LNTM- Lithuania’s Next Top Model (Monday, Sept 13)

Today was the team photo shoot. Stop right there- this was not, whatsoever, the typical head shot of each person. Nor was it doing a few poses for a billboard or magazine. This was an entirely different experience. I was told that it was going to be something fancy for the media guide where we would be dressed up and take individual pictures around Kaunas. Little did I know what I was getting into….

A girl who seems to be like our media relations person came and picked me up and we headed to the studio to get hair and make-up done. Yes, I felt a little like a celebrity being “in hair and make-up”. As the make-up girl was sizing me up, I was nervous, imagining her thinking, wow I’ve got a lot of work to do on this one. Ha. I have to say though that I owe my saving grace of confidence to my loving Brown family and their admiration of my cheek bones. Sitting in that chair, I knew that if I had nothing else going for me, I at least had those to work with! :) Also, while getting my make-up done, all I could think about was how I felt like I was a kid again, at a sleepover (STN!) with my cousins, stealing our aunts’ make-up to do make-overs. Of course I was always against it because I was such a tomboy, but I can now say thanks for prepping me for this Kate, Linz, Em, Court and Laur! :)

After about half an hour of make-up, with at least 20 minutes spent on just my eye shadow, I moved on to get my hair done. This turned out not to be just a simple prom-like up-do, but a full-on, model-style hairdo. This lady went to work, starting with crimping all my hair (who even owns a crimper anymore?!?!), and teasing, hair spraying and bobby-pinning like a bat outta hell. And although I’ve had some amazing teases in my life (Mattie (when I passed out) and Carrie for the wedding!), this lady was a master teaser. After getting all done up and catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror (Weird!), they dressed me in this big light blue wool poncho type thing and we set off for a little park area on Liberty Boulevard (the amazing tree-lined street). Another girl on the team, Rima, and I went at the same time but they were all individual shots. Let’s just say that I literally felt like I was on America’s Next Top Model. I was trying to pose, they were telling me where to look at and turn my head….it was crazy. I kept waiting for Tyra to jump out of somewhere and kept wishing that the photographer would have looked more like hunky Nigel Barker…sigh. And, I have to admit that while I was supposed to look serious I cracked up a few times, thinking about what everyone at home would be saying seeing me attempt to model. Ha. The whole thing only took maybe 10 minutes to shoot, but it was truly a day I’ll never forget. And now when people stare at me because I’m so tall and ask if I’m a model I can say yes! :)  (And yes, the usual questions after the stares are “Dang girl, you hoop?!”, but the model question comes up about 5% of the time.)