Why Jane's Failure On 'The Bold Type' Could Actually Be The Best Thing To Happen To Her

Getting your first major job can be pretty idyllic, especially if it’s your “dream” gig. That’s what happened to Jane on The Bold Type — she started working at Scarlet magazine as a writer, and it was the best thing that ever happened to her career… until she decided she wanted to work somewhere else. It happens! But on the Season 2 premiere of The Bold Type, Jane falls on her face, big time, and this sort of failure is unlike anything she’s ever experienced before.

Life is all about taking risks, and Jane took a big one in leaving the safe, soft nest of Scarlet for Incite, an online magazine. But the vibe at Incite is way different than the one at Scarlet — unlike the supportive boss who helped Jane through her issues, both personal and professional, Jane’s boss at Incite is much more into tough love. Actually, she’s just tough. When Jane writes a story about Emma Cox, a women’s products entrepreneur who donates the period supplies her company makes to women’s shelters, she finds out some not-so-great information — Emma’s products are making the women in shelters sick because they don’t have access to adequate facilities to clean them. Worse, Emma is still advertising the charity as part of her company, even though she stopped the donations (and started working on a new solution) when she learned the homeless women were getting sick. Jane wants to chalk it up to good intentions gone wrong in her piece, but her editor at Incite hijacks it and literally publishes a “special place in hell” line as the lede. It’s not good. (Jane’s editor is also not a nice person, because she camouflages being mean as provocative “journalism.”)

Jane, of course, made some mistakes here. After the article was published, she called Emma to apologize without going through the proper channels, and her voicemail ends up on the Internet. It makes her look bad, and it makes Incite look bad. Jane goes on television to defend herself and the magazine (but mostly herself), but she gets fired from Incite anyway after she doesn't stick to her editor's talking points.

Clearly, Incite wasn’t what Jane thought it would be — she did so well at Scarlet that she thought moving on would be a breeze! It’s a common misconception that young people tend to make — that the path to success is narrow and easy to navigate — but Incite turned out to be a terrible fit for her. Jane’s leap of faith was a belly flop, but it’s not that she’s bad at her job. She’s still a fantastic writer, but she’s not a fantastic writer in the confines of Incite. It’s the place, not the person.

It’s easy, of course, to think that Jane failed — and knowing Jane, she might think the same. But The Bold Type really seems to be setting her up for something bigger. Speaking from personal experience, I once moved to a job that I thought was going to be fantastic, and three months in, I realized it was the worst decision I could have made. My boss and I didn’t get along, I hated the work, and I missed my old job and old colleagues. It’s easy to wallow in making the mistake of leaving in the first place, but now I realize that knowing what you don’t want is just as important as knowing what you do want — and that’s something Jane is sure to find out this season on The Bold Type.

In an interview with Bustle, Katie Stevens, who plays Jane, says she was psyched to have Jane fall so spectacularly on her face. “It showed the stark difference between a place like Scarlet, where she had an incredible, encouraging, supportive boss… she was spoiled at Scarlet, and all jobs aren’t going to be like that, and it’s her moment of realizing what she is missing out on not being at Scarlet,” Stevens says. “It’s all about going with your gut, and I think Jane thought she needed to broaden her horizons and not stay in one place forever, so it’s gonna be a nice rollercoaster season to see her deal with how she wants to be back at Scarlet and dealing with coming up from that huge failure.”

Ultimately, Jane’s need to take a huge risk didn’t quite work out. But hey — that’s life. Failure is often the greatest teacher anyone can have, and Jane is getting quite a lesson on The Bold Type.