Heather Kuzmich: America’s Next Top Model

She’s a Top Model and autistic, but that didn’t stop Heather Kuzmich – who has Asperger’s syndrome – from strutting into the finals of America’s Next Top Model.Competing on the America’s Next Top Model, cycle 9, Heather Kuzmich has sported everything from metallic shorts and silver sandals to a straitjacket.

But it’s with a less flashy article of clothing that she has made her boldest statement. “She bought herself a shirt,” says her sister Robyn, “that reads, ‘I’m in my own little world. Don’t worry – people know me here.’”

Teased mercilessly throughout her youth for what came across as odd behavior, Kuzmich “was rarely invited to sleepovers or birthday parties,” says her mother. “There was so much persecution.” No wonder then that Kuzmich’s family sees the aspiring model’s TV stint as “her redemption time,” as her mom puts it.

Diagnosed as a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism that impairs social interaction and emotional development, Kuzmich has trouble understanding others, misreads social signals and is uncomfortable making eye contact.