Katie Stevens Hopes Jane's BRCA Status On 'The Bold Type' Empowers Other Women

The Bold Type’s Jane Sloan’s BRCA status means that she feels like a ticking time bomb. Because she’s much more likely to get cervical, ovarian, or breast cancers, due to a gene in her genetic makeup, she has to make some decisions — and fast — about her future fertility and her plans for the rest of her life. That’s a lot for someone in her early 20s. On the Season 2 finale of The Bold Type, Jane embraces her BRCA status in order to stand up for what’s right, and it’s a huge moment for her. In an interview with Bustle, Katie Stevens, who plays Jane, noted that coming to this point was a big deal. “The most difficult decision is to make your own decision and hope that it’s the right one for your future,” she says.

Admittedly, Jane has had her head in the sand since learning her status. It’s not easy to wrap your head around the fact that you’re only 23 years old and could get cancer already. Or that you’re way before your “I want a kid” years, but you have to think of how to have one. But by the end of Season 2, Jane is making moves. She’s going to freeze her eggs to ensure later fertility, but Stafford, the company that owns Scarlet, doesn’t offer insurance for fertility issues. They cover Viagra and impotence issues, which services the male dominated board — but the kind of medical treatment some women need to get pregnant isn’t on the list, which is a lot like how it is in the real world. This, of course, incenses Jane, because she can’t afford egg-freezing without insurance.

She writes a piece about how unfair the Stafford policies are, and Jacqueline publishes on the main site — a magazine for strong women essentially biting the hand that feeds it. But it’s worth it, at least for Jane and Jacqueline. And now, hopefully, Jane can start her plan to deal with her BRCA diagnosis.

“That’s what we’ll continue to see in Season 3 — Jane deciding to freeze her eggs. It means you’re going see her tackle that head-on and face the process, but I think the [Season 2] finale is really her journey… in terms of not really knowing what to do about it,” Stevens says. And Jane is far from ending her fight, no matter if Stafford claps back at her or not. “I think that Jane will continue to write articles and shed light on things when she feels like things are unjust, because it’s not just something that affects her. It can affect somebody else at the company who may get diagnosed with BRCA or need fertility treatments… we’ll see a lot more of that,” Stevens says.

For Stevens, Jane’s struggle is important to share to the world at large because it could help any number of viewers. “ I really love that the writers wanted to incorporate [the story] and show the struggles that women who are diagnosed with BRCA have... I’m happy we could showcase that and I can help show that story,” she says. And if Jane is open to it, Stevens would love for Jane to meet more people who share her struggles with a BRCA gene diagnosis. “I would be interested to have her meet somebody and maybe that be a person that helps her not victimize herself… and advice how to do that,” Stevens says.

Jane’s Season 2 storyline has been admittedly dark, given that she’s dealing with so much. The brightest spot is her love triangle with Dr. Ben and Pinstripe (“I know who Jane chooses, but I can’t tell you!” Stevens jokes), which has been providing viewers with plenty of smooching and cute moments to get through the gravity of Jane’s health problems. But in Season 3, expect a little more levity when it comes to Jane’s life.

“I feel like there was a lot of sadness around Jane’s BRCA storyline in Season 2, and we learned a lot about her background and where it came from,” Stevens says. “Season 3 will see her be like, ‘OK, now that I have this information, how do I live my life to the fullest?’ Fun Jane comes to the forefront.”

On Steven’s list for future Jane episodes? Perhaps a look into her family structure. The Bold Type showed something similar in an at-home episode with Sutton in Season 2, and since viewers have gotten a small glimpse into Jane’s relationship with her brother (they had a very informative phone call about Jane’s mother, which helped Jane make the decision to freeze her eggs), seeing where Jane comes from would be poignant. “I feel like so much of who Jane is and why she pushes away vulnerability, why Scarlet is so important to her, I think so much of that stems from how she grows up,” Stevens says. “I would love to have us meet her dad and her brother.”

In Season 2, Jane had to plan to deal with her BRCA status and her future health. In Season 3, she’ll act on said plans, and, thankfully, have a little fun, too, all without forgetting that talking about her own status can help her readers and the people around her.