Last spring, Michaels was scrapping by and had just been issued an eviction notice by her landlord. She stopped by the Public Library to check her email, and there in her inbox, was an invitation to audition for Project Runway from the shows casting agent. Even though Michaels had never seen the show, she watched a few episodes and decided to give it a shot, telling herself...

Patricia: If you make it then this is your chance to have that audience and be seen by the industry, so don't give up.

Michaels told me one of the most challenging aspects of the application process was that she is a severe dyslexic.

Patricia: For the Project Runway application it's like 40 essay questions and like 500 photos and images, so filling out these applications I was just like I hope they understood what I just said (laughs) you know, I really hope that I made sense in this application.