Christie Brinkley, 68, Says She Wants to ‘See More Women My Age’ in Magazines
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Christie Brinkley says she wants “to see more women my age” in magazines.
Since her early modeling days, the industry has made progress with inclusion and diversity, but there’s still a long way to go.
“The most beautiful thing about this beauty industry is that its arms are wide open trying to make sure that they embrace and celebrate every size, shape, age, race,” she said.
Today’s modeling industry is a whole new world compared to Christie Brinkley’s early days on set. And the 68-year-old is happy to see ongoing changes that make the business (and therefore, the media we consume) more inclusive and diverse. But this “great movement,” as she called it in an interview with Long Island Woman, still has a long way to go. For starters, she said she would “still like to see more women my age in magazines.”
“The most beautiful thing about this beauty industry is that its arms are wide open trying to make sure that they embrace and celebrate every size, shape, age, race,” Brinkley continued. “And that they see themselves and find themselves on the pages and feel good about themselves.”
She’s seen the positive impact of such representation first hand, especially when it comes to her own demographic. “Women say to me on my Instagram account all the time, ‘I’m so happy when I see your full outfit. Because sometimes I don’t know what’s okay to wear,’” she said. “And I try and give people the message that, if you feel good in it, then it’s okay.”
That sentiment goes hand in hand with her general philosophy on aging, which is: forget about numbers. “I think it’s really important not to focus on the numbers,” she said. “I think it’s really great if you can forget how old you are and keep just charging ahead, doing the stuff you love doing. I know people that are focused on the numbers and what that represents. I think it’s really important to just be more aware of how you feel.”
And that’s not to say getting older doesn’t come with setbacks. Brinkley has experienced her own—she got a hip replacement at 66, and admitted to Long Island Woman that posing for Sports Illustrated with her daughters in 2017 at 63 was a bit intimidating.
“The second you start thinking about being in Sports Illustrated you start thinking about, ‘Oh, do we stack up?’” she explained. “Everybody gets a little insecure. It was kind of interesting for everybody to be together there and sort of address their insecurities and get it out there.”
In the end, she called the experience “cathartic,” because it helped her become even more grounded in gratitude. “I’ve always been of the school of, ‘You’ve just got to be grateful for whatever you’ve got. You’ve got two arms, two legs, two eyes.’ It’s silly to stress about anything else. Be grateful. So what if it’s five pounds up, it’s you and it’s all good.’”
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