Sierra Reed By Susan Grant | Photos courtesy of CBS Networks
From Tamarack Beach to Tocantins, Carlsbad's Sierra Reed thrives on adventure.
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The Brazilian highlands are a long way from the fashion runways, and even farther away from the sunny beaches of Carlsbad, but 23-year-old Survivor:Tocantins castaway Sierra Reed has mastered them all.

Long before hitting the small screen on the 18th season of CBS’s popular reality show, Reed was hitting the court as a member of Carlsbad High School’s basketball team and breaking into the modeling world. By the age of 16, Reed’s budding career made regular class attendance difficult, and her school counselor advised her to transfer to an independent study program at the Carlsbad Seaside Academy. “I had a hard time juggling my modeling career with school because I was flying around so much,” Reed says. “ I was actually in the same independent study program as Olympic snowboarder Shaun White, and we both had to fax our homework into class from wherever in the world we happened to be.”

By 16, she had moved to New York City, secured an agent and modeled for Prada and Chanel. It was in the big city that her propensity for dealing with strangers in close proximity first revealed itself. Living with five other models all going for the same casting spot, Reed learned quickly how to stay true to herself while going after what she wanted, a skill she used often while on Survivor. Reed’s modeling career took her all over the world, from Milan to Taiwan, and her adventurous spirit helped her appreciate the ups and downs of worldwide travel. “I learned to pull my own weight and became a lot more mentally mature,” Reed says. “I think it made me an old soul.”

Eventually, Reed ended up in Santa Monica, where she continued to model and run with a celebrity crowd, even making appearances on the MTV documentary series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. It was at a taco stand in Santa Monica that a Survivor recruiter discovered Reed, and she turned down a lucrative Tommy Hilfiger campaign to film the show because her adventurous spirit just couldn’t say no. A short while later she found herself with 15 others in the Brazilian headlands, where she would spend the next 30 days starving and scheming against them in an attempt to win a million dollars.

Reed’s time on the show was almost cut short right away when her tribe selected her to be exiled to an island during the first episode. But Reed, who suffered from the flu for the first several days in Tocantins, fought her way back into the good graces of her tribe, forging close alliances with New York City entrepreneur Brendan Synnott and Taj Johnson-George, wife of famed football player Eddie George. Reed’s ability to essentially rise from the bottom of the food chain to the top endeared her to fans, but her propensity to speak her mind about the show’s most controversial contestant, Ben “Coach” Wade, ultimately led the other contestants to send her packing in the 11th episode. “I was the black sheep and the odd man out there toward the end,” Reed says. “And to stick it out, with them all turning against me and forcing me to sleep outside of the shelter, I am so proud of myself for overcoming it all.”

Reed says the most difficult obstacles to overcome while living in the wilds of Brazil were the weather, the hunger and the bugs. “It’s nuts how much you take for granted just a tiny morsel of food,” Reed says. “At night we would just sit around and talk about all the things we wished we could eat and I would dream about Reese’s Pieces.” Every square inch of her body, even her eyes, was constantly covered in insects, and the heat and humidity drained every last bit of energy she had.

Reed admits that she wishes she had been more involved in the alliance building that remains such an integral part of being successful on the show. But she looks back on her days in Brazil fondly, like another notch on the belt of the world traveler that she has been since she was 15 years old. Losing out on the million-dollar prize was nothing for this Carlsbad girl, who says she remains proud of her actions on the show and for the experiences she shared with the other contestants. “People on the street come up to me and give me a hug, telling me I was such a good fighter,” Reed says. “It feels really good. I’m proud of what I did, no question about it.