By Jessica Frost
@jessicaxfrost
News has recently broken of the passing of 14-year-old model Vlada Dzyuba. Originally from Russia, the young model was working on contract in China and collapsed from exhaustion after walking in a 13hour show in Shanghai. She then fell into a coma and died two days later from chronic meningitis that had been worsened from the stress and exhaustion experienced by Vlada.
Her mother has since reported that her daughter hadn’t been feeling well for some time although she insisted that her daughter see a doctor, the model was “too scared” to seek help.
“She was calling me, saying ‘Mama, I am so tired. I so much want to sleep’,” her mother told NTV. “It must have been the very beginning of the illness. And then her temperature shot up. I didn’t sleep myself and was calling her constantly, begging her to go to hospital.”
It is alleged that Vlada was unable to seek hospital treatment as she didn’t have sufficient health insurance despite being on a contract with a prominent Chinese modelling agency. It is not yet known who is to blame for her lack of medical insurance and authorities are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the models tragic death.
There hasn’t been any word either on why the show was so long or why Vlada, who was only contracted to be working a maximum of three hours per week due to her age, was participating in the gruelling event.
The untimely passing of the promising model goes to show that there are very serious issues of mistreatment and law breaking in the industry. It’s important that any young model, no matter how fearful they are of tarnishing their career, be given the opportunity to speak up about how they are feeling physically, emotionally and mentally. 
