Valley Student To Be Featured On MTV Reality Show

Most people don’t walk into their first day of cosmetology school in Seymour with an iguana in their arms while being trailed by a camera crew.

Then again, most people aren’t like Tiffany Scatena.

The 21-year-old Naugatuck native has a busy life. She’s a model and aspiring professional wrestler (see picture), but it’s her love of animals that landed her a spot on MTVs True Life” series being filmed this week.

The Emmy-winning documentary program details the lives of young people experiencing extraordinary challenges. Since first hitting the airwaves in 1998, True Life” has documented everything from drug addiction to young homeless families.

The episodes are often eye-opening and, sometimes, difficult to watch.

Scatena will be part of an episode tentatively titled True Life: Animals Control My Life.”

It’s a statement with which she reluctantly agrees.

They’re like children,” Scatena said Monday about her many pets. My friends who have kids are like You’re busier than we are!’”

So when someone sent her a link to MTVs website soliciting auditions from compulsive animal lovers, she readily submitted one.

Apparently we were awesome,” she said, adding that producers from MTV contacted her within days offering to tell her story. It happened really fast.”

A crew from the show was filming Scatena at her home Monday and will also be at the Oxford Academy of Hair Design in Seymour on Tuesday, the first day she’s taking classes there.

They should do a show about this girl in general,” said Kellie Steeves, owner of the Oxford Academy, while recalling Scatena’s many interests.

Scatena dreams of becoming a professional wrestler in the mold of the WWEs Kelly Kelly — A lot of people say I look like her” — but is pursuing work at the school as a fallback.

She wants to get her cosmetology license while doing these other things,” Steeves said. It’s smart that she’s doing it.”

Steeves said the MTV crew is planning on filming Scatena as she arrives for her first day of school Tuesday with her pet iguana — its name is Stephen Colbert — after which Steeves will inform her she can’t bring the lizard into classes with her.

The drama may sound a bit staged, but Scatena said it’s illustrative of how much animals are a part of her life. 

And how: the Colbert iguana is just one of nine pets Scatena owns.

Among the others are a chinchilla named Elvis Presley, a very overweight” goldfish, two mice, two dogs, and a 20-pound rabbit named Doug.

Oh, and she used to have another iguana but gave it away to a friend.

Its name? Jon Stewart, naturally.

My parents stopped letting me get animals when I was young,” Scatena said by way of explanation. When they finally said I could have an animal, it just sort of exploded into what it is now. At my max I probably had about 19 pets.”

They’re like my children and I love them so much,” she said. They can be a handful, like real children, it just comes with the territory.”

Incidentally, Tuesday’s shoot at the hair academy won’t be its only involvement with a realiy TV series this week — Brittany Connors, a supporting costar” on the Style Network show Jerseylicious” and Miss June in a Mets-themed Girls of the 7 Line” calendar, will meet fans there Saturday (July 21) from 1 to 3 p.m.

It’s just kind of a fun activity that we’re doing,” Steeves said, noting a professional photographer will be on hand to take red carpet” photos of fans with Connors. It’s a fun event for anyone that’s a fan of the show.”

The Oxford Academy of Hair Design is located at 153 North St. in Seymour. Click here for its website.

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