I'm doing modeling to stay alive. I don't enjoy my work. I don't find it creative. You don't need brains, and there are no heavy qualifications. All it takes is not to be shy and to dare to make a fool of yourself. But I shouldn't complain, because I am privileged enough to be overpaid.

Paulina Porizkova

Categorized in : You Yourself I Am Work

Nothing ages as poorly as a beautiful woman's ego.

Paulina Porizkova

beautiful-women ego beautiful

My first recognition of age setting in was exactly on my 36th birthday. I have no idea why, on this day of all days, I looked in the mirror and realized my face no longer looked young.

Paulina Porizkova

mirrors birthday ideas

Beauty, unlike the rest of the gifts handed out at birth, does not require dedication, patience and hard work to pay off. But it's also the only gift that does not keep on giving.

Paulina Porizkova

dedication hard-work patience

Now, I don't actually know the exact cut-off age where beautiful ceases and "must have-once-been-beautiful" begins. It's true it's not forty-five. I can still get attention when I try really hard, even if it's greatly reduced.

Paulina Porizkova

cutting age beautiful

The real bummer of fame is that at some point you're bound to get demoted.

Paulina Porizkova

bummer real fame

I have worked every day since the age of fifteen, supporting not only myself, but also helping a sizable family when needed.

Paulina Porizkova

fifteen age helping

I have now spent over a year trying to figure where in the workplace I belong.

Paulina Porizkova

workplace trying years

My boyfriend thinks I lost my true calling to be a librarian.

Paulina Porizkova

my-boyfriend calling thinking

I was fired by 'America's Next Top Model' on my birthday.

Paulina Porizkova

top-model birthday america

When I model, I pretty much blank. You can't think too much or it doesn't work.

Paulina Porizkova

blank too-much thinking

I will continue to be intelligent, I vowed, no matter how beautiful I become.

Paulina Porizkova

intelligent matter beautiful

Fame is an interesting phenomenon.

Paulina Porizkova

phenomenon fame interesting

Models are back to what they were in the '70s: clothes hangers.

Paulina Porizkova

hangers clothes models

Beauty can get a woman what she wants: love and money. But when beauty leaves you, so can the things it brought.

Paulina Porizkova

love-and-money want

I found him still asleep when bringing him his Sunday morning coffee, i touched his cheek to rouse him. It was then I realized that during the night he had peacefully passed on.

Paulina Porizkova

entertainment

I've always hated modeling. It's superficial and fake, and I hate to have to care about what I look like. I get a pimple and freak. The whole business is all about selling beautiful girls' faces and bodies, so how can there be anything intelligent or nice about that except for the girl who makes money?

Paulina Porizkova

money girl business beautiful

When I model I pretty much go blank. You can't think too much or it doesn't work.

Paulina Porizkova

go think you work

When you have used your beauty to get around, it's like having extra cash in your back pocket. I was so used to walking down the street and having the young guys passing by at least give me a flicker of a look. But once you're over 40, you become invisible. You're a brick in the building, and it's sad.

Paulina Porizkova

me you sad beauty

Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista - those models got bunched together. I was always asked to be bunched in there, but I didn't want to be part of the herd. The only one I really had a problem with, though, was Naomi.

Paulina Porizkova

always problem together want

I used to think the word 'feminist' reeked of insecurity. A woman who needed to state that she was equal to a man might as well be shouting that she was smart or brave. If you were, you wouldn't need to say it.

Paulina Porizkova

woman you man brave