UK Reality Show Set to Make Bold Fashion Statement

Can you take any more shows about modeling? Too bad, we've got another one for ya'. It's an import from the UK, called Britain's Missing Top Model, which begins airing on BBC America Tuesday nights starting December 1.

Sure, it sounds similar to Tyra Banks' America's Next Top Model: eight women with aspirations to break into the modeling industry are put through a series of challenges. The contestants are mentored by industry experts and are housed in a London apartment. But the difference here: the models are disabled.

Besides the attention paid to their disability, nothing else is changed in the format of the show. The women will compete in catwalk training, posing, photo shoots and go-sees.

The show is part of a campaign the BBC is calling "a major learning campaign about disability awareness and raising the profile of disabled people in the media." The network has also launched a companion Web site, Ouch!, to complement the programming and encourage a dialogue among viewers. Producers of the reality show worked closely with Disability Action, a UK advocacy group.

"Our intention is to empower both the women featured in the project and thousands of others, who shouldn't be invisible to the fashion industry just because they are disabled people," the show's creative director, Richard McKerrow, told The Guardian last year during filming. "We're also looking to challenge preconceived notions of beauty.”

Let's start this trend stateside, ASAP!

Photo by the BBC