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AE: What was your favorite part about the experience?
SR: My favorite part was probably just getting to know all the girls, because I’m friends with a lot of guys here and I usually hang out with them. But I loved just being in the house and it was a really different experience for me. I loved getting to know the girls and I came out with some really good friends, so I’m happy.

AE: Are you dating someone now?
SR: A boy, yes (laughs). Yes, a boy.

AE: How does he feel about what he saw?
SR: He actually [didn’t see] the show. UPN out here is not a big station at all.  We just got it in our town last year and they didn’t even show the first episode of it, so it’s not big at all here. There’s nothing here, no one really even knows about UPN, so he hasn’t seen it. A lot of people haven’t seen it, which kind of benefits me. So he hasn’t seen it, but he knows about it. I think he’s okay with it. He hasn’t really said much. It’s just no one talks about it here, which I know is weird to you, but we really don’t. He hasn’t said much, but I think he’s fine with it, and he’s a great guy, so he’s okay.

AE: Well, that’s good.
SR: Yeah, I hope.

AE: What was your least favorite part of the experience?
SR: My least favorite part—I guess I hated that we did runway right off the bat, and then as soon as I left they’re not doing it anymore. That’s like, great. My least favorite part was probably not having any training. You think you’re going to go in and learn how to be a model, but you don’t—they don’t tell you anything at all. You have 15 seconds with the runway coach and that’s it. They just expect you to be a top model and they don’t teach you anything, ever. So I don’t really feel like I learned much about modeling at all versus, you know, learning about myself.

AE: Had you done some modeling in the past, though?
SR: I’ve been with an agency and gone to some conventions but I’ve never actually modeled, no.

AE: Have you been practicing your runway walk since then?
SR: Not a lot. I need to get in some classes I think. I need some serious help. (Laughs)

AE: What happened?  It seemed like you were so frightened of falling that it might have tripped you up, actually.
SR: Yeah, well, I have a 7½ foot and all the shoes are 9s and 10s, so that doesn’t help at all, and plus after … the first initial trip, it’s just in your head that you’re going to trip and that was probably my biggest … I mean it was more myself versus myself than myself versus the runway, you know?

AE: So what are your plans for the future? Are you still interested in modeling?
SR: Yeah, definitely. I think I want to move out to L.A. I just don’t think New York and me would mix too well, so I think I want to move out to L.A. eventually, maybe December or January, and I know people out there now, so hopefully it’ll be good.

AE: That’s great.  Well, people will want to talk to you about this in L.A.  All the time.
SR: Great (laughs).

AE: What is one thing that you want to tell people that you haven’t been able to tell them before about your experience on the show?
SR: I guess I don’t think it’s necessarily fair for them to judge me when they really don’t know what it was like in there at all, or what I’m like. If someone’s been on the show and they’ve experienced it, then it’s okay, but I don’t really think it’s fair for anyone to judge me at this point about my decisions or anything I did on the show, because they don’t know what it was like there.

AE: Who do you think is judging you?
SR: I guess just the public in general, and a lot of radio stations here in the Midwest trashed me, and the boy who was on the phone, even, he called and trashed me and called me a lesbian. So it’s a lot harder in the Midwest than it is in L.A. because L.A.’s so accepting.

AE: Well, there are plenty of people I know who would be happy to call you a lesbian and not think that it’s a slur.
SR: Well, thanks (laughs).