Yahoo News Paulina Porizkova Poses Topless in Heartfelt Instagram: 'Finally Comfortable in My Own Skin'
Paulina Porizkova/Instagram
Paulina Porizkova knows it's what's on the inside that counts.
The 57-year-old model and writer took to Instagram on Wednesday to pose in nothing but her underwear while looking gracefully out a window. Along with baring her body in the photo, she also bared her heart in the caption.
"The New Year is yawning wide open," she began. "I'm greeting it bare. Because I have nothing to hide. I'm finally comfortable in my own skin. I don't need armor when I'm already armed with my experiences and the wisdom they've brought. All the really good stuff is crammed into this body and invisible on the outside. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's what keeps me standing tall and proud - even when undressed."
To keep it from feeling too heavy, though, Porizkova added a few cheeky hashtags about aging, including #betweenjloandbettywhite and #greypride, seemingly to nod to her age falling between Jennifer Lopez (53) and Betty White (99 at the time of her death).
The heartfelt paragraph reads like a starkly different perspective on confidence and beauty than society often expects of women of a certain age. But that's exactly what Porizkova has used her platform for.
To kick off the new year, the star posted a bare-faced selfie with a message in the same vein as her nearly nude photo. She wrote, "First morning of 2023, unretouched, unfiltered and with a slight hangover from a wonderful night with my closest friends and son."
The caption continued, "2022 began with me being immersed in writing my book and in my past. It ended with the gratification of my book reaching you all, and your reactions to it. Sandwiched in between, there was a new life: travel, modeling work as an older woman, and making new friends wherever I went. A beautiful and perfect blend of the new and the old."
"In 2023, my hopes are to be able to let go of the past. To quit trying to live in it for comfort - even though it hurts and will keep hurting as long as I sit there. The unknown ahead is scary. So scary, that the pain of the past is preferable. This is what I want to conquer next. My fear of the unknown. To boldly go where I have never been before."
This air of unapologetic confidence and self-love comes after a lifetime of feats and challenges, beginning with entering the modeling industry as a teenager. She dealt with age-centered beauty from a young age, which she unpacks in her 2022 book No Filter.
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To flip the script on the aging conversation, Porizkova instead makes an effort to compliment others to lift them up rather than tear them down. She shared her story about it at the end of 2022, alongside an Instagram photo of herself topless on a beach.
Porizkova said her friends told her on a vacation years ago that her superpower is making "other women feel beautiful."
"I understand how it feels to be told by someone that you are beautiful to them. And the opposite. So I make a point of complimenting others. Is it shallow? Is it superficial? Maybe. But who cares when the result is a heartfelt smile and a little extra bounce in the step," she wrote, adding, "Every woman is beautiful in her own and unique way. Why not celebrate it?"
