57, Flirty, and Thriving: 'Sports Illustrated' Swim Search Rookie Model Dr. Nina Cash Talks "Encore Career" (EXCLUSIVE)
"It is one of the best feelings in the world to be like a 5-year-old on the morning of Christmas, and that's what I feel," Dr. Nina Cash advised 'Distractify.'
By Bianca PiazzaMay 21 2024, Published 12:Fifty five p.m. ET
Ah, the modeling industry. We frequently envision frail frames and looming tape measures, brown rice and greens (most likely that just reminds us of Showgirls), catwalk scowls, unattainable fashion, and a painful lack of variety. In their heyday (and to at the present time), supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss exuded unachievable beauty, an ethereal magnificence that gave the impression far out of achieve. Perhaps supermodels are simply born, no longer made ...
Thankfully, those are nasty clichés, as the times they're a-changin.' And whilst fashions like Winnie Harlow, Jillian Mercado, and Andreja Pejić were change-makers within the industry during the last decade, it's just a get started.
Enter Dr. Nina Cash, one in every of Sports Illustrated's 2023 Swim Search finalists. The retired college associate dean's attractiveness graces the 2024 SI Swimsuit Issue, released on May 17.
Nina — a proud 57-year-old Filipino-American woman with a flowing silver mane and a smile folks move to conflict for — achieves her goals on her personal phrases, strongly believing "it's never too late."
"People think there's a certain prescription to life. For instance, you fall in love, you get married, you buy a house, then you start having children. ... I did everything backwards. Okay, I got pregnant first, then I got married," Nina completely informed Distractify with a snicker during a telephone interview.
Though she grew up in a conventional Filipino, Catholic military family, doing life "out of order" is solely Nina's taste. The SI "rookie" were given her bachelor’s stage in Human Services a decade after high school, and her grasp’s in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding twenty years after graduating high school, as in step with Sports Illustrated.
Nina informed us that she lately earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership at the age of 55.
Distractify exclusively spoke with the dwelling, respiring goddess about representation, her unconventional trail to success, and her "encore career."
Dr. Nina Cash on journey to the sixtieth Anniversary 'Sports Illustrated' Swimsuit Edition: "It's magical."
Nina to begin with dipped her ft in the modeling waters proper after high school, but it simply wasn't her time, as love, motherhood, and better education changed into priorities.
"I just put [modeling] on the back burner. And then I retired two years ago from the California State University system," she defined. "I certainly wasn't retiring from life itself."
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Nina and her Aussie husband, dancer and choreographer Aaron James Cash, planned a trip to the Land Down Under in December 2022. She never thought it would finish along with her racing to put up an SI Swim Search application.
Used to wearing modest "one piece muumuus," Nina had no selection but to acquire a lone leopardskin bikini on her commute, as she forgot her suit at house. She simply wanted to conveniently enjoy a first light stroll at the seaside with her hubby!
"It's New Year's Eve, it's early in the morning, we're walking, talking, my husband is taking just super candid shots of me on the beach," she detailed. After glancing on the candids, her husband firmly said, "you are Sports Illustrated material."
She remembered that then-57-year-old, 5′3" Kathy Jacobs was an SI Swimsuit rookie back in 2021, a thought that fueled her motivation.
"I actually cobbled together a video, and I spliced in the ones random photos of me at the beach, and submitted it within the nick of time," she shared.
Nina, the oldest of the group, is one of seven Swim Search co-finalists alongside Achieng Agutu, Sharina Gutierrez, Penny Lane, Brittney Nicole, Jena Sims, and Berkleigh Wright.
Clearly, she doesn't let society's obsession with agism crush her spirit, as she proudly listed names of female artists who thrived during the winters of their lives, including folk art painter Grandma Moses and businesswoman and designer Iris Apfel.
"And then I look at Apo Whang-Od. She was once on the duvet of Vogue Philippines on the age of 106," Nina said of the indigenous Filipino batok tattoo artist. "I've no less than got every other 50 years!"
"It's a new international, it's a new technology of acceptance for other folks's authenticity. ... Dreams can come true at any age," Nina continued.
Dr. Nina Cash talks representation and coining the phrase "encore occupation."
Nina is in the midst of her encore career, which she calls "en-careering."
"What occurs — particularly with the Gen X inhabitants, and the traditionals in the boomer inhabitants — you began with a company, and then you definitely retired with that corporate after 35 years, and then you definately did nothing else," Nina stated. "I'm right here to say that you'll be able to have an encore career."
During this unexpected new chapter, Nina wants to use her platform to encourage discussions about the nuances of representation and the power of giving back.
"American other people in society equate gray hair to girls — not men, after all — as being washed up, ship them out to pasture, no longer sexy, somebody's 'grandma,' not desirable anymore, now not pretty, over the hill," she said of aging women, trailing off. "I've long past grey and I will nonetheless slay, and so are you able to."
She also hopes to positively represent the diabetic community, as Nina has genetic type 2 diabetes.
"I do not 'look' like anyone who has diabetes. So, seems to be will also be deceiving," she said, pointing to outdated stereotypes.
And in any case, Nina touched on the importance of philanthropy, proud of her 25 years volunteering for the nonprofit GetSafe.
"The challenge of GetSafe is to help other folks are living more secure and extra violence-free lives," Nina, a board member, explained. "I helped GetSafe create some curriculum to train [the Intellectual and Developmental disabled] population as a result of they're 10 occasions much more likely to be victimized and re-victimized than that of the neurotypical population."
As for her future, Nina envisions herself dancing her heart out on Dancing With the Stars and holding a spot on a talk show panel.
"I would like to help other people put the pavements down to construct their highway to luck," she shared with Distractify. "And if I may just do that on a talk display with other people thru dialogue — my years of experience in schooling and group of workers building, [and] now with this new career [in modeling and acting] — I'm going to embrace that, and I welcome it."
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