'America's Next Top Model' star urges women to honor God with their time on social media
Former “America’s Next Top Model” contestant Leah Darrow is challenging women to honor God with their time on social media, warning that one of the devil’s “greatest tactics” is distraction.
In 2004, Darrow shot to fame after appearing on the hit reality show “America’s Next Top Model.” After her elimination, she had a successful modeling career in New York City, but it wasn’t enough.
In 2005, Darrow had a miraculous encounter during a photo shoot where she saw herself standing before God with empty hands. She felt God telling her she was made for more.
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At that moment, she walked out of the shoot and never looked back, dedicating her life to God. Today, she is a wife, mother of six, bestselling author, app creator, and public speaker who challenges women to find their identity in Christ.
During an appearance on pro-life advocate Abby Johnson’s hit podcast, "Politely Rude," Darrow shared how she’s now on a mission to help other women connect with God.
She recently founded Lux Catholic App, a “sisterhood of women who are asking questions about the Catholic faith, seeking truth and striving toward holiness.”
Described as a “guilt-free and troll-free social media” for busy women — not just Catholic women — the Lux Catholic App is designed “for connection and prayer for women,” Darrow said.
“I wanted women to have a place where they could ask honest questions about the faith and not be torn down and get responses,” she told Johnson. “I wanted women to have a place where they would have sincere, true spiritual formation that's geared toward women.”
Darrow admitted she came up with the idea after she became “tired of feeling crappy on social media” due to the negative environment prevalent on many platforms.
“So I just thought, ‘Oh, well, what the heck, I'll just create an app,’” she said.
The app is guided by rules that ensure users are honoring God and each other with their comments, and “we’ve never had to delete or kick anyone out,” she said.
“It’s a very deep community that suffers together and prays,” she said. “I think there's just something about how God put it together that has made it to where it's not judgy and we're not sharing random things of our life. We've come there very purposeful and very Christ-centered in a way to really pray together, and it's stayed that way. By the power of the Holy Spirit, it should stay that way, and we are very protective that it does stay in that lane.”
Darrow, who has a master’s degree in theology, noted that oftentimes, women “bash their husbands” on online communities — a habit she said doesn’t honor God.
“We don't honor our spouses in the way that we should,” she stressed. “We don't pray for them in the way that we should.”
“I find it ironic ... that we'll pray to get a husband, but we don't pray after we got the husband,” she added. “It's kind of like reinvigorated my hope and a little bit in humanity to see women together praying.”
Touching on the dangers of social media and the importance of being wise about circles of influence, Darrow said women need to be “very, very protective of the time that we spend on social media and what we're allowing into our life.”
“There’s just so many things that are more important,” she stressed. “If you're going to take away your time from the face to face interactions with the people God's placed in front of you, how are you doing that? What are you going to do? Who are you going to listen to? What voices are you going to allow into your life?”
The Other Side of Beautyauthor challenged listeners to “go unfollow” at least five people on social media.
“There are at least five people you're probably following right now that are not breathing life into your life,” Darrow said. “That doesn't mean necessarily that this person is attacking you; it just means maybe their content — and it could be neutral, it could even be positive — is rubbing that wound that God's not asking you to have rubbed right now.”
“One of the best tactics that the devil, that evil has, is distraction,” she added. “To distract us with what somebody else says, to distract us with being offended, and even distract us with our passions, with our feelings. We have to keep them. It is challenging and it is a constant thing. But if we don't, we will lose peace, and we will lose ... our vision and our purpose of what Christ is calling us to do.”
