Meet “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit” Swim Search Co-Winner Dr. Nina Cash, 57: 'You Can Do Anything' (Exclusive)
Cash appears with six other Swim Search winners in the Rookie pages of magazine's 60th anniversary issue
Ben Watts/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Swim Search Co-Winner Dr. Nina CashSports Illustrated Swimsuit is pulling out all the stops for its 60th anniversary.
Editor in chief MJ Day has rounded up dozens of past models, from Martha Stewart, 82, to Winnie Harlow, 29, to appear in its commemorative ‘Legends’ issue.
And, for its milestone, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit named all seven finalists of its 2023 Swim Search winners, inducting them into its Rookie class and ensuring each a spot in the magazine in 2024. Among them: Dr. Nina Cash, a retired university associate dean who will grace its pages at age 57.
Ahead of her Swimsuit debut, Cash caught up exclusively with PEOPLE about modeling in her teens and in her fifties, and why her motto is: “Just go for it.”
Cash can still remember the first time she saw Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. It was 1983 when the Long Beach, Calif., native, then in high school, peered at a friend’s copy. The model on the cover was the legendary Cheryl Tiegs. The moment was a pivotal one.
“I remember it was so distinctive like: wow, she's gorgeous,” Cash recalls, adding, “And, I wasn't even in modeling, but I had a fleeting moment of ‘wouldn't it be cool if I was on the cover?’ I also thought, ‘I don't have blonde hair and blue eyes, I don't think I'll ever have that opportunity.'"
Even if Cash, who grew up in a Filipino, military and Catholic family, had doubts about how far she could take a modeling career, others didn’t.
“People would say, ‘You're pretty, you should try modeling.’ Again, it never crossed my mind because of how I look. The only part-Filipino person that I knew that was modeling at the time was Phoebe Cates. But when someone says that to you as a young girl, you have these fantasies of, 'Oh, wouldn't it be cool?' Because you think it's a glamorous life,” Cash says.
Inspired by a friend who had signed with LA Models, Cash attended an open call — with her mom. “I didn't have a professional portfolio or anything,” she laughs. “I literally just had a high school graduation picture snapshots from a barbecue. But they said, ‘We're interested.'"
After securing proper modeling shots, Cash immediately got an opportunity to attend an open casting, so she and her mother pulled up to the Hollywood Hotel in their station wagon to check it out. Days later, she was offered the job.
“I was like 19, maybe 20, and it was so wild. The booker says, ‘You're on hold at $650’ and at the time, I am making $2.10 cents an hour!” Cash says.
Related: Chrissy Teigen Covers SI Swimsuit in Barely There One-Piece 10 Years After Her Last Sexy Appearance
Cash remembers being the only model of color on the shoot. It was a common occurrence before the work cooled off, which she attributed to her “look.”
“I didn't see too many ethnically ambiguous models. I wasn't Asian enough, I wasn't White enough. They would always say, ‘You're so exotic looking. What are you?’“
Cash’s life naturally shifted in a different direction as she started a family and completed her bachelor’s degree. Fast forward nearly 40 years, and Cash (who earned a master’s degree in conflict resolution, peace-building and negotiation, as well as a doctorate in educational leadership, higher education and adult learning) found herself retiring in June 2022 from university life.
“I think there's more out there for me," Cash remembers telling her husband of the career move. Then she had a thought about her “encore” career: “Let me dip my toes back into this modeling world.”
Cash could have never expected she’d be “thrown into the deep end.”
Ben Watts/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Swim Search Co-Winner Dr. Nina CashWhile she and her husband visited his family in Australia in December 2022, Cash stopped by a store to pick up a bathing suit to better enjoy the country’s summer weather. “I grew up in a modest family, so, if I were to wear a bathing suit, it's going to be a one-piece, probably a MooMoo,” she says. But neither was available in her size. What was? A two-piece, leopard-print bikini.
“I thought, ‘Who cares. We walk on the beach early. There's hardly anyone there.' ”
On their December 31st walk, her husband captured a few shots of her on his cell phone. While looking at said pics with family at dinner, Cash joked, “not too shabby for a 56-year-old, gray-haired, senior citizen with a disability, because I have diabetes.”
Then: a thought. “I recall Kathy Jacobs being on the news, and she was a Rookie at the age of 57 for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. I said, "I'm going to be the next Swimsuit Rookie." The application due date was January 1, 2023.
Cash “threw something together,” hit submit and forgot about it. Three months later, she got a call. "Congratulations, Nina, you made the top 24.” She and her husband celebrated over chili cheese fries and Dr. Pepper.
Throughout the process, and even after Cash found out she’d become a Rookie, she stayed true to herself as she geared up for the Porto shoot.
“I didn’t go on a special diet or anything. I didn’t exercise more. I didn’t change my hair. As an educator, I feel like people are looking to me for realness. So, I'm like, “I'm not going to hide anything. This is me. Take it or leave it.”
“I want women to know it's okay to slay the gray. It's okay if you have bumps. It's okay if you have stretch marks. It's okay if you have spider veins. It's okay if you have varicose veins. It's all good. You only got one of you. Love yourself.”
At the shoot, Cash says she was “nervous” (though not more nervous than when she defended her dissertation, she notes) but that the support of Day and everyone on set carried her through.
The one tip she took from famous models was Tyra Banks’ iconic smize. “I tried to think of something calming and nice so that it radiated through my eyes. Both of my parents have passed away — my mom in 2010 and my dad in 2013 — so, I thought about them and their struggles as minorities in America and knowing that they would be so proud of me, not only because I got my doctorate, but so proud that knowing that I could do anything that I want to do and set my mind to.”
Cash’s wellness routine (which includes putting her face in ice water, never skipping breakfast and riding her Peloton) stems from her beauty from the inside out philosophy.
“I wear makeup, but I think I feel the best in my skin when I'm eating healthy, I’m doing my exercises, I'm volunteering, which is something that really brings me joy and fills my emotional bank account.”
Ben Watts/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
It’s an approach that stems from her mother. “One of the things that she told me was written by Sam Levinson and made famous by Audrey Hepburn. Among some of its lines: 'For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.'"
“That has always resonated with me,” Cash says. “Instead of giving somebody a piece of your mind, give them a piece of your heart because you don't know what they're going through. How can you motivate someone? Don't show them your superpower, show them theirs.”
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While Cash says she’s never been one “for the spotlight,” she’s not squandering one moment of her access to this new platform. “Given this opportunity, you better believe that I'm going to bring up other folks as well. You can do anything. Life is so short and the only one that's keeping you from doing something is you.”
“This experience has taught me that time passes regardless of what you are doing or not doing," she adds. "So, what I think people should do is just go for it. Find your happiness, and then you'll find gratitude, and you'll be able to choose joy. Don't wait for things to get easier, or simpler, or better. Life will always be complicated. Learn to be happy right now or otherwise you'll run out of time. So, just do it.”
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