Supermodel Paulina Porizkova, 54, posted a makeup-free selfie to “blow up” expectations about women and aging.
The estranged wife of late Cars frontman Ric Ocasek shared the image on Thursday, noting her gray roots and skin tone. “Today narcissism is king and constant self-improvement is queen, reality has taken a back seat,” she wrote. “Who wants to see ‘real’ people on social media? No, not for us. We want aspirational…”
Craving clarity and glimpses of authenticity, Porizkova wrote, “So, this is what I really look like. Not a great photo, early in the morning, no makeup no filters, just the real true me. I’ll be turning 55 soon. At first glance, I think — ew. I look so old. Grief is certainly no beauty maker. My eyelids are starting to droop. The jowly bits next to my mouth don’t only make me look older but also somehow bitter. The gray in my hair is an easy fix, although, honestly, I’d love to just grow it out and stop coloring.”
“Now how can I help to make all this — what we consider flaws — to be seen differently, to be seen as confidence and beauty of a mature age rather than something that needs to be eliminated?” asked Porizkova. “I used to think gray hair was aging, that it was a sign of giving in to being old, but thanks to many glorious and rocking hot women on Instagram, I’ve totally changed my vision to gray hair being sexy and confident.”
The former host of America’s Next Top Model recalled singer Pink, who in 2017 accepted the Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards by revealing a private conversation with her then-6-year-old daughter, Willow.
After the girl said, “I’m the ugliest girl I know” and “I look like a boy,” the mom-of-two said she made a Power Point presentation featuring “androgynous rockstars and artists that live their truth,” admitting that she has also been teased for looking “like a boy.”
Pink said she taught her daughter, “We take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl. And we help other people to change so they can see more kinds of beauty.”
Porizkova applauded the rocker for showing her little girl, and all women, that uniqueness is exquisite. “Now, that is something to strive for,” she wrote. “Not change yourself to fit in the box, but to blow up the f**king box….”
Still, keeping it totally real, Porizkova admitted, “I am a mid-fifties woman, I’m vain and insecure,” and she finds that it’s easy to fall into old patterns, ending with “#truth” and “sexyhasnoagelimit.”
