Gwen didn't even want to try asking Victoria for a job at The Mirror. That would be an incredibly awkward conversation so it was her last resort.
She wanted to try handling things herself first. She had spent her whole life riding on other people's coattails and she didn't want that anymore. She wanted to be able to stand on her own two feet and be herself. Whoever that was.
At this point, she didn't know who she was aside from the perfect model and someone who loved art. She hadn't really had the time to figure that out with how busy she had been kept since she was a child.
Having more free time and the ability to eat whatever she wanted was going to be strange when the time came. A nice sort of strange though.
Models retired all the time. If they could figure out what to do next, so could she.