Can Disabled Models Rock the Runway and Reality TV?

Blond hair, blue eyes. 5 foot 11, 130 pounds.

One arm.

All the contestants on "Britain's Missing Top Model" are physically disabled.

(BBC/Love Productions)
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They're not the typical stats of a would-be model. But "Britian's Missing Top Model" hopes to change all that. The reality competition, premiering tonight in Great Britain on BBC Three follows eight hopefuls vying to prove they have what it takes to make it in the mainstream fashion world. The deal: Contestants pack into a Chelsea penthouse and, over the course of three weeks, get whittled down through a series of challenges. The prize: a high-fashion photo spread in the British edition of Marie Claire magazine.

The difference between this show and "America's Next Top Model": All the women have a disability.

Kelly Knox was born without a left forearm. Lilli Risner is deaf. Debbie Van der Putten is missing most of her right arm. Jenny Johnson is partially paralyzed.

"I was in a very serious car accident in December 2002," said Johnson, 22, a Seattle native who auditioned for the series after a photographer friend noticed an ad on MySpace.com.

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"Because of my brain injury, I have a slight limp in my gait. It's a little off. I still walk, I still talk -- too much actually -- but my personality is not anything like it was before the accident. Modeling was a dream I had been working toward for so long," Johnson said.

Kelly Knox, left, was born without a left forearm. Jenny Johnson is partially paralyzed as a result of a car accident.

It's a novel idea for both the modeling industry and reality TV. There are very few disabled models working in mainstream fashion -- Brazilian Brenda Costa, who is deaf, is probably the most famous -- and disabled contestants seldom sign on to reality competitions. And it's timely, with the fashion world under the gun for displaying too little diversity on its runways (Italian Vogue's July issue features all-black models in an attempt to combat that criticism) and, perhaps, too little compassion for the young beauties it absorbs (as in the apparent suicide of 20-year-old Ruslana Korshunova).