She may look like a time-traveling old Hollywood starlet, but The Circle Season 3 star Ava Capra has a fierce past as a contestant on America's Next Top Model. The influencer/singer-songwriter doesn't mention her reality show credentials on the Netflix series, but fans of ANTM no doubt recognized those cheekbones from 2015's Cycle 22. A then 19-year-old Ava introduced herself as a "cool Christian" and flower child to Tyra Banks (thankfully, she's gotten better at filming an intro package since then), before becoming the fourth contestant to be eliminated that year.
Now 26, Ava is older, wiser, and seemingly more self-assured than she was back when she was pursuing a modeling career fulltime. It seems in the intervening years she has traded in her dreams of becoming one of Banks' chosen ones in favor of pursuing a career in music. In the meantime, she's doing quite nicely for herself as an influencer (currently, she has 227k followers on Instagram alone), model, and sometimes actor.
Being on The Circle will no doubt raise her profile even higher, which makes now the perfect time to look back on Ava's first foray into the world of reality TV. And ya'll, prepare yourselves, because frankly the whole experience looks like it was more than a little bit traumatic for teenage Ava.
Ava's First Exposure To The Real World Was On National TV
Prior to appearing on ANTM, Ava was homeschooled, which led to her living a fairly sheltered life by her own admission. During her season, she revealed living in the house full of models and all of the drama that came with them took a toll on her, because she simply wasn't used to being around so much chaos. In an interview for The CW, she shared that she had previously appeared in a few print ads and commercials prior to being cast as a model hopeful, but she certainly hadn't been dropped into a house full of ultra-competitive twentysomethings before.
During her time on the show, Ava got candid about not being entirely sure how to navigate the "real world" (not that ANTM is a great representation of normal life). Still, she rocked the first few weeks of the competition before the drama back at the house began to shake her confidence. In the end, Banks and the judges sent a tearful Ava home after she failed to give them the level of ferocity they wanted during a shoot.
The ANTM Stylists Gave Ava A Mullet Before She Was Sent Home
Say what you will about The Circle, but as of yet, the show has never forced anyone into cutting their hair into a mullet. The same cannot be said for ANTM. Shortly before she was eliminated, the show's stylists made the truly mindboggling decision to chop off Ava's hair and give her a style favored by '80s punk rockers and Dukes of Hazzard extras.
And look, I'm not saying mullets can't on occasion look cool — David Bowie was cool personified with his business in the front, party in the back cut — but poor Ava looked lost after her haircut. In fact, it wasn't until the stylists gave her an edgier look that her confidence seemed to crumble. It could be a total coincidence, but mullet-gate could very well be to blame for her ANTM run being cut short. Hell, the judges even had the audacity to say she looked like a housewife with her hair and fur collar during the elimination, which excuse me, but you did this to her, people.
One thing is certain: Ava's definitely not still wearing the style today. She entered The Circle with a medium length, curly cut and her big sister, Chanel, by her side. Granted, she's still struggling to stay in the competition — she's been eliminated twice in the first four episodes — but at least no one is forcing her to get a truly ill-advised haircut on this particular reality show.
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Images: Netflix; The CW