Nicole Fox on America's Next Top Model cycle 13

Is anyone watching the current season of America's Next Top Model? It is Cycle 13 (season 13). It is currently October (Fall/Autumn) 2009. There is this contestant by the name of "Nicole" and she has red hair and has said stuff that makes me think she has extreme shyness/social anxiety disorder/avoidant personality disorder. Google "Nicole Fox" but make sure you also type in "ANTM" or "Tyra" because there is apparently another model or actress by the same name! Fox is a very common surname.

She has said that she was never very popular, that since a young age she felt very different, that she has nothing to talk about with the other contestants, that she does a lot of self-portraits in her "art studio" because no one is willing to sit for her. She said that her last year of high school was miserable because she had to sit by herself most of the time! Some poster on another messageboard who claims to know her said she is naturally shy. Another poster who posted on a messageboard says she is nice in class. Most of the contestants think she is weird. One of the judges said she speaks in a monotone and like she is stoned. One of the contestants said she is slow and too quiet. Nicole said, "I have really bad nerves, I try to channel that though". Most of the contestants think she is weird. There's a bonus video on a certain very famous video sharing website (I think we all know the name of it) that has a BONUS clip of her talking about how she's 18 and never kissed a boy, and the other contestants and teasing her a bit about it (but in a friendly way, not in a vicious way). (BONUS means it wasn't shown on television).

One thing I don't understand is her waking up automatically at 3am or 4am every night and then doing painting (I guess if she can't get back to sleep, she might as well do something productive).

I don't know what the sleep disorder is, or even if it is a disorder, but I get mad when people on internet messageboards say they think she has schizaophrenia! Maybe she is an HSP (highly sensitive person). Edited to add: She also said she used a big old rusty wheelbarrow to carry her books to school in instead of a backpack. She said that people think she is weird for that. A couple of posters on two different messageboards have said that this is a defense mechanism to convince oneself that the reason you are being rejected is not for the things instrinsic to your personality- things that are involuntary, but rather that you are doing things on purpose and that is the reason why you are getting rejected. They called it a "defense mechanism". Didn't Seung Hui Cho also phone up his roomate and tell him he was vacationing with Vladimir Putin (Russian president) and he once started stabbing the carpet at a party?

I don't think I've ever heard of anybody using a wheelbarrow. That sounds to me like she wasn't doing it to get picked on or to deflect so much as to draw attention to herself in any way possible. I would think it would be hard for someone who is very shy to directly do so, but the fact that she's trying out to be a model makes me think that there is a part of her that wants the glamour and attention that comes with that lifestyle. Perhaps that is her way of getting what she wants. Interesting...

I like her alot. I wish the other girls would stop picking on her. She sounds more schizoid than avoidant I think, but I don't know. I can tell she's a very warm & talented person, she just has that thing in the way I think.

I think Nocole is gorgeous! She doesn't have anything "wrong", she just has a few extra challenges. It is so great that she overcame many of her personal challenges. The only problem she has is that no one has ever recognized that all of her difficulty with socialization, her inability to read other people, her "different" body movements, her seemingly flat and static personality, tone of voice, and facial expression (definitely overcome in her photos), and her passion or " obsession for art that she says she can " do for hours" all point to Asperger Syndrome. As a parent of a child with Asperger Syndrome as well as a parent mentor and child advocate, I can say that when you live and work with children with Aspergers , you just can't miss it! I am so glad she won- she really is an inspiration!

She won! I am so happy. When she said that she used to eat her lunch in a washroom stall, I freaked out a bit because I did that too in grade 8! But my reason was a little different than hers. She said she did that so that people wouldn't see her eating by herself. I did it because I had heard that there were lots of gangs who were very territorial and I was scared that I would inadvertently eat my lunch on their territory and one of the gang members would walk up to me and say, "Hey, what do you think you're doing here?! This is OUR spot. GET OUT!!!" I was really scared of that happening so I felt a lot safer eating in the washroom stall.

They also showed a photo of her on a mountain bike while Laura was describing sweating or heavy breathing during you-know-what, and that was kind of a freaky reminder since most of my classmates knew that I had a huge crush on a mountain biking guy! Ahhhh! And I had never kissed a guy either at her age. So we have SOOOOO much in common! I just thought that if any of my high school classmates are watching the program right now, they'd might be thinking of me!

