Elle Macpherson On Finding Her Confidence After 50 | HuffPost

Elle Macpherson On Why Looks Really Don't Matter

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Huff/Post 50 Editor, The Huffington Post

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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 22: Elle Macpherson launches The Super Elixir at Selfridges on May 22, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

She's long been considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, but Elle Macpherson says her confidence nowadays has little to do with looks.

“There’s one thing being 20 and gorgeous with legs up to your armpits and beautiful tight skin, and there’s another thing to be 51," the supermodel said in an interview with Australia's Sunrise talk show. "Finally you get to the stage and say, ‘I have been known to be one of the most beautiful women in the world and felt really not confident and sure of myself'."

Dubbed "the body" for her enviously toned figure, Macpherson says confidence and beauty come from within. "As I’ve matured, what I’ve realized is that it doesn’t really matter what I look like, the most important thing is, ‘how do I feel?’”

Since turning 50, she's learned to take better care of her body. It's this holistic approach to aging which inspired her to create her own wellness brand, WelleCo, which sells "Super Elixir," a powder supplement she says is an anti-aging treatment that's "cheaper than a face cream." Besides her diet, she also does a variety of exercises including swimming, yoga and hiking to keep "the body" in shape.

"Now that I am 50, health and wellness [are] hugely valuable," Macpherson said in an interview with Yahoo! Beauty last year. I see so many people my age who are not well, so I value it."

Beautiful, both inside and out.

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Before You Go

30 Post 50 Women Who Inspire Us

Rita Wilson(01 of30)

Rita Wilson, 56, is an actor, producer and singer who never stops reinventing herself. For example, on the heels of her debut album "AM/FM," actress and singer Rita Wilson has just released her first EP, "Christmas Card," which can be downloaded on iTunes. (credit:Getty Images)

Andie MacDowell(02 of30)

While Andie MacDowell might look ageless, the Jane By Design star is actually 54. Still, the beautiful mother of 2 is embracing her post-50 life, and last year she told Huff/Post 50, "the one rule I can break at my age is I think what I think, feel what I feel and if you don't agree that is fine with me. We are allowed to agree to disagree." (credit:WikiMedia:)

Diane Keaton(03 of30)

The actress told Huff/Post50 that with age has come more clarity and focus -- attributes she said she didn't necessarily have in her 20s and 30s."I think it gets more difficult as you get older because you're facing the end and endings are ... unbearable. Our lives are basically about facing that tragedy. And I think the sooner we face that we're going to die, the easier it is to appreciate the moments in life... When we realize that our lives will end, we take less for granted. That is what I've learned from loss. The whole thing is a fantastic mystery so all we can do is appreciate each moment." (credit:AP)

Helen Mirren(04 of30)

Modesty and a healthy dose of humor are keys to Mirren aging so gracefully. When a gym recently gave her Body of the Year, she told the women of The View that she just sucked in her stomach."It was a beautiful thing that these fitness people did, I have to say," she said. "I think it was recognition of the fact that you don't have to be perfect." (credit:GF/bauergriffinonline.com)

Sheryl Crow(05 of30)

The cancer survivor told Health.com that she is enjoying the aging process:"I definitely am embracing aging. When you shoot your face with Botox and stuff, you rob yourself of your ability to have youthful expressions, and that's why sometimes people look a lot older." (credit:Getty )

Kim Cattrall(06 of30)

"I consider 50 to be young. People are living so much longer, and besides, I don't think I look 50. I take really great care of myself," the actress told BlackBook magazine.Which is not to say Cattrall's afraid of her wrinkles. According to BlackBook,when the actress was asked if she wanted to have some photos heavily retouched she said, "F*** it. Leave it all in." (credit:Getty)

Iman(07 of30)

When it comes to aging well, the stunning supermodel embraces kindness in its many forms."For me, skin care rituals are a form of meditation -- they keep me balanced. I am kind to my skin. I remove my makeup as soon as I get home and I apply moisturizer," she told O, The Oprah Magazine. "But just as important as being kind to my skin is being kind to younger women," she continued. "Kindness is a lovely quality to nurture as you get older. It makes you feel good about yourself." (credit:Getty)

Julianne Moore(08 of30)

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Michelle Pfeiffer(09 of30)

Pfeiffer is measured, but honest about how growing older makes her feel."Honestly, there's certainly a mourning that takes place," told the Los Angeles Times in 2009. "I mourn the young girl, but I think that what replaces that is a kind of a liberation, sort of letting go of having to hold on to that. Everyone knows you're 50. So you don't have to worry about not trying to look 50." (credit:Getty)

Angelica Huston(10 of30)

"This great fear of laugh lines and wrinkles and getting old is really unnatural. It happens to the best of us -- what are we going to do? It's a matter of whether you want to go to war with that and have surgery," the actress told iVillage UK. "Ultimately it's a slippery slope. I think you wind up looking like a thing rather than a younger version of yourself. I think you have to make peace with what you have and keep it all in order," she continued. (credit:AP)

Sigourney Weaver(11 of30)

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Lauren Hutton(12 of30)

According to The Telegraph, the beauty loves her changing beauty, believing it reflects a rich life."Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life," she said. "They are what we have been through and who we want to be." (credit:Getty (For TriBeca Film Festival))

