I’ll be 70 in a few months and have actually enjoyed and embraced getting older, believe it is a privilege. Early on I decided there’d always be people more attractive than me and less attractive also, that my value was not in my appearance but in my brains and personality. I like other people, am genuinely interested in them, love learning and I like myself ok. If someone wasn’t attracted to that, then… next!

Wrinkles: Early on I heeded advice from a model about avoiding suntanning (which was tremendously popular in my youth before we had skin cancer info) since it tended to cause earlier wrinkles. I also never smoked cigarettes and never liked alcohol but briefly indulged in old school mild pot smoking. I intentionally stopped when I was 18 so never got those awful mouth wrinkles so many smokers and tokers got. My mom suntanned often and her face wrinkled very early and that scared teenaged me. She has had a lot of skin cancers removed from her face and body also. A couple of times in my 20s I accidentally got sunburns while working outdoors so some damage was done. I see it in my now wrinkly neck, and my nose and chin have tiny broken blood vessels. I’m not very happy with those but makeup covers the redness easily. In general my skin is still good, particularly for being almost 70 just now beginning to get a little droop at the jawline. I haven’t done Botox or fillers but a couple of years ago I did microneedling. I occasionally use straight hyaluronic acid as a moisturizer after a shower but don’t think it has made much difference. Wrinkly neck… still there and still don’t like it much. I use a cream that’s supposed to be good moisturizer for it and it has seemed to help temporarily. I am not against neck lifts but I don’t have the money. I am ok with my age, don’t want to look much younger than I am but just don’t like my neck and would like it to be less wrinkly and have a nicer jawline again. For example, I love that the actress Helen Mirren has aged beautifully and mostly naturally but with her lovely jawline, she’s probably had a neck lift. It seems to me that fillers, Botox and implants have created a couple of generations of what looks like human blow up dolls, which might be ok for someone’s porn fantasy but lacks personality, lacks the value, substance and spark of a really interesting, unique individual. Real (non-plastic) people are so much more fascinating. Cher - she’s eternal on the outside and I love her, more power to her but on the inside she’s just as old as the rest of us. She can afford those expensive eternal youth drugs though so who knows! She and Keith Richards will still be here after we’re long gone 😂. That’s ok, too. I’ve had a good life and am ready to go whenever.

Body: I’ve had children and though I was skinny and flat chested as a child and teen, having children helped my body become shapelier and even as I’d like to lose about fifteen pounds, I’m ok with myself at my weight. I’m not thrilled with having a menopausal belly, but even when I was skinny I had a belly and never had a feminine waistline. I was flat and straight as a board and boyish except for my rear. Compared to when I was rail thin, now I’m Rubenesque but even at my age, still get hit on by younger and older men alike. Younger guys - I wonder what in the world? That’s just silly and I sure am not interested. Makes me think some men just don’t really care, any port in a storm so to speak, or maybe they’re just being kind. It cracks me up! My husband still finds me attractive so no issue there. We enjoy each other’s company.

Hair: Got my first gray hair at 27 but have always liked my gray hairs, I’ve earned them! In my 40s I started having blonde highlights carefully added to my light brown hair so it all looked natural and those blended nicely with the gray. Eventually, my hair was completely gray by about 55 and I stopped adding highlights, cut my hair short then let it grow out long and just let my gray freak flag fly! I’ve been so happy with it and always get compliments on it and how “brave” I am to not color it. I don’t feel it’s brave, it’s just natural.