An Arkansan will continue her run on America's Next Top Model on Friday night after impressing the judges with her acting chops in a music video challenge in the last episode.
Competing against male and female models, Lacey Rogers, 18, has had three of her weekly photo shoots selected as “best” since the cycle began Aug. 5.
The last challenge brought the contestants to Las Vegas, where they had to play a role in a music video. Rogers played an insecure girl who eventually finds her confidence, strutting down a runway and posing midair while falling into a pool.
"Your acting is spot on," Tyra said, though she added that Rogers had one of the weakest walks, "which is really interesting to me because you have some of the strongest posing in this competition."
As the self-declared "Southern Belle on #ANTM22," she’s endeared the judges with her charm throughout the season.
”I love your accent Miss Lacey,” host Tyra Banks said in the season's first episode. “So cute!”
The El Dorado native, who has some local modeling experience, got casting producers to notice her through Instagram, Rogers said in a video on her YouTube channel.
After Banks asked model hopefuls to use the hashtags #NotTooShort #NotTooTall in photo captions on social media, Rogers responded by posting some of her best shots.
Producers contacted her on Instagram minutes later asking for her to move on to the next step of the casting process.
“When they found me on Instagram, that was the most excited I have even been throughout this whole process,” she said in the July video.
Rogers is competing for a modeling contract with NEXT Model Management, a spread in Nylon magazine, $100,000 and the opportunity to be the face of Zappos Couture's relaunch In 2016.
Friday's episode airs at 8 p.m. on The CW.