think she came here wanting more to be an actress than a model.”

Are you still planning to pursue a career in modeling?

“Yeah, I want to do modeling. Obviously if I had won, it would be a full time thing for me, but since I didn’t I think I’m going to have to take it slowly and concentrate on school. I would definitely love to go ahead and keep modeling–it’s my passion. Like Jay and everybody said, I have the body for it so why not?”

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