Tyra Banks, 50, talks graciously about hot flashes, beauty secrets and aging

She broke barriers, taught us to “smile” and, for higher or for worse, made the not-always-pretty side of the modeling industry a must-see on TV for twenty-four seasons of “America’s Next Top Model,” on which she also co-created and produced . Her famous joke: “We were all rooting for you!” stays timeless, but at 50, Tyra Banks also advocates for a brand new perspective on aging.

“What my life is now is completely different from what I thought it would be like when I was 50 when I was a little girl,” Banks said. People Magazine for “The Beautiful Issue”, which, as a part of the magazine’s fiftieth anniversary celebration, highlights celebrities over 50. The supermodel, who made history as the primary Black woman to seem on the quilt of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue in 1999, is currently celebrating latest milestones including a lifetime of entrepreneurship, a successful relationship, and being a “mom” to an 8-year-old son York (whom she shares with ex-boyfriend Eric Asla), and will reach her half-century mark in December 2023.

“Pops up. I’m not insecure. I don’t trip,” Banks said. “I often say, ‘Baby, (I’m) 50!’ before I say anything. This statement gives me permission to say regardless of the hell I need to say.

“I couldn’t wait to turn 50 because I felt like it was a rite of passage so I could be my true self,” she later added.

That doesn’t suggest the supermodel is proof against the changes that include middle age, specifically a number of the more infamous symptoms of perimenopause like hot flashes. Reflecting on her own experience, Banks assured women her age that “it’s not the end of the world.” In fact, it may possibly provide much-needed “me time,” she says.

“Use that point whenever you get up in the course of the night to simply do a number of things because it’s going to wake you up. Read this book; do that crossword. Watch the top of this system that amazed you a lot,” she advised. “Don’t worry about it. Don’t be ashamed of it, because (we) will all undergo it, and now we will do it together and talk about it, which is absolutely cool and significantly better than what our parents needed to do: Just hold on and pretend it doesn’t I’m crazy. -Isn’t that the sun? Without children. It’s you and there’s nothing improper with that, baby.

Banks in an analogous approach to the aesthetics of aging; although she hasn’t fully entered her “gray era” yet, she is open-minded and inspired by other celebrities who’ve embraced gray.

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“I remember gray hair used to be like, oh, you just hid it. You didn’t show it; it was a no, no,” he recalls. “Now I see women saying it. “I’m grey. And not only is it OK, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful. …And I find it amazing.”

“I’m very, very lucky that I had a mom who wasn’t obsessed with aging in a negative way,” Banks added. “She has gray hair, she loves her gray hair. She would like to have more gray hair. I think it taught me not to be afraid of getting older. I’m not afraid of it. I consider it a privilege and I think it’s because of my mom.”

Another thing Banks gets from his former “mom” Karolina London? A proven and extremely accessible beauty secret. “She was also very fond of Vaseline; she was rubbing Vaseline all over her eyes,” Banks recalled. “And I used to be a Vaseline girl too. Now I’ve switched to other things, but now and again I take Vaseline and think: “Maybe that’s why I don’t have wrinkles.”

At 50 years old, Banks apparently not only looks great, but in addition looks to the long run with less fear.

“I bit my tongue, said the right thing (and tried) to please everyone my whole life,” she admitted. “And now I’m telling the reality. I demand respect. And that is good. I am unable to wait until I’m 60 because I’ll probably curse everyone.