Do more, worry less

When you’re younger, you’re constantly told to make the most of life as when you get older you will slow down and settle. I’ve achieved and experienced more in the last decade than I did in my twenties and thirties

Rachel Peru, silver curve model, video podcaster, and body confident activist

The first time I landed in Africa, I was a twenty-one year old. A scrappy charter flight took a couple of friends and me from a foggy day in Milan to a superb sunny morning in Mombasa. It was a time when smoking was allowed on board and the concept of a never-came-back-airline had not sunk into my mind yet. Upon landing, the air was clear and fresh, officers joked while checking our luggage, and dark pink bougainvillea grew to no ends, taking us from the walls of the airport to the roads we travelled in an old London cab. After a couple of hours drive, when we got closer to our final destination, it began to rain. Big drops of heavy rain slowed down our march that finally came to halt. We got out the taxi and realized that the rain was warm, something we had never experienced before in our lives. Full of excitement, we stretched out our arms and looked up at the sky, letting the rain fall on our faces with eyes closed and a big smile on. Even in retrospect, my first encounter with this mighty continent felt like an embrace.

During our stay in a beach house in South Kenya, we went for a safari to a national park, stopping now and then at a gas station for a coffee served in a chipped ceramic cup. A good chunk of the journey was along dirt roads and although sitting in a van was a bit uncomfortable, looking at the contrast between the red dusty road and the wintery green savanna was a sort of hypnotizing pleasure. While traveling in the park to spot herds of grazing animals, our driver got lost and we found ourselves on a dead-end (dirt) road overlooking a peculiar lodge built on stilts. A suspended bridge connected its white cylindrical rooms, which were covered by a black conic roof. More than the unusual design what caught our attention was the work of a nearby troop of baboons. Scavenging building materials and metal bins, the animals had reconstructed, on a smaller scale, the same shapes they saw in the distance.

It’s a silly example, but we should take into account what we see (or do not see) in the construction of our world. More than the simple act of copy & paste, references help us to navigate our need of sense-making. That’s why I particularly like Rachel Peru’s story. She went from being a nurse to being a model after the age of 50 in the UK. Surprisingly, what propelled her career was a subtle act of silent disobedience, like going gray. Choosing to give up hair-dye opened the door to new awareness and today Rachel is a silver curve model, a video podcaster, a lingerie and swimwear model, but also—or most of all—an agent of change promoting body confidence in midlife.

Talking about when you let your hair go gray, you said: “It suddenly felt like me.” Did something help you to develop the necessary self-awareness to make this choice or, on the contrary, was it the move of giving up hair dye that opened up a new perspective?

I had already found myself in a better place regarding my own body confidence, so it felt like the last part of me that I wanted to embrace. I just woke up one morning and knew I was ready to stop colouring it. I was lucky in that I had a very short pixie cut at the time, so it was very easy to grow out which I think made a big difference to the whole process.

In your experience, what does our society get wrong about the representation of the aging female body?

We seem to solely focus on all the negative things that can happen to our aging bodies instead of focusing on the positives. Women over 40 are then underrepresented in the media so we don’t feel like we can relate to the models we see in all the advertising, which only leads to reinforcing that negativity. If it became normal to see women in their fifties modeling lingerie for instance, with a diverse set of body types it would begin to normalize aging instead of seeing it as something to be feared.

The fashion industry is dominated by a particular idea of beauty. Getting under the spotlight for a different set of reasons is a way to disobey cultural stereotypes, to open new paths. What is your take?

I think it is so important that we keep challenging these stereotypes within the beauty and fashion industry as it helps open up the conversation. We need to create a space for everyone to feel represented and open it out to a wider audience. I find it hard to understand the fashion industry sometimes when you know how much spending power the older generation has, and they are still being ignored on the whole. We’ve seen a lot of tokenism in big campaigns in the last few years so I hope this will then start to become the norm in the future. 

What do you appreciate about this time of your life (a part being paid to travel to exotic locations)?

I appreciate all the new opportunities that come along. When you’re younger you’re constantly told to make the most of life as when you get older you will slow down and settle, but that’s not the case any longer. I’ve achieved and experienced more of life in the last decade than I did in my twenties and thirties. I really appreciate the richness that comes from meeting new people and learning from others.

It happens to women to question the relationship with their appearance - how they look, what they wear. On the basis of your experience, what would you tell them? 

I didn’t find my own body confidence until I turned 40 and I wasted so many years worrying and not liking my body that it stopped me really getting on with my life. I would say start by saying yes to more to new things and step out of your comfort zone. I think you need to fill your life doing more and worrying less. I also got rid of my weighing scales.

How are the players of the industry reacting to your blooming career? I mean, the stylist, the make-up artists, the creatives you encounter, what feedback do you receive?

I’ve had nothing but support from everyone I’ve worked with in the industry. They often look surprised when they ask how long I’ve been modeling, which I think is a good thing.

Your story is an invitation to re-evaluate aging. Do you think that aging can be a sort of a Trojan’s horse for inclusivity?

I think it’s definitely got a role to play and should be an important part of the conversation but it’s just one part of a whole string of things that need to be changed, including seeing more Black and Asian women in advertising, diversity of cultures, body shapes and sizes. Aging is part of the bigger picture. Progress has been made but we still have a long way to go.

From pro-aging to active aging, there are many marketing labels created to make people accept aging. I really like the idea of conscious aging. Does this definition apply to your personal journey?

I looked up the term “conscious aging" and it was described as someone having a “perspective that sees aging as a life stage full of potential for purpose, growth and service to a community and is a path toward realizing that potential.” I can relate to this description and I’m looking forward to what is ahead of me. I really do feel like I’m just getting started in this new career at 50 and have a lot more I want to achieve.

Cosmetic surgery and the media tend to black out the aging body. What message of empowerment do you wish to launch?

My overall message is one of embracing who you are and being kind enough to your body so that you can move through life freely without any of the body confidence issues normally holding people back. I also think it’s important for us all to stop judging one another. I think if a woman chooses cosmetic surgery because it truly makes her feel better then that’s her choice and I wouldn’t judge her for it. I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to age as long as you are happy within yourself. I am hoping that by using my platform and voice to push for more older women to be visible in campaigns that I can be part of the change that’s needed. By sharing my own body confidence journey and pushing those boundaries I hope women can relate to my experience and start to make positive changes to their own body confidence.