This is posted Wednesday, January 4, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Tanya Scott showed up briefly in last year's season of Lifetimes's "Little Women Atlanta" as a friend of Tiffany "Monie" Cashette.
When original cast members Emily Fernandez and Bri Barlup left for the "Little Women: Dallas," producers thought Tanya would make a worthy replacement.
She's a 23-year-old single mom of two toddlers who recently moved to Atlanta from Virginia Beach to be on the show. She is also building a health and wellness company called Life Body Naturals. Right now, she's selling soaps, lotions and creams for excema and diaper rash.
Her oldest son, now about three, is also a little person so she got into health products and herbalism for his sake. "I wanted to make sure his bones and muscular health were up to par," she said. "I hope that way we can minimize surgery."
To help her take care of her kids while she works on her business, she brought down a makeup artist friend named Samantha, who moved down from New Jersey. (Tanya splits custody with the father in Maryland so the kids aren't always with her. She hopes he can move down to Atlanta so she can see them more.)
So far, Tanya said she has enjoyed the experience of hanging out with so many other little people. "I don't really have a lot of little people friends," she said, outside of Monie and Sam. She loves Monie's "spunk." She hasn't hung out much with Ashley "Minnie" Ross outside the show but thinks she's "cool." She is amazed how tight the twins Andrea and Amanda Salinas are.
During the first episode, she invites the other women over but things get hot between Ms Juicy and Minnie, who have yet to resolve tensions from last season. Ms Juicy hated that Minnie lied to them and kept dogging Minnie about it. To bite back, Minnie mocked Ms Juicy's age. Again, that happened at Tanya's home until Ms Juicy walked out. Ms Juicy was also annoyed that the twins got involved, too. "They need to shut their mouths up and mind their own business," Juicy said. She later told Monie that she thought Minnie played both the victim and the bully.
"Why can't we all get along - at least in my house?" Tanya said.
Minnie left the party impressed with both Tanya and Sam. "I hope their positivity can help the rest of this group," she said.
She is not worried about the inevitable negative comments on social media and plans to avoid instigating drama. "I'm good at handling myself," she said. "I won't pay attention to someone being constantly negative but I will definitely stand up for myself."
Although "little people" reality shows have been on TV for more than a decade, Tanya said it hasn't totally "normalized" them in the eyes of others. "You still don't see us in commercials or as regular people in movies unless it's to be funny. So that I would like to change."
"I grew up not seeing anyone like myself on TV," she added. "I'd like to see my kids see themselves. It would be nice to be able to leave your house and not have to worry about someone staring at every move that you make."
"We can do whatever anyone else can if given the chance," she said.
After high school, she tried to get desk jobs but nobody would hire her. So she became an exotic dancer for a year. Once she got pregnant with her first child, she dropped that work. "I loved the money but the sexual attention got aggravating," she said.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
TV PREVIEW
"Little Women Atlanta" season 3 debuts Wednesday, 9 p.m., January 4, 2017 on Lifetime
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