Nin: "Well sissy boom bah, the final nine! Congratulations to each of you on making it to the final nine of the competition! Not only is this the first time you've made it to the single digits but you've ALSO made it to the halfway mark of the largest season of NNTM EVER! Each of you should feel extremely proud of yourself!"

Nin: "Now, I bet you're wondering why I've called all of you here so early. Well, that's because I want you all to be extra prepped...for next week!"

Nin: "For those of you that survive next week's challenge, we will all...be traveling...to the BEAUTIFUL BERLIN GERMANY!!! YES!!! This is your last week here in the regular studio. Push through this final homeland challenge and you'll become an international model! The stakes are high this week so be sure, now more than ever, to impress!"

Nin: "Now, to get yourself into the mood for our German field trip, we're paying tribute to one of the biggest traditions of German culture!"

Nin: "One of the most recognized and renowned holidays of German culture is none other than December 25th, Weihnachten, or as we might know it, Christmas! One of the most iconic contributions that Germany has made to Christmas are the addition of reindeer into the national celebration!"

Nin: "In order to get yourself in the German mood, the nine of you are going to be modeling based off of one of the nine reindeer of Santa Claus' first sleigh team! As the winner of last week's challenge, Judith, you'll be assigning everyone with their inspirations!"

Dasher; The Quick One - Crystal Robins
Dancer; The Flexible One - Melodie Quinn
Prancer; The Fierce One - Ember Moon
Vixen; The Seductive One - Judith Judassy
Comet; The One Out-of-this-World - Sarah Portello
Cupid; The Romantic One - Stanley Meeks
Donner; The Mysterious One - Corinna Hendrickx
Blitzen; The Thunderous One - Crystal Silvian
Rudolph; The Special One - Tina Hamasaki

Nin: "Now, to be clear, your photoshoot does not necessarily have to be Christmas themed nor does it have to have anything to do with Germany. What the panel is looking for is for you to fully embody your character in a way that the judges can look at and say "I know which one that is!"

Nin: "However, we're not done yet! As I said earlier, next week, we're going overseas. Only the best of the BEST can make it. So, this week, I've got a few questions for you all."

Nin: "Who has the most potential to be the WINNER of this competition? Who has the LEAST potential to become the Next Top Model? And, finally, who deserves to go home this week and why?"

Nin: "You must answer all three of these questions truthfully and be reasonable with your explanations. There is no right or wrong answer but the judges will be considering your points and your genuinity for this week of judging."

Nin: "To recap, you must model based off of your reindeer character and answer the three questions about your fellow contestants! The pressure is ON this challenge so be sure to do your best! You don't want to be left behind, do you~?"

Nin: "Be fierce. Be unique. And, most importantly; BE. A. BOSS!!!!!!!!!!"

(You have two days to complete this assignment by posting your photo here! It is officially due by 2 PM PST/5 PM EST on June 17th! Best of luck!)

As usual I guess I'll kick things off. I've never liked Christmas but I am a sucker for romance. They love me, they love me not. They love me, they love me not... nope pretty sure they love me.
http://fuckingyoung.es/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/PETERANDDONATIEN_fy_9.jpg

Who do I think has the most potential to win? Well I don't mean to toot my own horn, but *toot toot* the only answer is Stanley. I'm no math genius, but I'm fairly sure that I have the strongest track record so far with two highs and three wins. I bring my own special kind of flavor to modelling and I still have a few more tricks up my sleeve.

As for who I can't see winning, it's Ember Moon. I think she has missed the mark one too many times, and with the competition thinning out I just don't see a place for her at the top. Who DESERVES to go home is a different choice and a very difficult question to answer. I think I'll cut Ember some slack and say that I can see her trying and putting in effort. This is Sarah's second season now and I don't think she has shown a whole lot of growth since last time. These other girls have shown more commitment to the competition and for that reason I would say Sarah Portello is the least deserving of moving on to the next challenge.

