America's Next Top Model headed to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the international portion of the competition. The girls were welcomed by Brazil's Next Top Model host Fernanda Motta and sent on a scavenger hunt to find the "Girl from Ipanema" and her favorite flowers.

They divided into three teams of two - Aminat and Teyona, Natalie and Fo, and Celia and Allison. Natalie and Fo found the flowers and the girl first and were rewarded with some fancy flip flops worth around $500. Despite winning the challenge, after arriving at their beautiful new home Natalie complained that they didn't have a pool. She also said that she didn't see anything great about Brazil yet.

For their challenge this week, the girls were taught capoeria. This Brazilian art form combines dance and martial arts. Mr. Jay and Miss J explained how the movements can be related to modeling poses. After most of the girls got the feel for the motions of capoeria, and after Celia accidentally kicked Aminat in the head, it was time for their photo shoot challenge to take place.

Natalie, who didn't understand the moves originally, looked like a can-can dancer. Celia used her arms too much and covered up her face during the photo. Teyona only took profile photos, forgetting to look at the camera the whole time. Allison and Fo both grasped the concept of good posing while embracing the martial art movements, but Fo was declared the winner. As a reward, Fo received 50 percent more frames for her photo shoot. As a catch, Fo had to choose who she would take those extra frames away from. She decided to take them away from Teyona, after being slighted by her last week. Teyona said she took it as a compliment that Fo was threatened by her.




The actual photo shoot was honoring Brazilian icon Carmen Miranda, better known as the Chiquita Banana lady. Each model was decked out in ruffles with a large amount of fruit strapped to their head. The goal was to bring a vibrant, sexy photo. Natalie, of course, jumped in and said that was something that she was very good at doing. Sexy was an easy concept to grasp.

After a few weeks of struggling, Allison came out with the best photo. During the shoot Jay told her that her face came alive, making her look active and sexy. Nigel Barker, during panel, even decided that he liked this photo of Allison, and he has seemingly been against her for quite some time now. The judges felt that she embodied the epitome of what they wanted out of this particular photo shoot.

Teyona came in a very close second to Allison's photo. Even though Teyona had some trouble with her smile in the past, this time it seemed to work. The judges told her that she looked like a sassy Carmen Miranda and had great model-like features.

Even though she had extra frames, Fo still couldn't make it quite to the top of the pack. At the photo shoot, Jay told her that she looked like Carmen Miranda on crack. It wasn't the most genius attempt at posing either. All that translated into the film leaving the judges to criticize her lack of creativity. Fo showed too much personality and not enough model in her photo.
Celia had her weakest photo shoot to date, according to panel. The judges decided that she didn't look fresh enough in her photo and didn't bring the same excitement on film as she did in person. Tyra also commented on Celia's age, claiming that while editing her film she looked as old, if not older, than Tyra herself.

That only left Aminat and Natalie in the bottom two. Aminat graced the bottom two's presence for the second time in a row, only to escape elimination yet again. The judges told her that she needed to stop relying on "black girl posing 101." She is beautiful, but boring as a model and doesn't bring her personality out during the photo shoots. Apparently, though, they like what they see in person enough to ignore the photos.

As for Natalie, her Top Model days came to an end. Even though she looked good in her photo, it's the same story every week. The judges don't like that at all; they like to see variety. Natalie's look of exhaustion took her out of the competition. She, on the other hand, didn't seem to think that she deserved to go home. But, I'm sure audience members everywhere are glad to see the spoiled rich girl go back home. She should be okay. Brazil wasn't that great anyway, right Natalie?


Story by Beth Wickman

Starpulse contributing writer