We recently published Janice Leadingham’s wondrous “The Melissa of Cat Spit Island.”

Here, we ask her two questions about her story:

1) Several years ago, I had a brief, but furious, obsession with America’s Next Top Model and this story takes me back to those days in the best way. I love how this story hits on the ANTM tropes with humor, but with compassion too. How do you walk that balance, especially with something so blessedly campy as ANTM?
I loved ANTM growing up, the drama of it, and yes, so campy! I talked my husband into a marathon of the show a few months ago, and I was kind of stunned. I remembered some of the cruel moments, but a couple of decades must’ve rounded those sharp corners. That humiliation aspect to it felt almost normal at the time too—the poking of their body fat, cutting off their hair and closing the gaps in their teeth under coerced consent, learning their worst fear and then forcing them to playact it for a photoshoot.  It can be easy to dismiss that kind of pain when you compare it to some others, but rewatching it lately, their clear discomfort lodged itself in my throat like a chicken bone. So, it was really important to me to write these ANTM contestants with some empathy and respect. The humor came easy because it was so fun to write—it’s a ridiculous scenario. But I really just wanted to make sure these women couldn’t be wholly consumed. They’re almost impossible to digest if we’re not sure what they’ve become or where they’ve gone. They’re free, hopefully. Autonomous.

2) But though the inspiration for this story might have come from ANTM, it quickly (and beautifully) becomes its own thing, much like the Melissa of the title. Are there any drafts that hew a bit closer to the source of inspiration?
No, although I think it would be really fun to play with that. I kind of always knew that I wanted it to just be the device that spurred them to transformation, but not in a Lord of the Flies kind of way. More like the Amazons but whose creation was wrought by early aughts American reality television and the long-term implications of it all. Sort of like what seeing a very thin Britney Spears being called fat did for a whole generation of people.