I don't find any of the girls on that contest very beautiful -- some pretty faces but their bodies look like people in P.O.W. camps. Yick!

Sorry, BUT... they're just too damn skinny for my tastes. I hate that. I loved how models looked in the fifties - real curvy like Marilyn Monroe. I wish we'd go back to those days in terms of body ideals.

Also ----> I like faces with character, some ears that stick out or some buck teeth. Seriously. I find anomalies very attractive. I find many model's faces to be so bland.

Leblanc4277 wrote:I think Nocole is gorgeous! She doesn't have anything "wrong", she just has a few extra challenges. It is so great that she overcame many of her personal challenges. The only problem she has is that no one has ever recognized that all of her difficulty with socialization, her inability to read other people, her "different" body movements, her seemingly flat and static personality, tone of voice, and facial expression (definitely overcome in her photos), and her passion or " obsession for art that she says she can " do for hours" all point to Asperger Syndrome. As a parent of a child with Asperger Syndrome as well as a parent mentor and child advocate, I can say that when you live and work with children with Aspergers , you just can't miss it! I am so glad she won- she really is an inspiration!

WHAT?!! Are you kidding me? If she had Asperger's Syndrome, she wouldn't have been able to overcome any of her challenges. Did Heather Kuzmich overcome any of her challenges? Sure, young children's brains are plastic enough to be able to mold them away from being on the autistic spectrum somewhat, but Nicole is 18! She is too old for molding. Her "overcoming challenges" was just gaining trust from her housemates and becoming comfortable with the staff. This happens over time. I am slow myself to warm up. I have been diagnosed with "Social Anxiety" by a psychologist and he doesn't think I have Asperger's (this is because I self-identified as a nerd, and he said, and this is a paraphrasing, "I think we define the word "nerd" differently. I don't think you are a nerd. To me, the only nerds are people with autism and Asperger's Syndrome"). I too ate my lunch everyday in a bathroom stall for the first few months of my first year at high school, and I had to sit by myself at school assemblies, stand by myself during fire drills, and sit by myself during lunch a lot of hte times.

One of my teachers said to my dad, "she's very shy". One of my classmates, who was also in elementary school with me, said to me, "Guava, you are so quiet now! You were so outgoing in elementary school". She was smiling while she said it, as if to say, "Why the huge change?". No guys asked me to any dances either. I didn't get my first boyfriend or go on my first date or have my first kiss until age 19. Most of my classmates thought I was "weird" and I got made fun of a lot. I was put on a list on the internet called "[Our school's] Geeks and Freaks". I am able to be quite the ham/entertainer; my psychologist said that he thinks I should have my own show. He said that my sense of humour is strong. It's just that I only act this way when I am around people I'm not worried about offending, like if I percieve them to be weaker than me, or like a 14-year-old boy whom I know likes bathroom humour, or my parents, because I know they will react positively.

"her difficulty with socialization,"

Asperger's isn't the only "disorder" that has "difficulty with socialization" as one of it's symptoms. There are also the shyness disorders, like "selective mutism", "social anxiety disorder", and "avoidant personality disorder".

" inability to read other people"

When? Name me one instance where she was unable to tell what another person was feeling.

"her "different" body movements"
OK, so her dancing wasn't as good as the other girls, but it was more that her timing didn't match with the music, rather than her movements being awkward. It wasn't like she was falling down all the time like Heather Kuzmich on the trampoline. I doubt Nicole would be as bad as Heather on a trampoline.

"her seemingly flat and static personality"

Leblanc4277, you are SOOOOO blind to context.
"She said the shy, awkward young woman viewers saw on the show is not the Nicole Fox she grew up with. She said her sister is much more open and fun around her family and friends." from http://www.dailycamera.com/snowzone/ci_13815948
"Kim Kardashian for defending me when the panel criticized me for my apparent lack of personality. Kim said she could tell that I am a very quiet and shy person, and that my supposed "dry" persona was due to my being extremely uncomfortable at panel. She told me that she, too, is a very quiet person. I felt that she really understood me in a way that not every judge could." from http://www.rtvgames.com/showthread.php?t=22719

"tone of voice"
In the bonus footage YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJq1Hz2d6wk she says, "I'm a slow processor. Very slow." So this may explain why SOMETIMES she talks slow/stoned. She also says that whenever she finds herself concentrating really hard, her voice gets slower and slower and her tone gets lower and lower. Or else she tries not to speak at all. Here is the video clip in which she says that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PDCuzW2AoU She is just nervous! People with Social Anxiety Disorder are worried that they won't say the right thing, so they do a lot of self-monitoring.

