Sometimes the Winner is a Loser.

My ANTM streak came to an end last week. Both my ponies were on the chopping block. I suppose it’s good that I lost my secret pony (Heather) instead of my actual pony (Jenah). Although I have to admit that I was kind of sad to see my secret pony go, and it looks like I wasn’t the only one.

If you used the “CoverGirl of the Week” as a measure, Heather just might be the most popular contestant who has ever been on ANTM. She has won CoverGirl of the Week nine consecutive weeks. There has only been ten CoverGirl of the Week awards handed out this season. Lisa won the first one and Heather has gotten everyone since then. She even got this week’s CGofW after she was eliminated last time.

That’s some serious fan support. I wonder if ANTM knew they were dealing with such a fan favorite when they were taping this season? I don’t if that would have influenced the outcome (it obviously probably shouldn’t have).

One thing is clear, Heather might be the ultimate winner of this season once it’s all said and over with. That is, if you define winner as the person who receives enough publicity to jumpstart her career. Sure, she won’t get the title of ANTM, but you can ask Jaslene what that’s really worth (I suggest you ask her by email so you don’t have to hear her response).

I found a New York Times article about Heather; it mostly deals with the fact that she’s put a face on a condition that doesn’t get much attention. It’s an interesting read. I’m impressed with how diplomatic all of her answers are….something you might want in a spokesperson. Speaking of which, she says her future ambitions are to continue to try to model and eventually become a national spokesperson for Asperger’s. That seems like a pretty obtainable goal. Dawn says that she read somewhere that Heather is also entertaining the idea of trying to break into videogame design as a fallback career to modeling. I haven’t read that myself, but that might either be pure genius on Heather’s part or pure fantasy on some gamer’s part.