NEED TO KNOW
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Heidi Klum, 52, has a very refreshing approach to aging
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The model described the concept of beauty as “ever-changing” and is grateful the modeling industry has grown to celebrate age
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“You’re not off the shelf,” she says about the biggest misconception of being in your 50s. “We are very much on that shelf for everyone to see”
Heidi Klum is loving life in her 50s.
The supermodel, 52, sat down with PEOPLE for a candid cover interview about her life, career and her approach to aging. Klum, a former Victoria’s Secret Angel and current model for Intimissimi, once thought of 50 as “really old,” but now that she’s here, she’s more than ready to embrace this stretch of life.
Klum, who returns to Project Runway as host on July 31, tells PEOPLE one of the greatest misconceptions about women in their 50s is the notion that they’re “off the shelf.”
“You’re not off the shelf. We are very much on that shelf for everyone to see,” she says. “Don’t hide in your 50s. We only have this one life, so keep living it.”
Max Montgomery
Heidi Klum for her PEOPLE cover shoot
When she was younger, Klum saw her present decade of life as especially old — but now, she says, it’s just the number that’s “scary.”
That perception may have been a product of the modeling industry she was immersed in during her young adulthood, she says. Then the view of beauty was more limited, but now Klum says the industry has grown to embrace older women and celebrate age as a journey.
“Now it’s okay to be older—but it didn’t use to be like that,” Klum says. “I feel like we’re more welcoming of wrinkles and rolls on our body. Being accepted at every age is amazing. That we’ve changed and come all that way.”
At the age of 52, Klum describes her beauty as “ever-changing,” a quality she readily welcomes. “If it’s always the same, life is boring,” she says. And that change involves an inevitable gray hair or two, Klum shamelessly shares: She has one silver hair in her eyebrow and one on her nipple!
She’s also realistic about cosmetic enhancements—and refreshingly open about it. “I’m all for Botox,” she says. “Can we talk about Kris Jenner? She looks fantastic. Whoever wants to talk about it [plastic surgery] and wants to share—give me all the numbers. I need to know. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
Max Montgomery
Heidi Klum.
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Looking ahead to the next 20 years, Klum expects she’ll still be surrounded by the people and parts of life she loves most. She hopes she’ll still be with her “amazing” husband, Tom Kaulitz, and that her four children will celebrate holidays and birthdays alongside her.
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“I’m going to make it work,” she muses. “I think I’m going to have a lot of fun still.”
Stay tuned for more from our exclusive interview and photo shoot with Klum ahead of Project Runway‘s hotly anticipated season 21 premiere on Freeform, Hulu and Disney+ starting Thursday, July 31.
Read the original article on People
