Model Elyse Sewell
Thrust into the world of modeling via reality TV show “America’s Next Top Model,” Elyse Sewell has been making a name for herself modeling in Hong Kong. Her book, “Beauty and the Biz: The International Adventures of America’s Third-to-Next Top Model,” was recently published here.
I was studying for my very last college exam when I heard I’d got into the semifinals of “America’s Next Top Model.” It was the first time in my life I didn’t have a job or anything at all that I needed to do, and it was a free trip to LA, so why not?
After “Top Model” aired, I was contacted by an agency to model in Milan. It was my first modeling trip and I ended up deferring medical school and finally withdrawing from it.
All my life I’d wanted to be doctor. I was completely prepared for medical school and then everything changed. This is a complete surprise branching off the life I had planned for myself.
I studied evolutionary biology in college. It’s an incredible science. Everyone is interested in it and it applies to your daily life. It’s practically my religion and I use it every single day.
I worked as a clinical research assistant, but after I saw more of what it’s really like to be in medicine, I became quite cynical about it. What really disillusioned me was hearing the head researcher talk about how she was going to write up a proposal to make it sound like they were helping people so her grant would come through. But I guess that’s the reality of medicine.
The next big natural selection event is going to be immunological. So instead of dying because you’re too short to reach the food while tall people live, it will be dying because you don’t have as good of an immune system as someone else. It won’t be something you can tell just by looking at someone.