A pretty face wasn’t enough to keep Anslee Payne in the running to be “America’s Next Top Model.”

The 23-year old bartender and mom from Dacula, Ga., was eliminated from the competition after Tyra Banks told her that despite having such a strong face, the rest of her body fell flat in her most recent photo wearing a dress made out of human hair.

“I don’t disagree. They know what they’re talking about obviously,” says Anslee.  “But the more I go back over my pictures and the more I look at it, it’s not that everything I did was falling flat. It’s just that I wasn’t consistent as far as modeling from head to toe and that's something I've worked on since I've been home as far as poses and getting more comfortable in front of the camera, not just with my face but the rest of my body as well.”

Anslee also received a very poor reception to her walk at a runway challenge earlier in the episode where the girls had to show off their personality while being judged by an audience at a drag queen club. After Anslee did her walk, not a single person clapped – or so it seemed.

“Obviously we all know it’s reality television. People did clap for me – that was a little dramatized. If nobody clapped for me I probably would’ve been standing there crying … it wasn’t like it was completely silent, crickets chirping.”

Despite being surprised that she was the next girl to be eliminated, Anslee says there were some positive things about returning home early.

“It was disappointing obviously but at the same time I missed my daughter tremendously so it was like a bad thing but a good thing all at the same time.”

Anslee frequently made comments on the show about how she missed her three-year-old daughter Chloe and how part of her reason for wanting to win the show was so she could provide a better life for her child and her husband.

“I don’t remember saying it as much as what it appeared to look like on TV. They made it sound like I said it every five minutes,” says Anslee with a laugh.

She explains that before the show she was working two jobs and her husband was also working long hours to provide for their family and she hoped a modeling contract might allow them to make some changes.

“In that sense maybe if I got a job doing stuff with modeling where it’s more consistent or it’s a bigger pay cheque, we would actually get to spend more time together … not to say that that wasn’t my dream and I was doing it for myself. I feel like people were thinking that was the only reason I was doing it.”

Anslee often got flack from fellow contestant Alasia, who made comments about her mothering skills and even told her on one occasion she felt sorry for her daughter to have a mother like her. Anslee immediately went on the defensive and a screaming match between the two ensued.

“She’s young and she’s one of those people that whenever you get into a fight with her she goes for what is your weakest point … it was one of those things where I feel like if it’s something that’s common sense you should know and if I have to explain it to you I might talk to you in a demeaning manner I guess. It’s not to be mean, it’s just like, ‘Use your brain.’”

Anslee says all the drama that was going on between the contestants in the house was distracting and it was difficult because there was nowhere to go to escape it.

“When you’re completely surrounded by that your environment becomes extremely volatile and extremely stressful.”

Since returning home to her small Georgian town, Anslee has had some local modeling offers but still has her sights on the big time.

“When you become a mother you don’t really think about your wants or your needs anymore, you think about your child and (being on the show) kind of opened my eyes and boosted my confidence in the sense that you still got it,” says Anslee.

“I’m more driven now to want to do it than I ever was before.”