Exclusive Britain's Missing Top Model Interview: Jenny Johnson

17 July 2008

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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 world 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.