EXPANSION:AGING
Starting something new at 60 wasn’t on my bingo card. Modeling of all things. But here we are, under bright lights, surrounded by familiar hums of cameras and crew. I’ve spent my career on set directing, shaping images, guiding others. Now I stand in front of the lens. It feels both strange and right. The same creative pulse, only from a new view. The work is no longer about control, it’s about trust and believing. Joy in the unexpected. Life keeps offering new chapters if you keep saying yes.
Why do it?
Because it matters to be seen. Representation shapes what we believe is possible. Too often, we erase women past a certain age, as if curiosity, style, and vitality fade with color in our hair. They don’t. I want my presence, my face, my lines, to quietly say, you are wonderful. I see you.
We deserve to see full lives reflected back. Wrinkles tell stories. Grey hair marks time lived. Visibility isn’t vanity, it’s truth. The more we show up, the more we expand what aging looks like.
Do what feels wonderful to you. This is what wonderful feels like to me.
Agency @wespeakmodels
Photo @kristinashakht
HMU @sarahhartistry
Styling @ezaks
Glasses vintage @gucci
Suit made from recycled men’s @house_of_tame
Shirt son’s hand me down
Three years ago, out of the blue, surprisingly, serendipitously, magically I started modeling.
Yep.
Modeling.
A word I still trip over and find hard to carry. But here I am, in front of the camera after a lifetime behind it. I didn’t know what I was doing at first. I was a beginner in a world I thought I understood. Turns out, learning something new, when you’re 60 plus, is wild and wonderful. I worked to stay open, listened to notes, laughed at my awkward arms, and showed up again and again. And somehow I’ve had the chance to work with photographers I once only dreamed of collaborating with as an art director. It’s been a little surreal and a lot of fun.
Why do I do it?
Two reasons.
First, I love being on set. Always have. It feels like home.
Second, I want more representation of those of us who are choosing to age naturally. I never saw people in the media who looked like me growing up. So now I show up. Silver hair, full wrinkles, age spots, big grin and all. I’m still learning how to do this. Still giggling. Still in awe. And truly, this chapter feels like a dream.
For @linguafrancanyc
Shirt hand me down from our son
Agency @wespeakmodels
Photo @nickthomsen
Glasses @caddis
#silverhair
📖
Still can’t quite believe this is real. @thiscoldjoy , just sitting there on the shelf of one of my forever favorite bookstores, like it’s totally normal.
@mcnallyjackson Soho. Thank you.
Someone go grab it (it’s signed) and send me a picture!
134 Prince Street, New York, NY 10012
Or get a copy at thiscoldjoy.com
THANK YOU @chroniclebooks and @mcnallyjackson #dreamscometrue✨
🎓
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
- Dr. Seuss
Well done O.
We are so proud of you.
#nyustern
> NYC / Graduation
The more one does the more one can do .
- Amelia Earhart
@thismorningwalk in parking lot today! Arrive early and walk for 3 miles. ✔️ Make it work.
EXPLORING:PATHS
I have heard a lot of “No” lately. And I won’t pretend some of them don’t have a little scratch to them. But this morning I heard someone say “take the best out of every situation,” i love that. What I thought was going to be the path for something, simply isn’t. And for someone who genuinely loves an unplanned turn, who finds the unmarked trail more interesting than the certain one, this is really just an invitation. A new direction I haven’t explored yet.
You never know what’s around the next bend in the path. Let’s go see.
TO:SAUNTER
I received an email this morning from @jamesvictore . He did the glorious cover of Do Walk by @dobookco and he is one of the more wonderful, artful humans walking around on this planet.
He’d been writing. The word saunter kept showing up. Did I know where it came from?
I did not.
/ˈsɔːntər/ or /ˈsɑːntər/ Saint de la terre. Saint on earth. SAINT. ON. EARTH
I read it twice.
I may have even whispered it out loud.
Saunter. Saint on earth…
All these years of morning walks and the word for it had a small holy thing tucked inside the whole time.
A saint of the earth. That’s you, that’s me, that’s us. Walking. #thismorningwalk
Thank you James. Be sure to follow @jamesvictore
SPRING:HAIKU
check the forecast first
you said to yourself last week
you did not do that
☂️
I have a friend who sends haiku as texts. I do my best to respond.
Put your spring haiku in comments!
Photo @wouldntitbecool
MOM:DAY
“Mom, it’s cool Mom’s have ‘a day’, but why isn’t there a ‘Kids Day’ ?
...So unfair.”
- one grumpy unnamed kid, in a bucket hat and cool frogboots
Last pic my mom, Alice, and me
JOYFUL : CHAOS
If the Sun is the source of flow in the economy of nature, what is the “Sun” of a human gift economy…? Maybe it is love.
- Robin Wall Kimmerer
#thiscoldjoy #coldexposure #newburyport
LOVE:LIFE
If there’s one thing we all need to stop doing, it’s waiting around for someone else to show up and change our lives.
Just be the person you’ve been waiting for.
Live your life as if you are the love of it.
Because that’s the only thing you know for sure – that through every triumph, every failure, every fear and every gain that you will ever experience until the day you die, you are going to be present.
You are going to be the person who shows up to accept your rewards.
You are going to be the person who holds your own hand when you’re broken.
You are going to be the person who gets yourself up off the floor every time you get knocked down and if those things are not love-of-your-life qualities, I don’t know what are.
- Heidi Priebe
Agency @wespeakmodels
Photo @kristinashakht
HMU @sarahhartistry
Styling @ezaks
Glasses vintage @gucci
Suit made from recycled men’s suits @house_of_tame
Shirt son’s hand me down
#classicmodel #antiantiaging #silverhair #vintage
#bts
