Models, like Olympic athletes, are humans, too, and sometimes their periods arrive when it is not convenient. British model Victoria Cain talked to The Independent about what it’s like to get your period when your body and your job are so closely linked and, unsurprisingly, it involves a lot of leaking fears.
“Fashion Week is just castings, castings, castings, castings,” where hundreds of women wait in line, the 19-year-old said. Getting your period unexpectedly would be even worse in this case. “It’s horrible because you can feel it and you can’t go to the toilet because you lose your spot. You think, do I lose a possible job or wait for another half an hour? So you just put up with the leakiness.” She carries extra tampons now and gave one to a friend in this situation at a casting last week.
Things get trickier if Cain gets the job but has her period during the show, where, typically, wearing thongs and pads is out of the question. This comes with its own calculus. “I always make sure I tuck my tampon string in when I’m on a job — walking down the runway with the string hanging out would be a super embarrassing moment,” she said. But it could be topped: “My absolute worst nightmare would be leaking on the runway.”
Cain worries about the clothes fitting, too. Aside from the requisite bloating, she said, “I can eat for England during my period.” And sometimes she doesn’t even go to castings because her skin gets so bad that she doubts she’ll get the job. “It’s like my period is smack bang on my face.”
Life will be so much easier in the dystopian future when women have all their eggs removed at puberty and stored for potential future use.
