'America's Next Top Model' contestant says they were under constant surveillance and bathroom doors were removed

• "America's Next Top Model" contestants faced constant surveillance filming Tyra Banks' hit show.
• In season seven, bathroom doors were removed prior to filming, contestant AJ Stewart said.

"America's Next Top Model" contestants faced constant surveillance while filming Tyra Banks' hit reality-competition show.

In season seven, the model wannabes did not even have bathroom doors in their $17 million Los Angeles home, AJ Stewart told Insider. Stewart, who placed ninth in the season, said producers only installed curtains in the six-bedroom home after contestants complained.

"I don't want to say it caused my anxiety disorder, because I have no proof of that, but I can tell you that the show was the first time in my life ... when I started having panic attacks regularly," Stewart said.

"It was not good for my mental health, and I saw it affect other girls in similar ways," she added.

Many contestants told Insider that filming "ANTM" was a grueling and isolating process. Season nine contestant Sarah Hartshorne recalled an instance when contestants heard explosions and rushed to the window of their Los Angeles house, terrified they were about to die. Instead, it was fireworks. Cut off from the outside world, they had no idea it was the Fourth of July.

If contestants were awake, cameras were rolling. Season four's Lluvy Gomez recalled a camera operator constantly jumping out of curtains and racing around the house to make sure he didn't miss a single moment of drama. The bathroom was the only place to escape surveillance — and, if there were two or more contestants in the room, even that was fair game.

When the cameras were off, contestants were barred from speaking and forced to stay silent "on ice" for hours.

Banks and "ANTM" co-creator Ken Mok did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Many of the techniques used while filming "ANTM" became standard practice in reality television. But, "ANTM" was one of the first reality competitions and, insiders said, helped write the playbook for shows that followed in its footsteps. One person who worked on the show said he had come to believe "America's Next Top Model" put contestants in a "harmful environment for the sake of TV."

"You're not looking at lifting women up," he said of Banks. "You're not looking at giving them a real opportunity. You're looking at trying to pit them against each other in a barrel full of crabs that are all trying to claw their way out."

Read Insider's full investigation into "America's Next Top Model" here if you're a subscriber.