Henderson ‘Top Model’ contestant booted from show

By Diana Cox (contact)

Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008 | midnight

Courtesy of CW Network

Brittany Rubalcaba was the third contestant eliminated on this season of Tyra Banks’ show, “America’s Next Top Model.”

Las Vegas Weekly

Brittany Rubalcaba was a model on the cover of Las Vegas Weekly last year.

Brittany Rubalcaba, 19, may not be America's top model, but she is not giving up on a future modeling.

First, though, she plans to finish her education.

Rubalcaba, a Foothill High School graduate and recreation assistant at Black Mountain Recreation Center, this week was the third contestant eliminated on this season of Tyra Banks' show, "America's Next Top Model." Since coming home, Rubalcaba said, her life has returned to normal: She is going to college and working.

"I still plan on modeling in the future, after I graduate college," she said.

Rubalcaba is hoping to use what she learned from the experience.

"Coming into it, I didn't really have any modeling experience," she said. "I had done a modeling job, but it was nothing compared to what we did on the show." She appeared last year on a cover of Las Vegas Weekly, a sister publication of the Las Vegas Sun and Home News.

The most important thing she took away from the experience, she said, was the realization there are many avenues to pursue in modeling.

"There is catalog, commercial, high fashion," Rubalcaba said. "If one doesn't work for you, you can try another one."

Although she had hoped to win the title of America's Next Top Model, Rubalcaba said she was happy just to have been on the show.

On the episode in which Rubalcaba was eliminated, she received advice from Banks to read and study fashion magazines and practice. The judges agreed she was pretty, Banks said.

"It's there. We see it," Banks told Rubalcaba. "It's just not being reflected."

On the same episode, Rubalcaba got into an argument with one of the other contestants after she said she loved her mother and the other girl said she did not like hers.

"My mom has been my No. 1 fan the whole time," Rubalcaba said after returning to Henderson. Her mother, Tammy Mitchell, drove her to Los Angeles and stood in line with her for six hours, waiting to audition.

Mitchell said she prayed for her daughter while she was in Los Angeles.

"I had my concerns about the environment, but I was confident that she would be OK," Mitchell said.

Rubalcaba said she is planning on keeping in touch with her fellow contestants, who all became close while living in the Next Top Model house.

Diana Cox can be reached at (702) 990-8183 or diana.cox@hbcpub.com.