Photo: Via @elliottsailors
Look at the picture on the left. Now look at the picture on the right. Hard to believe, but they're the same person, Elliott Sailors, who's done a complete 180 and is now living a second life as a male model.
At 31, Elliott Sailors felt like her best years as a bikini model for brands like Bacardi were behind her. The work was drying up, and she wasn't sure if she'd have any longevity in the field. It seemed crazy — most women her age were just hitting their career strides. That's when she realized she'd have a longer, more fruitful career if she pursued work as a male model.
So, with her husband's support, the former beauty pageant winner buzzed her hair. It felt like a natural transition, she said, because, "earlier on in my career, I would get frustrated because I thought I looked too masculine," she said. "I have a strong jaw, wide forehead, huge eyebrows. I thought I looked like a man wearing makeup.” Most days, she affects a generally masculine demeanor — dressing in masculine clothes, and even holding the door open for other women.
It's a sad reality that Sailors will definitely have a longer career as a male model than as a female one (though perhaps not as lucrative — top male models make significantly less than their female counterparts). The double standard about male and female aging means that Sailors-as-a-man will continue to have value in the marketplace long after Sailors-as-a-woman would have been cast out as irrelevant. And, she knows it, too. “I’m starting over to have a longer career,” she said. “Men don’t need to look as young as possible, so I have a lot of time.” (NY Post)
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