Episode 2

The morning after Episode 1 was actually one of my favourites. I was told to wear the same outfit as the day before, for continuity, but this time I tried a little harder with a tiny bit of make up and put my hair up. I turned on the TV for company and watched Monday morning TV, you know those really early morning breakfast shows? It was one of those. The weather was beautiful outside, with a beautiful blue sky and a slight chill in the air. I packed my suitcase and was told to go downstairs for breakfast when I was ready.

All of us remaining 11 girls were off ice that morning, meaning we were allowed to speak to each other. There were no cameras, and all of us were high off the buzz of making it through the first elimination. Even though we had only known each other for a day, we all felt very close due to the fact we had no contact with anybody else. It's a weird kind of a bond that you grow in a situation like Britain's Next Top Model, as not many people get to experience it. We sat around drinking orange juice and eating our fry ups, with our cases all ready to go.

Once the taxi's had arrived, we all scrambled in the cars, excited to go to the Britain's Next Top Model house. In my taxi was Georgie, Efi and Shaunagh, I think? It's difficult to remember when you've been in so many over a short period of time! I remember Efi pointing out where she used to live, and her old school. It was crazy driving around London, watching the world pass by, knowing that nobody knew what you were up to. We started to drive towards Hyde Park, an area that I feel very comfortable with in London. We passed the Albert Hall and went down a road which led to a mews. All the taxis arrived pretty much at once, and we all got out of the cars and grabbed our bags. It was so cold that morning, so we all stood shaking from one leg to another trying to keep warm. Some of the girls had microphones put on them, and we were told to line up down the road. Shaunagh and I were stood at the front, and were told to walk down the road and enter the house. Finally, we were going to see the house!

Shaunagh and I opened the door, revealing two wooden stairways. The downstairs one led to the kitchen, lounge and one bedroom area, and the upstairs led to more bedrooms and the garden. It was beautiful! I've never been so excited to see a house in my life. Everything was immaculate, and was furnished with bright furniture and decor. Downstairs on the kitchen worktop, there were also bags with each of our names on with a personalised caricature and loads of goodies inside them! This included bikinis, underwear, vitamins, water bottles, hair brushes, body lotion, moisturisers, a Magnitone face cleaner and much more. In each of the bedrooms we also each had a bag FULL of spectrum make up brushes each, and a bag of Show hair products too! Not to mention the table full of Lola products and PERSONALISED ONESIES. Yes, we all looked like teletubbies in them, it was awesome. Also, we each got to pick our own room which was so exciting. I was in a room downstairs by the kitchen with Shaunagh, Efi and Georgie with a en suite. It was goals. The kitchen cupboards were full of goodies, like m&ms, jaffa cakes, crisps, fruit, biscuits, risottos, Quorn goodness, orange juice, galaxy bars and so so much more. I felt like a kid in a sweet shop.

Something about the BNTM house that you may not expect, is that there were no clocks. This meant that without asking a researcher, we had no idea what time it was. It sounds simple, but this was so disorientating when there were barely any windows in the house. Another thing is, the TV's in the house didn't actually work, and even if they did we wouldn't be allowed to watch them. There was no media of any kind to indulge in, including books, radios, music or anything of that nature. The only entertainment we had was each others company.

After all of us had settled in with our cases and taken in the amazing surroundings, we realised there was a spare bed in Kira, Ivy and Cirrah Leah's bedroom. We all sat around the lounge area chatting about the house, and how there was an extra bed, when the doorbell rang. Shaunagh leapt to her feet and ran up the stairs to the door. We all didn't have any idea what was about to happen, was one of the girls from yesterdays elimination coming back? Was Abbey coming to see us? Theories were being spread around the room like wildfire, but none of us were sure. Shaunagh came running down the stairs with someone behind her. As I saw her black flared trousers, I was sure I knew who it was. "OMG it's Abbey!" I exclaimed. However, I was wrong. It was Eleanor from Cycle 11! We all started screaming with excitement, what was going on?! She came and sat with us, and that's when she let us know that she would be the 12th contestant for this cycle of Britain's Next Top Model.

Eleanor had had to leave the competition last cycle due to an issue with her eye meaning that she was unable to continue. BNTM had given her a second chance, and you could tell she wasn't going to waste it. She had her game face on and was ready for the battle to become Britain's Next Top Model to begin.

Once we had all introduced ourselves, we showed Eleanor around the house. There was one part of the house, however, that we had not been allowed to go to you. Just past Louisa and Sophia's room, was another stair case. We were now allowed to access this part of the house, so we all scurried up the stairs. We honestly could not believe our eyes. There in front of us was the infamous Elimination Room, right at the top of our house! It seemed so surreal, this is where a LOT of tears would be shed. One thing we all noticed very quickly, however, was that there was not only 3 chairs, but 4. Was there another judge? Georgie was quick to come up with the theory of a guest judge, which seemed super exciting.

