Lauren Hutton "freaked out" about ageing when she hit her forties.
Lauren Hutton
The 76-year-old model worried about getting older, especially because her metabolism changed and she gained weight, and it took a few years for her panic to subside.
Speaking to The Cut, Lauren said: "I completely freaked out around 42 to 43. I put on about ten pounds -- which I know isn't a lot, but on-camera, it looks like 25 pounds. That was upsetting. But you talk yourself out of social ideas.
"We have a pretty mad society in many ways. It took me almost till my 50s to snap out of it. Now it's not nearly so bad."
These days, Lauren has a more pragmatic approach to getting older and insisted ageing is "the point of life".
Asked what the word 'ageing' makes her think of, she said: "I think that's the point of life, if you're lucky. Hopefully, it's growing up. You get to be wise. That's the point. You read; you talk to the smartest people in the world and listen to them."
The 'I Feel Pretty' star had a tough time as she approached her forties as she was fired from her million dollar contract with Revlon for being too old but she wasn't bitter about the decision because she thinks it backfired on the cosmetics firm.
She explained: "I don't feel any resentment from when they fired me at 41; it hurt them much more than it hurt me.
"When they called me in to say it was good-bye, they told me they had done "focus groups" and discovered that "women over 40 didn't use make-up!" Well, I was over 40, and all the women I knew all used make-up."
Despite her advancing years, Lauren hopes she still has several decades left in her career.
She revealed: "I hope to do modeling till I am 100. There is a chance. My mom just turned 96."
Being an older model in the industry has allowed Lauren to witness the social change and meet a new dynamic of models.
She added: "I feel a bit like a fantastic granny to all the gap-toothed models today. There's this British one, Adwoa Aboah, who founded Gurls Talk. She's deeply beautiful. She's the most wonderful, shocking beauty to come around in a long time."
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