The Face‘s Afiya blogs: Stepping up her selfie game

The Face “modeltestant” Afiya Bennett shares her first exclusive blog post with SheKnows.

I can’t believe the premiere of The Face finally happened last night. Seeing yourself on television for the first time is mind-boggling because although you’re excited, you are also able to see areas that you need to work on.

Meeting the other modeltestants in the competition for the first time was amazing because each girl came from a different walk of life but we all share the same dream. It was thrilling to see all of the model coaches walk the runway in Bryant Park, and then the spotlight was on us! Whoa. I wasn’t nervous about walking the runway in my underwear — more about my model walk in front of these icons.

Meet our newest blogger: The Face‘s Afiya Bennett >>

Watching again on TV, I can definitely tell I need some work on my walk. But, I will cut myself some slack because I was under such pressure. When it came time for us to be put on teams, it was truly an honor to have Naomi Campbell save me a spot on her team. I could not ask for a better coach and I know this will be the winning team!

The Juicy Couture challenge was exciting and nerve-wracking. This was the first team challenge and we had not yet learned how to work together. Thankfully, Team Naomi was able to take direction and use my “selfie” idea to win the campaign. My selfie game is so much stronger on my Instagram now. Team Naomi is definitely going to dominate the competition.

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Getting critiqued by Naomi was hard, but that is why I am here to begin with. She is a fashion icon and I am getting to learn from her. I know I am going to grow so much throughout this process.

Luckily, because we won, no one from our team was put up for elimination. But let’s be clear, eliminations are hard on all of us. It was sad to see Isabelle go so soon, but I know she will do well. Be sure to watch next week. I am in some scenes you definitely won’t want to miss.