Jenny Johnson
Britain's Missing Top Model waved goodbye to fiesty Jenny Johnson on Tuesday night in the most gripping show so far. Female First caught up with Little Miss Flirtatious to get her take on things.At sixteen years old, Jenny was an all-American girl, so popular in school that her phone never stopped ringing. On her way back from a basketball game, she was in a serious car accident and spent 19 days in a coma.The accident caused Jenny to lose some of the vital neurones in her brain and amongst other injuries she now has a condition called Ataxia, which causes unsteadiness and difficulties with balance- making last week's catwalk task more of a challenge for her than some of the other girls.Despite the problems Jenny has faced since her accident she is still determined to persue a modelling career- regardless of what the judges had to say about her..........What made you decide to go on Britain's Missing Top Model?
Well I got a message about the show from a friend who is a photographer that I had shot with a few months before. You never think that anything like that is actually going to happen to you though. I didn't think 'I'm gonna get picked', 'I'm gonna be on TV and get to work with some of the coolest people ever.'I've been modelling since I was 14 but then when my accident happened it was absolutely impossible to catch a break so I thought this would be a perfect idea for me to be able to actually get a shot. I also think that why are people who are disabled not considered as beautiful? Why are we completely shunned by the world? The world has disabled people so why can't we represent them in the fashion world?Was the show what you expected it to be?
For the most part it was. But I thought that maybe they were babying us a bit- especially Jess- and the real modelling world is not like that. In the real model work you're not going to have TV cameras all over you all the time. It was a little strange for me as well.
You were seen on this week's show telling Jess how you thought she would struggle with the show. How do you think she will cope as the weeks go on?
Well she's very sick and when i got home my mum really explained to me about Jess. She thinks she has got probably the worst disability because any wrong bump or anything could paralyse her. And that would be incredibly hard to deal with I think.
How do you feel about being eliminated?
In some ways I'm glad that it happened and in other ways I'm upset. I would have loved to have been in Marie Claire and I belive- and even the judges said it a few times- I was the most model-esque in a way. I was the only girl that had actually done modelling before their accident so I was kind of bitter about that a little. None of those girls really knew what it was like to have to fight to become a model compared to able bodied models.
And are you going to carry on persuing a modelling career?
It is something that I will want to do forever but the problem is the doors just keep on getting slammed in my face. So I'm almost done with it all. I just can't catch a break. It's very disheartening. I thought modelling opportunities would come through this but they haven't. I've done some interviews which has been great but that's all. I was also a bit annoyed about the editing of the show because I think it made me come accross a bit boring but I wasn't that way at all.
In the last show judge Mark Summers criticised you for being 'too sexual'. How do you feel about this?
I have a lot to say about that! Americans and Britains are completely 100% different and I am normal at home. My behaviour is normal when I'm here. I'm just naturally a flirtatious person and no one thinks that is wierd at home. But the minute I got over there the way I was acting caused people to stare and I don't get that.
But Mark is an asshole anyway. He was a complete jackass so I can't really take what he said too much to heart.
In the latest task the contestants had to take to the catwalk with professional non-disabled models. How did you find that? Did you think it was a fair task?
I have actually had to do that before but that was before my accident and I was normal then. I tried so hard to be normal and I think that it was kind of unfair to me in a way. Out of the five remaining girls that were there I was the only one who had a real fear of falling and hurting myself because of my balance issue. Sophie just had to wheel down there and I'm sorry but that to me doesn't seem very hard. Jess, Kelly and Kellie all could wear high heels so that to me seems to make it easier for them.
Do you think that the fact that everyone has such different disabilities makes it harder for any of the tasks to be totally fair?
To me I don't think the disability was what it was all about. None of the girls had something wrong in their brain that made them not be able to understand things so it could have been harder. As long as we had someone to sign to Kellie then she was ok and Kelly and Debbie only had problems with their arms and Sophie can get out of her wheelchair and pose normally. It's the same sort of thing with Jess. And it was the same with me really apart from the walking. So the point of competition was really to see if a disabled model could do all the things an able bodies model could do.
Who do you think deserves to win Britain's Missing Top Model?
Kellie Moody she is a good candidate to win. She is very pretty and she doesn't view her disability as a problem. She has a very good attitude. We were room mates so we got very close. But her body was probably the worst and she needed to tone up and if she were to do that then she could win.
Catch Britain's Missing Top Model on BBC Three, Tuesdays, 9pm.
Caz Moss- Female First