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Based on the highly successful format of the America’s Next Top Model franchise, Britain’s Missing Top Model is a six-part series selling itself on the catch-cry “Stylish, sassy, chic … disabled?”

The eight contestants from the UK, The Netherlands, and the US range in age from 19 to 27 and include a woman whose arm was severed in a bus crash, another who is profoundly deaf and an aspiring film director who suffers from a degenerative neuro-muscular disorder, which means she is largely confined to a wheelchair.  

“Eight contestants live together in a fully accessible apartment, get fashion model training from the best in the business, and fight it out for the ultimate prize … their own photo spread in one of the country’s premier fashion magazines,” said the BBC website.

The show’s creators hoped the series would challenge pre-conceived notions of beauty and raise disability awareness.

Contestant Jessica Kellgren-Hayes, who often uses a wheelchair to get around, told Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, “I went into this program thinking it was an adventure, rather than a path to a new career.

“Although I don’t want any of my dreams to be unattainable, I’m not sure if Britain is ready for a model with a disability.”

U.K. Marie Claire editor Marie O’Riordan, who serves as a judge for Missing Top Model, says she has high hopes for the show.

The show debuts in the UK on July 1.

Alternative Journalism?

Blogging is seen as a challenge and a complement to traditional journalism. Having news coming from outside of a commercialised, bureaucratised news industry, outside news cycles, is enormously important. The shift in the balance of power so that readers can highlight the inaccuracies of journalism, or add useful context, without having to write a letter to the editor, is much needed. Having voices from outside the media insudtry is important. And having journalists whose success is based on their relationship with their readers rather than their relationship with their editor, is refreshing. Maybe something that traditional journalism cannot achieve.