Kim Stolz Takes on the News Media

Ever since she first appeared on America's Next Top Model in 2005, Kim Stolz has given a face to a new generation of queer women. She may not have won the modeling reality show, but she's been the success story of the series, and she also happens to be an out lesbian.

Stolz is now an MTV News Correspondent as well as a VJ for mtvU, where she hosts The Freshmen, a show about new music. (AfterEllen.com's parent company, Logo, is owned by MTV.) She's not only a talking head, though — she's a reporter who interviews political candidates and writes stories for the MTV News website. She has also maintained her flair for fashion and entertainment by working on features with musicians and movie stars on and off the red carpet.

Stolz recently talked to AfterEllen.com about her career, her odd relationship with Tyra Banks, and her plan to have no plan at all.

AfterEllen.com: You've been doing a lot of political writing for MTV News. Is that something you wanted to do when you first started out at MTV?
Kim Stolz: Absolutely. My major at Wesleyan was government and international politics. Politics is really something I want to be involved with, and definitely something that sparks my interest. For MTV News, being able to interview presidential candidates and other political figures and covering political stories, it's been an amazing part of my experience and something I want to continue to do.

AE: Being an out lesbian, have you ever felt that anyone has thought you were trying to get across "a gay agenda"?
KS: No. Honestly, I am a news correspondent so I try to report the news and serve as a bridge from who I'm interviewing to the audience, so I don't think that I come across having an agenda simply because I don't have one.

Photo credit: Jeff Fusco/Getty Images

AE: Are you the first out lesbian VJ on MTV that you know of?
KS: Honestly, I have no idea. To my knowledge [yes], but I don't want to offend anybody if anyone else is out there!

AE: At least in America, from what I've researched, I haven't seen any others.
KS: Well, I know I'm the only lesbian news correspondent in New York.

AE: It seems like your personal style has changed quite a bit since when you were on America's Next Top Model. Is that something that you had to do to be more "camera-friendly" for MTV or something that has evolved for you?
KS: I've always felt that my style was very versatile, and I think that at different points in my life, I've expressed different parts of myself. I think everybody can relate to that.

I think there's a time and a place to wear the more androgynous clothes I wear, and there's another time and a place, like on TRL, when I want to wear a cute dress and get in touch with my feminine side. I think that I've never been pushed to wear one thing or another. It certainly all comes from me, and I like to express myself different ways through my clothes.

Stolz at the mtvU Woodie Awards in New York in 2006

Photo credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

AE: When you decided to get your new haircut, did you think that some fans might have something to say about it? It seems like you have a lot of them on the internet making comments like, "Kim has girlie hair now!"
KS: Well, from the moment I stepped on the television on America's Next Top Model, I felt like I tried to transcend stereotypes, as someone who was adverse to that. I certainly don't want to be boxed in a haircut or a style of clothing. I don't know, I do what I like with my hair and my clothes, and I present myself in the way that I feel and hopefully people get it.