The rest of the day was probably the most relaxed of all of my days on Britain's Next Top Model. We were split into two groups, one which went off first to shoot the title sequence, and the other group completed bish bash for episode 1. Bish bash is what the clips of us talking in the green room are called. I was in the bish bash group, and once we had all finished shooting we were sent over to film and shoot our leather jacket title sequence. It was a really nice day, because there wasn't much filming and it all felt very relaxed. This was not the norm on Top Model.

For tea, Louisa and Sophia prepared a vegetarian stir fry I think, and we all sat around the table and ate together. It was a really fun bonding day, and I felt super comfortable by the end of it. The researchers, who in this episode were Ryan and Anita, advised us to get an early night and to try and not stay up all night gossiping. This didn't exactly go to plan. Once the researchers had gone to bed, Shaunagh, Efi, Georgie and I stayed up chatting for ages, it was like a sleepover! Also, sneaky little me had found a clock hidden in a drawer in the kitchen, jackpot! I hid the clock in our room so we would always know what time it was.

After the girls had gone to sleep, I had a bit of a mare. I honestly could not sleep. I was so exhausted from the past two days, but I think all of the adrenaline had got to me and I couldn't sleep until 4am. This isn't great when we were being woken up at 7 and out the door at 8.

That morning was a bit of a blur for me. We all got ready super quick and bustled into the taxis. We were then taken to a children's nursery in London, which obviously made us all think that we were going to be shooting with kids. We were kept there for an hour or so, all huddled round in this childrens play room, having coffee and eating sweets. That's one thing you really don't realise when watching the programme, the majority of the time you are waiting around for everything to be ready. 75% of my time on the show was probably spent waiting for things haha!

After a few hours, we were taken out of the nursery and across the road to a studio, where judge Max, designer Savannah Miller and photographer David Yeo were waiting for us. We were then told that we would be shooting the Debenhams autumn winter 17 PR accessories look book! I was so excited, I couldn't wait to get stuck in.

We went straight to hair, make up and styling and I was one of the first girls to be done. I was given a gorgeous red dress to wear with little brown boots, and I got to wear my first ever pair of false lashes. This doesn't sound exciting, but to me it was haha! Once I was ready I tested out a few poses in the mirror, and was given a couple of bags that I would be modelling. I felt quite confident, even though I had no clue what I was doing, and couldn't wait to give it a go.

I was taken over to the studio and shown a mood board of what the client wanted. I skipped back and forth from one leg to another, something I do when I'm nervous, and waited for Eleanor to come out from her shoot. When it was my turn, I entered the room and tried to be as friendly and excited as possible. To be fair, I was very excited so that part wasn't hard. This is when Savannah told me that I was wearing her collection, no pressure there then! I was sat on this big white block and told that they wanted me to look angular and straight, so that is what I tried to do. Throughout the shoot I seemed to be receiving good comments from everyone in the room, and this just made me feel more and more confident. I really started to relax and tried to change up my look in every frame, and it worked! I came out feeling so happy with myself and like I had really done well.

After all of us had completed our shoots, we were asked to go back up to the studio. We wondered if best photo of the day was going to be announced, and maybe awarded immunity? Our ideas couldn't have been any further from the truth. Max was actually telling us that the hair dressers had noticed an outbreak of nits among the girls! Classy. This meant that all of us, including the team and Max, had to wash our hair with product to get rid of any chance of anybody still having them. To be honest, I wasn't too fussed. I can confirm however, that I did not have nits haha! I don't really feel like it was that big of a deal, however I can understand that for some it can be scary and not nice. Different folks different strokes. I remember when we got home sitting on the bed with Sophia for an hour trying to calm her down. Bless her, she wasn't crying over the nits. She was upset because she felt she had offended the other girls by being scared of the nit drama. Everyone has different fears and things that make them freak out, we just have to try and understand each others and support them.

The next day we were taken to a theatre in London. I was buzzing when I realised where we were, as I'm such a big fan of going to see shows. We were then taken backstage and onto a big set which we realised was for Kinky Boots, aah! I had only heard good things about this show and knew my sister would be so jealous. She's just received a First in her Dramatic Arts degree, so theatre is right up her street.

Models 1 international scout, Robyn, was there to greet us when we arrived on the set. She told us that she was going to be critiquing our walks. Oh dear. I knew that my walk only a couple of days ago had flopped, so I knew I had to change it up. We were put into groups of three and asked to walk along the stage, with the other girls watching us from the seats below. I was in a group with Sophia and Louisa. We walked for Robyn, and she spotted straight away that Lou has a dance background. She then went on to say the only bad thing about our walks was the whole "Hands on the hips" movement at the end. Result, I didn't get completely told off!

We were then asked to take our seats in the theatre and told to watch the stage. Out came two AMAZING men from the cast of kinky boots, who strutted the runway for us. Honestly, they were mind blowing. It really made me realise how awful I am at catwalking, as they seemed to do it with ease. After they stunned us with their performance, they told us that for our challenge, WE would have to do the same but in kinky boot heels! I was terrified, what if I fell? We all giggled as we put on the huge sparkly shoes. I would have loved to have kept them, they were gorgeous.

