Soul Sister Survivors

The glut of TV reality shows can make it difficult to distinguish one from another. But the recently concluded Survivor: The Amazon is burned into our brains, and not because the tribal councils wore better masks. The real draw? A pair of gorgeous young contestants--Jenna Morasca and Heidi Strobel--who made isolation and deprivation seem sexy. Forming an early bond, they competed and connived their way through episode after episode and kept male viewers tuned in by bathing together and even stripping naked in exchange for peanut butter and chocolate. But it was still an upset when Jenna, a 22-year-old student at the University of Pittsburgh, was awarded the million-dollar winning prize by a jury of seven runners-up. Jenna herself was surprised, so much so that she questioned some of the other contestants about why they had voted for her: "They said they respected the way I played the game," she says. "Even the ones who didn't particularly like me thought I'd played the best, and they rewarded me for that."

Jenna is the youngest Survivor winner yet, so it wasn't her familiarity with office politics that taught her how to win the psychological battles. She says she gleaned a lot of strategy from watching previous episodes of the CBS reality series: "Always keep your emotions in check. Always know your limits with other people. Always be friendly to everybody, even if you plan to vote them off." Perhaps she learned more from competing in beauty pageants and swimsuit contests back home in Pennsylvania. "They're really similar experiences," she says. "In both situations you have to connect with the people who are casting the votes." Her college zoology studies also proved beneficial while negotiating the Amazonian jungle. "My knowledge of animals made me less fearful. I was respectful and careful--but I wasn't afraid. Actually, living in the wild afforded me the opportunity to see things I had only read about. I encountered some unique and rare species, such as pink dolphins."

Heidi, 24, lives in Buffalo, Missouri and teaches physical education in middle school. Her appearance on Survivor was definitely a big deal in the corridors of her school. "There were reporters sleeping on my doorstep, trying to get the inside scoop on whether I'd get fired for the whole stripping-for-peanut-butter-and-chocolate thing," she says. "The day after that episode aired, I was given about 40 jars of peanut butter. All of my students, and the other teachers, too, were bringing me peanut butter and chocolate. I had some problems with the school superintendent and two school board members, but the president of the board was behind me, and that saved my job."

In the Amazon, Jenna and Heidi hit it off immediately. "We both have a strong sense of family," says Jenna. "That says a lot about someone." Heidi agrees: "Jenna would tell me stories about how her family interacts. Everybody else out there was like, 'I don't want to talk about it'--they didn't want to share anything about their families." Of course, Jenna and Heidi were famously unwilling to share bath time with female tribal teammates: Along with one other young contestant, they ditched the rest of the women and lathered up together in a stream instead. Heidi reveals some background to the breakaway bath that the audience didn't get to see: "Every time I took hold of a machete, the older women would roll their eyes. They assumed that because I looked a certain way, I would act a certain way. They never asked about my job--they didn't even know I was a schoolteacher. So the first time we went bathing with them, they were throwing out comments: 'Look at you. How long does it take to look like that?' Constant badgering. So I thought, I'm not going to do that again." Jenna makes an even simpler case for their bond: "We just enjoyed hanging around with each other--we had more in common."

Bathing is something they both view in a luxurious new light after two months without running water. "We didn't brush our teeth or shower the whole time we were out there," says Heidi. "The grass was so tall and sharp that I had deep cuts on my legs that never really healed. After we got home, it took two weeks to clean out the mud that was packed into the wounds." The jungle presented even bigger obstacles for Heidi, who was much more daunted by the Amazonian flora and fauna than Jenna (and for good reason). "When I was voted off, I was wrapped in five blankets and carried away. The show's doctor said, 'I'm just amazed you didn't die.' It was that bad." Now, back in civilization, famous with fans everywhere, and one of them a brand-new millionaire, Jenna and Heidi remain close friends. Even better, they apparently still wash up together every once in a while.

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