After trying out for “America’s Next Top Model” every year since the series began in 2003, Krista White can hardly believe she finally made it on the show, let alone won the whole thing.

Krista, 26, beat out runner-up Raina Hein, after proving to the judges she had what it takes at an Anna Sui fashion show.

“It’s been a long time coming chasing this dream so I was just taken aback by it and shocked and overwhelmed. I was shaking so bad Tyra was like, ‘Oh my God, get her some water, why is she shaking?’ but I was like ‘I’m just happy,’” Krista tells CTV.ca over the phone.

She admits she had no idea she was going to win, believing that Raina, with her strong face and commercial appeal, would be crowned the winner instead. 

“Even in the final two I kind of felt like it might be her so I had already prepared myself for second place.”

But Krista shouldn’t have been so surprised. Judges Nigel Barker, André Leon Talley and host Tyra Banks have been praising the long, lean beauty for weeks, awarding her with best picture honours several weeks in a row.

With no previous modeling experience, Krista isn’t sure why this was the year ‘ANTM’ finally noticed her. But it might have something to do with all the research she has done over the years.

“I would get on the Internet and look at fashion shows, that’s how I learned how to walk. I’ve watched every cycle of ‘America’s Next Top Model’ so when Miss J came on and he was teaching the girls things I was like, ‘Oh I could do that’ … I would look at photos (from magazines) to see what the girls (were) doing.”

Taping of Cycle 14 wrapped up in December, 2009 and Krista has had to keep the biggest secret of her life under wraps since then.

She returned home to Pine Bluff, Arkansas and to her job as a manager at a clothing store. At first it was easy -- no one even knew she had been away taping ‘ANTM’ -- but once the show began airing on TV, she tried to keep a low profile.

“I would just go to work and then home where nobody had to see me or question me because I’m a bad liar and people who know me would look at my face and if they said, ‘Krista did you win it?’ it would be all over my face.”

And now that it’s official and everyone knows, Krista says it still hasn’t sunk in for her.

“I still think it’s unreal. I think someone should pinch me every five minutes to see if it’s real.”

As the newest America’s Next Top Model, Krista has won a contract with Wilhelmina Models, a six-page spread and a cover in Seventeen magazine, and a $100,000 contract with Cover Girl cosmetics. She says she will either be moving to Europe or L.A. and can’t wait for all the exciting opportunities that lie ahead.

“I want to go into media (as well) and motivate youth. I know what it was like growing up and being picked on … I want to continue to model and I want to break into the fashion industry and own my own fashion line. I’m trying to be the next Kimora Lee (Simmons) and Tyra Banks,” says Krista.

“I’m excited. I’m ready to go. I’m ready to hit the ground running. I’ve chased this for so long and to finally be at this place and be here, it’s exciting.”