One by one we had to walk in front of the Kinky Boots cast members and Robyn, no pressure there then. We actually walked twice for them. I remember almost falling over going up the stairs, and blowing kisses as I went down the runway. I tried my best, but wow I looked silly. I remember Cirrah Leah and I laughing behind the set at how I'd kissed my hand and then smacked my bum at the end of the runway. Why did I do that! At least it wasn't shown on TV.

Once we had all walked, we were told to line up to find out who the winner was. Shaunagh, Cirrah Leah and Kira were told that they had impressed them on the runway, however Efi was crowned the winner of the challenge! I know this meant a lot to Efi, as she hadn't felt she had done well in the shoot the day before. For winning, Efi was awarded 2 tickets to see Kinky Boots that night, and immunity from the next elimination! Efi was allowed to pick one girl to go with her that night, so she picked Georgie. I remember Shaunagh, Efi, Georgie and I being in the taxi on our own before we entered the theatre, and we agreed that if any of us won the challenge there would be no hard feelings if we weren't chosen to go along with the winner to whatever the prize was. I must admit, I was jealous, but also so happy for the girls. They were also both so deserving, and I couldn't wait for them to get back to the house and tell me all about it.

The next day was our first elimination in the house. We all got dressed up and made a bit more of an effort than usual. For me, this meant a blue dress and actually putting some mascara on. I don't know why, but apart from for Eliminations and make up that the make up artists used, I didn't really wear much make up whilst on the show. I just couldn't be bothered I don't think! Eliminations, regardless of how long they might appear to be on tv, take a whole day of filming where we have to be stood in the elimination for multiple hours without leaving. They also include a lot of time 'on ice', so they're not the most fun days in the world. We were all taken up to the elimination room, where we were met by Abbey, Nicky, Max, and guest judge Giles Deacon. One by one we were shown our final shot by the judges, and also our Kinky Boots walk, and both were critiqued. My critique went quite well, with Abbey, Max and Giles being a fan of my picture. Max also told me that I was the clients favourite, and that Savannah wanted to sign me for a campaign there and then! I felt so relieved, and was actually very happy with my photo. However, Nicky didn't seem to like it. 3/4 is pretty god though, right?

After standing in the elimination room for about 2-3 hours, we were allowed out whilst the judges deliberated. We were taken to a university union bar nearby, meaning we had to walk through London dressed up fully in the middle of the day. We got a lot of funny looks, that's for sure. We had some food there and just generally chatted. We weren't really allowed to talk, but we couldn't help it. We were there for probably another 2 hours. I remember all the funny looks we were getting, we looked so odd haha!

All of us girls were then invited back into the elimination room. I have never felt so sick with nerves. All of the girls had done so well in my opinion, and I knew that nobody was safe. I honestly couldn't have told you who i thought was going to go. First of all, Best Photo was announced. Shaunagh won, which I thought was so well deserved. Her shot was so simple yet so beautiful. Once your name had been called, you made your way downstairs to the kitchen area. Next, Efi was called, due to winning the challenge and gaining immunity. After her was Ivy, then Louisa, Martha and Cirrah Leah. I felt so sick. The elimination room is boiling hot due to all the lights, and I felt so light headed from all the stress. Then, Abbey called Tamsin! I was so excited, mouthing a quick thank you to her and the other judges. As I walked downstairs, Liv the researcher whispered to me "I've heard your photo was amazing, well done lovely!" I was so buzzed. Adrenaline pumping. I met the other girls in the kitchen and we all had a group hug.

The next girl to come down the stairs was Alisia, then Eleanor, and then Sophia. This meant that Kira and Georgie were in the bottom 2. I honestly couldn't believe it. I was so shocked that both girls were in the bottom, but most of all Georgie. I thought her photo was one of the best. When I came downstairs I actually thought her name had already been called, and therefore was looking for her. The girls then stayed up there for about 10 minutes. The suspense completely takes over the room. We are all trying to stay as quiet as possible to try and hear what is going on upstairs.

All of a sudden, we were asked to gather around the stairs. We heard heels coming down the stairs, and then Kira appeared. I was in complete shock. No, I don't think Kira should have gone home, however neither should Georgie. For me, they were two of the strongest girls on the catwalk and both had good photos. I didn't know how to react. I wanted to go and hug Kira to congratulate her, but I was also so upset that one of my best friends from the competition had left. Efi broke down in tears. It was really really emotional. On TV, it seems like we had only just met. However, we had spent 5 days intensively living with Georgie and having no contact with anybody from the outside world. Bonds that you grow in that kind of situation are difficult to explain. Something which is also heartbreaking is the fact that Georgie thought she was going through, as did I. Before we went back into the elimination, she whispered to me "Our whole room is safe, we've going to be okay!"

Another thing that is upsetting about eliminations, is that you don't know when you will see that person again. Once you're eliminated, you don't get to say goodbye to anyone, you leave immediately. Georgie lives many hours away from me, so I had no idea when I would next get to see her. However, I know that Georgie is going on to do great things. All I can say is, she has had so much interest from the Fashion world already and I cannot wait until she shares what's going on with the world. A true super mod.

After Georgies elimination, none of us felt safe. We now all really felt like this was a competition, and we all wanted to win.