Pop culture quiz: Which celeb has Asperger’s?
September 21st, 2007
It’s one of the finalists on this season’s CW network show America’s Next Top Model, according to a report in Entertainment Weekly.
The show’s executive producer Ken Mok is quoted as saying: “our cast is a really compelling group of girls. There’s one with Asperger’s syndrome. We delve into that disability and how she deals with it.” A report on buddytv.com identifies the contestant in question as Heather (video here).
It’s hard to imagine how exactly a reality show about style and glamour is going to “delve” into questions about disability (in between watching beautiful women obsess about their looks).
Still, building public awareness can’t be a bad thing. Can it? Will Heather melt down amid the bright lights and bitter rivalries of reality TV? Perhaps some viewers of the show can fill me in.
Oh, yes, nearly forgot: Wednesdays at 8.
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September 27th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I saw the first episode of the season and immediately rooted for Heather to succeed. (My son is on the spectrum.) My husband, my younger son and I all watched the second episode together which shows most of the other girls gossiping about how “weird” Heather is, while she quietly minds her own business. It’s an amazingly moving demonstration of what our society thinks is “normal” behavior (the mean, catty girls) and “weird” (the quiet girl who keeps to herself). She ends up doing the best of all the girls at the weekly competition, but they also show her crying on the phone to her mother about how mean the others are. It was very moving for me and I think for any parent with a kid on the spectrum.