When Amanda Ware watched last year’s ANTM final at her home on Queensland’s Gold Coast, it never occurred to her that she should join the aspiring hopefuls this season. “I didn’t think I was good enough to be there — I didn’t think I was beautiful,” says the clearly gorgeous Ware, who, at just 17 years of age, already measures 176cm in height.
“I still don’t really believe I’ve won,” she told BAZAAR straight after the final, laughing. “But I suppose I’ll get there in the end.”
Despite the confessed crisis of confidence that was obvious to both judges and viewers at the start of the series, Ware, quite rightfully, has self-belief in buckets now. Two weeks before the final, when BAZAAR asked her who she thought would win, her reply was frank. “I think I’ve got all the assets they’re looking for, all the attributes that will make me a better model in the real world — my versatility, for one … I can be transformed into something completely different.”
While she’s spent years getting used to well-meaning strangers telling her she should be a model, it was ANTM that offered her a “crash course” in how difficult the job really is. “Modelling is harder than I ever thought it would be. It’s not just you working by yourself and standing there. You’ve got the photographer, who has to get the right lighting; the stylist, who makes the clothes look right; the makeup artist; the hair … Then you yourself have to have a great body shape, and make your face as alive, or as alluring, or whatever the brief is, as the client wants. There are so many different elements that have to work together.”
It also means stepping way outside your comfort zone. “In the first episode, during Australian fashion week, we were just thrown into it. There were professional models and stylists running around and I [thought], ‘OK, where’s the changing room?’ They were like, ‘Just drop your daks [in front of everyone], get changed and get out there.’ Now it’s like second nature to strip off and get on with it.” But the real “penny-drop” moment where it all “came together” in front of the camera for the first time happened during this BAZAAR shoot with Lekias, she says. “Everything just clicked into place. I was in the Céline leather dress, and the sun just came out, and we started getting these really good shots. That’s one of the most memorable moments of all the shoots.”