The first series to "Project Runway Junior" premieres this week on Lifetime and the contestants' mentor, Tim Gunn, spoke to the press about the difference between the original show and its newest spinoff with teenage designers.
Speaking with Yahoo! Parenting, Gunn said that he was a bit skeptical about the Generation Z contestants before the show started filming but that perception instantly changed. "It was so fun! It was so joyous! I love the kids so much -- and I use kids as a term of endearment. They are the sweetest, to which I attribute good parenting."
Gunn was fresh from doing Season 14 of "Project Runway" when "Project Runway Junior" started filming. He was experiencing all sorts of feelings about the spinoff especially when he just wrapped up one of the weakest seasons in "Project Runway's" history, per Variety. But, things quickly perked up when he started mentoring the kids for "Project Runway Junior."
"It was like the sun came out and the clouds parted. I loved every second of this season. I was sick when it ended," he told Variety. Whereas Gunn guided contestants above the age of 21 in the original series, he found himself working and advising high school students through the Cooper Hewitt Design Center's education department this time around. They kids are between the ages of 13 to 17 years old.
"I used to say, "Generation Z is for the birds." I thought they were brats, they were spoiled, but my tune has changed. As far as I'm concerned, the future couldn't look brighter," he said in the interview. He also teased that viewers will be able to see all difference between the two shows as early as the first episode of "Project Runway Junior."
Gunn also described the kids as possessing "incredible maturity, a tenacity about executing their work, they have such wonderful qualities of character, and they're just fearless and resilient," per Entertainment Weekly. Some of them were tested during the elimination rounds but they showed professionalism. It was the judges who would sometimes sob when a contestant was sent home. It had to take showrunner Sarah Rhea to condition and remind the adults that the show is a competition.
The judging panel on "Project Runway Junior" is composed of host and model Hannah Davis, celebrity and "Fashion Police" host Kelly Osbourne, "Project Runway" Season 4 winner and designer Christian Siriano, and Cosmopolitan and Seventeen fashion director Aya Kanai. Other notable guests in the first series are actress Bella Thorne and First Lady Michelle Obama, per Lifetime.