A lot of things people can associate with mystery is this faded notion that mystery can be associated with sultry charm, an enigmatic look and habit, take for example a femme fatale or a 1940s Hollywood actress. As for me however I decided to go for a more riskier and unconventional approach to mystery. Instead of having my model resemble an enigma or be covered in shadows, I went for a serene and dwindling look  instead. She appears distant like she's hiding something, and the setting is covered in a light hue of blue that strikes as ghostly. The whole image seems to be perplexing, and it's definitely mysterious.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18cB4XQWuqU-YkRe3r7eJ33VW_f1bq47-

1) Who has the most potential to be the winner of this competition.

I would definitely like to say me, but alas that would be a choice based purely off of ego and arrogance. I think out of all of the current competitors, Stanley has been the most hard-working and consistent one with his photos. The photos he picks have such minute detail and multiple layers of depth to them, within the posing and the concept surrounding. He pertains to maybe not the most conventional style of modelling, but he's very bold, thoughtful and daring, something I think are obvious traits of a winner. He never gets involved in too much drama, and remains kind to contestants, and its something I appreciate him for, since I can be not the nicest at times.

2) Who has the least potential to be the winner of this competition?

I feel bad that I have to name one of the people here, but if I had to choose, and this isn't a pick based off of track record, I would say Ember Moon. Every model here in the top nine, has proven themselves to be very fierce competition, handing in photos with gusto and dedication to this competition. Not one girl in here hasn't had a breakout moment nor a performative streak. Except for Ember Moon. She is very kind with others and has a witty personality, but I haven't seen either, a single photo from her that has utterly shocked me in delight, an intent on depth with her pictures, or an extreme growth.

3) Who deserves to go home this week and why?

That will be left up to the models' performances in the reindeer challenge. The minute a new challenge starts, the past challenge's results are gone to me, as it's only ever the current week that we are in we need to focus on. If you perform badly, you have to Face-off for your life, and if you lose, you're eliminated. Whoever performs the worst this week is who deserves to go home. If Melodie or Stanley or anyone here in the top 9 goes home because they did poorly this week so be it.

Crystal Robins (Dasher): https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5877171f765c6c7b400edf9c/master/pass/gigi-hadid-ashton-eaton-august-2016-vogue-cover-09.jpg

So for this weeks photoshoot I got dasher the quick one and the judges wanted to be able to spot which reindeer I am straight away. I feel like with this photo you can instantly say “Oh that’s dasher.” Even though I’m running I’m still modelling at the same time while giving you high fashion. I hope you can see the resemblance very easily.

Who has the most potential to be the winner?
Now most people are probably going to say Stanley or Melodie. But I am going to say myself and let me tell you why. Coming into this competition I got chosen first which meant that I had the most amount of pressure to do well in this competition. I have been pretty consistent throughout this whole competition with getting no lows. On one week Eric said that normally the models that get chosen first get eliminated very early. I have shown and proven wrong that I have carried on being the Crystal that the judges saw in the very first week. Also, after being safe for 7 weeks straight and then finally being high Nin said that it was sad that I wasn’t getting critiques because I had mostly always been in the top 4 and 5 which shows that I have the potential to be the winner of the 7th cycle of Ninjohn’s Next Top Model.

Who has the least potential to be the winner?
I am going to have to say Sarah because like Stanley said she has already been on a season and I don’t really see that much growth in her that much. Sarah started her first week off with a high coming in strong but since then she’s just started to go downhill each week. So for those reasons I do not really see Sarah being THE NEXT TOP MODEL in my opinion.

Who deserves to go home this week and why?
I will have to say Ember Moon. For obvious reasons that she has the worst track record out of everyone else in the final 9. Also, I don’t think that she produces photos that are as high fashion and editorial as the rest of us have and I feel like this may be her final week if she carries on producing the photos that she has been. But please prove me wrong Ember I don’t want to see any of these girls (and boy) go home but the competition is getting really tough now so everyone has to bring their best week in week out.