"facial expression"
Again, you are forgetting about the context, about the environment she is in at the particular moment when she is giving a blank facial expression. I would wager that when she is giving a blank facial expression, she is trying to prevent fear from showing up on her face when she is in threatening environments (like panel, where there are people around that she is not yet comfortable with). She would not be giving these blank facial expressions when she is with her family, because she trusts them and is not scared they will chastise her or embarrass her. We high in interpersonal sensitivity have overreactive nervous systems that scan the environment for potentials threats more than the average persons'. Watch some bonus footage videos from MonocerosPowerup on YouTube; there you will see she is quite animated when talking to the other girls, and not in that monotone. Check out the 0:26 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PDCuzW2AoU , she has a sudden burst of emotion. How can you call her lifeless and monotone there?

"passion or " obsession for art that she says she can "do for hours""
I have a passion for animal welfare; does that mean I have Asperger's? My mom has a passion for gardening; does that mean she has Asperger's? My dad is a soccer fan. Does he have Asperger's? My brother likes indie music. Does he have Asperger's? I know tons of people who have spent hours reading "Harry Potter". Do they all have Asperger's? My mom often reads a novel in bed for a few hours before she falls asleep. I guess she has Asperger's. My dad also watches TV for a few hours every night. Aspergers! Also, many people have said they read the ~500 page novel "Jane Eyre" in one sitting; I guess they have Asperger's! Me and my friend went on a hike for three hours in the forest; I guess we both have Aspergers!
The reason why painting is such a bad example for an "repetitive behaviour" is because there is an infinate number of creations one can make with a brush and a canvas, even if they have only one colour! I mean, the possibilities are endless: you can paint kittens in pointilism, fruit in Renoir style, a man in the style of Picasso, you can do geometric shapes in the style of mondrian, I mean, it's hard to get bored. It's not like you are painting the EXACT SAME PAINTING using ONLY ONE COLOUR using the SAME SIZE CANVAS and ONLY ONE PAINTBRUSH every single time. Now that would get boring and monotonous and mind-numbing to the average person. But with painting, there is no limit. When they talk about Aspies "doing things for hours", they are referring to things like stacking the same set of blocks. Not writing poetry or making sculptures or walking in the forest or making films with a video camera.

Now yes; some people with Asperger's are also shy at the same time. So they could have a dual diagnosis of both Asperger's and Social Anxiety Disorder. But I think Nicole only has shyness (shyness that is at the extreme of the bell curve is called "Avoidant Personality Disorder" or "Social Anxiety Disorder"). You would never have known she was percieved as "awkward" if you had only looked at her CoverGirl commercials. You would have thought she was just a normal girl. I doubt Heather or anyone with Asperger's could have pulled off the commercials the way Nicole did. And by the way, did you see any of Nicole's interviews post-win? I did not see any shyness or awkwardness. This is because we shy people can do something the shyness researcher Carducci calls "forced extroversion". We can put it on when the situation calls for it; it's just that we would prefer to avoid those situations because they are scary. But sometimes these situations can become less scary the more we are exposed to them (desensitization). Remember when Rae said in a private interview to the camera that Nicole was slowly coming out of her shell and it was fun getting to know Nicole's personality? People with Asperger's are PERMANENTLY like that. They don't "come out of their shell" (unless that was just their shyness).

Here are some of the comments by YouTube users about her interview on Regis and Kelly: "OMG! she's alive and awake...and TALKING. Just kiddin', i like her ", "she's totally not awkward anymore!", "EXCUSE ME? socially awkward or even inept?! I DON'T SEE IT AT ALL! ", "She did really well on this interview! I wasnt expecting her to be so fluent.GO NICOLE!", "I wonder why the other girls found her so difficult to get along with. Maybe she acts more mature than an average 19/20 year old.??", "She did pretty well in this interview. I'm glad she's gotten over her shyness.", " think her personality and social skills have improved ", "They always edit on ANTM to make them seem dull.  She seems so personable."