Page 57 - Katherine Ryan press pack 2015-20

“I’m not preachy in any way. I don’t even pretend to have all the answers and I make a lot of
mistakes myself,” she insists, before getting into the meat of her show, the cultural status of

the glamour model in Britain. “Back home we didn’t have glamour models; we had porno

magazines and we had mainstream actresses and presenters. Here, that line is so blurred and
glamour models are put in such positions where they are sold as personalities but their entire

personality is just about getting naked or being drunk in the Big Brother house.”

As someone who, aged 18, worked in the Toronto branch of Hooters (a restaurant chain
known for its scantily clad waitresses), Ryan recognises that there are different career paths

out there for people. “I was a product of the society that said women are for decoration but I
do think girls should be able to do whatever they want. Yet, across the world there are girls

who just can’t; some can’t even go to school in Nigeria without being abducted. Here, you

actually have a choice to put your tits away. And, well, maybe you should.”

Unquenchable thirst for the minutest information on celebs

As well as tackling the public’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for the minutest information

on celebs such as Harry Styles, “Cheryl” and Cara Delevingne, Glam Role Model has her
discussing motherhood (Violet is her five-year–old daughter, or “flatmate”), the real

difference between Miley and Beyoncé, and some frank material about sex and body politics.

The relentless pursuit of celebrityhood which arrived with the explosion of reality TV and the

new kind of talent show carries its own inevitable dark side, a side-effect to fame which Ryan

has been determined to protect herself from. “People don’t realise that putting yourself out
there, whether it’s as the most popular girl at school or the weirdo (and I have been both),

makes you very vulnerable and more likely that people will attack you in some way. I’m so

lucky because I actually take comfort in people not liking me; I think it’s lovely that we all
like different things. When people come after me on Twitter, well, it’s fine: why would I

expect everyone to like me? I do think it’s a bit weird that you would go out of your way to

tell me how much you don’t like me, though.”