Growing up shy and awkward and having been made fun of for being extremely tall, Ann Ward never thought she would ever feel confident about her appearance, let alone be crowned “America’s Next Top Model.”

“I grew up being really ashamed of my height and all that stuff but as soon as I went into the competition they made me feel like 10 times better about myself. I can actually wear heels now,” Ann tells CTV.ca over the phone.

The 6 ‘2,” 19-year-old old animation student from Dallas, Texas, was recently crowned the winner of Cycle 15, after the judges felt she had the most potential to be a high fashion model. She beat out 22-year-old Chelsey Hersley from Boise, Idaho.

As the winner, Ann will receive a contract with IMG models, a $100,000 deal with CoverGirl Cosmetics and for the first time in “Top Model” history, a spread in Vogue Italia.  

Ann admits it’s all going to take a little while to sink in.

“I’ve had some time to think about it but I don’t think I’ve fully accepted it,” she says.  

“I was totally not expecting to win because Chelsey had been doing such a great job and she had a bigger personality and a better walk and all that stuff so it was really, really shocking to learn that I actually won the competition.”

Even though Ann never expected to be “America’s Next Top Model,” she dominated the competition early on, winning an unprecedented five Best Pictures in a row.

“I was definitely insecure coming into the competition. I wasn’t sure that anybody would like me or that they would really approve of my height so getting five best photos in a row was a huge confidence boost.”

But while the judges praised her for her photos, Ann also received plenty of comments about her shyness and how she needed to find a way to project her personality.

She says it was very difficult to come out of her shell.

“It takes years for people to get over shyness and it really takes until your mid-20s or something to get over a lot of insecurities but I had to work on it in the span of a couple months.”           

With the holidays approaching, Ann has to wait a little longer to kick her high fashion career into high gear, and says she is planning on a trip to New York City in the new year to meet with her agency.

She says there is also a possibility she could be traveling to Europe, something she is very excited about.

“I’ve always wanted to see the world some way or another.”

Ann says she felt fortunate to be able to travel with ‘ANTM’ to Italy, the home of her and her dad’s favourite artist Leonardo da Vinci.

It made it even more special to have her parents and her brother show up unexpectedly in the last episode to watch her final runway show for Just Cavalli in Milan.

“I definitely felt better about being on the runway just because I had been bad at it in the past but since my parents were there, I knew they would be really proud of me either way. Even if I was falling off the runway they’d be like, ‘Oh she looks so pretty,’” says Ann with a laugh.

With her tall slender figure, much of the buzz surrounding Ann’s win has focused on her weight and whether she is “too skinny” – even for a model – and whether she is promoting an unhealthy body image.

Ann shrugs it off and says she has nothing to hide.

“It’s just the way I am naturally. I have a really, really fast metabolism. A lot of people in my family are like that.”

She says she hopes to educate others that just because you are thin, it doesn’t mean you have an eating disorder.

“They’re a lot of people out there who are like me that can eat all they want and they just can’t gain any weight … you really have to look at if from their perspective.”