by Mike Bandy

Last night on ANTM All-Stars, Camille, the 33 year old who first appeared on Cycle 2 of the competition, was eliminated. The judges thought she wasn't bringing out enough of her personality in her shoots, and Camille herself was concerned with being the oldest girl in the competition and how that would play out. We spoke to Camille about her time in the competition, her thoughts on beauty and modeling, and what her plans for the future are!

Q. Mike, RealityWanted: In the first episode of the cycle, we saw a lot of the girls having a negative reaction to you being in the house, but in watching, it appeared that you got along well with pretty much everyone. What was it like being in the house with the girls? Any lasting friendships? Any major conflicts?

A. Camille: The girls in the house were amazing, and the majority of them had seen ANTMCycle 2, so it's like they grew up watching me, but I didn't have an opportunity to watch the other cycles after mine, because I went overseas to model. I didn't have any preconceived notions about anybody. It was interesting to see the reactions from people; people were a little standoffish but they warmed up to me and we had a great time!

Q. Mike, RealityWanted: What were the major differences between this cycle and Cycle 2? Did you feel like a different competitor this time around?

A. Camille: Without a doubt. Cycle 2 was 8 or 9 years ago, so my focus is definitely different, being that I've pursued my career in fashion as a professional model, I've traveled the world, I've been to the majority of the continents and done print, runway, catalog, you name it. At this point in my life, my responsibilities are different - I've invested in properties both here and overseas, so I have mortgages, and I'm not living at home with mom and dad. Branding is the key wor;, I felt like people needed to see who I am and see my growth. I've continued to stay relevant and to bring my talents back, and to serve as an example to other girls. I got a nice message from Alexandria saying that I'm definitely an icon to her, and I really appreciated that.

Q. Mike, RealityWanted: At one point in the episode you stated that being older than the rest of the girls, it wouldn't be as easy for you to bounce back if you were eliminated. Then, when you were eliminated, you were seemingly okay with the situation. How are you doing since the show taped?

A. Camille: I'm fine! And let's not get it twisted - I would not trade being 19 again for being 33. 33 is a very sexy age, and there are so many women who have reinvented themselves time and time again. You have your biological age and your genealogical age...if you put me next to a 21 year old who's abusing their body, you can't tell me that I don't look younger than them. I'm stronger than I've ever been, and for Tyra to choose me to compete with girls in their 20s means I'm doing something right. Those girls are gonna have to do things with their beauty regimen and diet to make sure they stay the way they look; I work very hard at that. The reality is the fashion industry is age oriented. Nobody tells the truth about their age, but this is reality TV so unfortunately everybody knows how old I am, but I'm great at tricking people. I'm a woman of color and they say black doesn't crack, but it does if you don't take care of it!

Q. Mike, RealityWanted: If you could have brought one girl from your cycle back to compete with you, whom would you have brought back?

A. Camille: Um...I really only compete with myself, so it really doesn't matter. I wasn't stressing about who would be there, my competition is really me. Cycle 2 was cool...I'm an extremely thoughtful and caring person, like on Cycle 2 and I gave Yoanna my prize, and I knew she didn't like me. I did it because I wanted her to see that she was a beautiful person, and my prize was a sketch that was drawn. Some people said that it was honorable that I did that, but some said that it caused me to lose the competition. People say that I'm bitchy, but if you study my movements I'm actually a genuine person.

Q. Mike, RealityWanted: What was your favorite shoot and your favorite challenge?

A. Camille: My favorite thing to do on ANTM would have been a runway challenge. I came in the game being branded as having a signature walk; out of all the contestants you could name from the All Star Cycle, you think of their brand, and that's my brand. I was hoping that the world would be able to see the refinement of that signature walk. But I didn't get to do that. But every shoot that I did do, I served it. The cameras and the show may say otherwise, but it's amazing with social media how a lot of my fans are posting clips [of images that weren't on the show], and that proves that there are other images besides the one they selected. Their professionals and know best, but I know that I put my best foot forward, and I was at times disappointed with the images selected.

Q. Mike, RealityWanted: What's up next for Camille?

A. Camille: Well, I mean, all star cycle was just the beginning! I'm definitely about to re-expose myself and show the world the truth of Camille McDonald. My new website will be launched, camillemcdonald.com, and see never seen before photos of me, and see my final choices for photos in my reality. I look up to people like Iman who is a professional model who has a makeup line, Cindy Crawford with a furniture line..the list goes on and on. It's very important to find those people in life who have the same career goals as you and emulate them. With everything being said, I aspire to be an icon in the business, and come out with my product line. Hopefully you'll see a shoe line; I think that's only fitting when you have a signature walk, right? I get lots of questions about my beauty, and I'm gonna share my recipes with the world. I've selected several recipes from all over the world and [I will be] putting them in a cookbook which talks about health and wellness. I've been thinking about that for a while because my father passed away from a heart attack a few years ago. I'm excited to have a new team working around me. The general public doesn't realize that in order to be a brand, it takes a lot of people to make that happen. All of these things cost money, and I'm very fortunate that this cycle was a paid job. It's giving me additional resources to put together a well oiled engine so I can continue branding myself. Another thing, I'm really adamant about letting your readers know that they can go to my website and see all the amazing things I've done, because I think that they'd be impressed to know all the things I've done between Cycle 2 and now.