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7 September 2017 2:29 AM

Tyra Banks: “Nyle DiMarco is the world’s most famous deaf person”

By Troy Nankervis

America’s Next Top Model founder Tyra Banks has said Cycle 22 winner Nyle DiMarco is “now the most famous deaf person in the world”.

tyra-banks-declared-nyle-dimarco-as-americas-next-top-model-cycle-22-winner

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the judge, host and founder of ANTM praised the 26-year-old model for being an “amazing model”, adding his pictures gave her “chills”.

“What DiMarco is doing for the deaf community and the hearing community is revolutionary,” she said.

“He is now the most famous deaf person in the world.”

Calling DiMarco’s sense of empathy “beautiful” as he was dealing with the different contestants in the competition, Banks said he is “beautiful on the inside” and “outside”.

As the second male winner, and first deaf winner of the ANTM competition, DiMarco has collabroated with The ASL App to make American Sign Language easy to learn, announcing some 150,000 downloads of the app had been made.

After taking out the winning title for the competition, DiMarco said he is now focusing on his career. “I’m just kind of trying to figure out which agency I want to sign with,” he said.

“Both modelling and acting … and then hopefully working with big companies, whether it’s modelling brands or, you know, acting. Maybe TV shows, movies. I want to break more barriers, truly.”

It was announced back in October that Season 22 of the hit reality series was to be the last.

“I tend to like to do things and leave when on top,” said Banks.

“When I was a supermodel, I left the runway before it left me, you know?”

Banks added she was surprised by the amount of backlash she received following the series finale, when her social media channels lit up with budding contestants asking her to change her mind.

“It’s so interesting what’s happening right now,” said Banks.

“I’m like, ‘Did I do it too early?’ I don’t know.”

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