Emma Thompson(13 of30)

The British actress has said that she, personally, is all about aging naturally. "I'm not fiddling about with myself," she told The Telegraph. "We're in this awful youth-driven thing now where everybody needs to look 30 at 60." (credit:Getty)

Jamie Lee Curtis(14 of30)

The actress has been open about embracing her age-related changes, famously posing for a magazine shoot sans clothes and sans Photoshop. But she's equally candid about how building self-confidence is a gradual process -- one that's gotten easier as she has aged."I feel much more authentic," she once told More magazine. "I'm not saying I'm a spiritually perfect person. I'm flawed and contradictory and fraught in many areas. But I'm better. I'm growing, and that's all I really want. (credit:Getty)

Isabella Rossellini(15 of30)

"In interviews, the first question I get in America is always: 'What do you do to stay young?'" Rossellini told O, The Oprah Magazine. "I do nothing. I don't think aging is a problem ... I'm so surprised that the emphasis on aging here is on physical decay, when aging brings such incredible freedom. Now what I want most is laughs. I don't want to hurt anybody by laughing -- there is no meanness to it. I just want to laugh." (credit:AFP/Getty Images)

Diane Lane(16 of30)

Lane told Glamour magazine that aging has given her welcome perspective."I wouldn't go back to being 20. Because here's the thing ... there is something wonderful about coming to terms with time -- that it is finite," she said. "You want to have as much joy in your life as possible, and you take responsibility for your own joy." (credit:Getty)

Annette Bening(17 of30)

The writer-director of The Kids Are All Right said she cast Bening in part because she wanted someone who was real and who would not shy away from showing her age on screen."We never had a wrinkle conversation," she told The Wrap. "I just said, 'I want the make-up to be super-modest,' and that was the end of it." (credit:Getty)

Betty White(18 of30)

Though people look to her as one of the top models of aging well, the actress said she's never given it much thought."I never thought about age much," Betty told AARP magazine. "I learned that at my mother's knee. Age was not important. It was where your head was." (credit:Getty)

Christie Brinkley (19 of30)

The California native with the million-watt smile played Roxie Hart in the musical "Chicago" on Broadway stage earlier this year. Brinkley says she has been a vegetarian since age 12, and keeps in shape by doing yoga, strength-training, running and walking."My age has so little to do with my image of myself because at a certain point, the number just didn't fit how I felt," Brinkley told Shape magazine. "It has become irrelevant to me. I just don't feel like that number is representative of my spirit, of my energy or anything." (credit:PA)

Angela Bassett(20 of30)

Angela Bassett is a beautiful, strong woman, who has made a career out of playing other beautiful, strong women, such as Tina Turner, Rosa Parks, and Katherine Jackson. Next up, the actress is set to play Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife, Coretta Scott King in a Lifetime biopic. In her spare time, Angela spends time with her husband of 15 years and two children. (credit:jpistudios.com)

Ellen DeGeneres(21 of30)

Ellen is a member of the "you know them by their first names only" club. The outspoken comedian gets funnier the more she pushes the envelope. We loved her Halloween impression of actress Sofia Vergara. And proving she can take what she can dish out, she loved SNL's Kate McKinnon impression of her. (credit:WikiMedia:)

Geena Davis(22 of30)

We love actresses who use their clout for a worthy cause, and that certainly includes Geena Davis, who has been tracking how women are portrayed -- and the number of roles for them -- in the movies. The co-star of "Thelma and Louise" created the Geena Davis Institute on Women in Media has documented gender inequality. (credit:jpistudios.com)

Jodie Foster(23 of30)

From childhood, Jodie Foster has been a star of small and large screen. Now 50, she's been in front of a camera since age three and garnered two Golden Globes and one Academy Award. Admit it: You closed your eyes during "Silence of the Lambs." The Hollywood Foreign Press Association will give here the lifetime achievement award at the 70th annual Globes ceremony on Jan. 13. (credit:AP)

Allison Janney(24 of30)

The chameleon-like Janney, best know as C.J. Cregg in "The West Wing" seems to be getting hotter with age. She recently played a sexy older professor in "Liberal Arts" (and inspired the Twitter query:" Is Allison Janney de-aging?"Janney recently filmed a nude scene in a Christian Camargo film. "It felt better than I thought it would feel," she told The Huffington Post. "I had a talk with the D.P. [director of photography] before I did that walk …'let’s gets some backlighting here.’" (credit:jpistudios.com)

Virginia Madsen(25 of30)

Madsen has appeared in more than 40 movies, including the recent film "The Magic of Belle Isle" with Morgan Freeman. Madsen told The Huffington Post she practices yoga, takes spin classes and goes hiking to stay in top shape. "When you're 35, you need to figure out what kind of 50-year-old you want to be," she said. "Now that I'm 50, I'm thinking about what kind of 70-year-old I want to be. ... I want to be strong, lean and mean. And I think it's important to realize that if you don't grab on to life, you're just going to be left behind." (credit:PA)

Demi Moore(26 of30)

Demi Moore won the hearts and minds of older women everywhere for giving Ashton Kutcher the boot a year ago. Moore, ex-wife of Bruce Willis, has been in the headlines more for her personal life than her career, but nobody is writing off the camera's love affair with the Cougar Queen. (credit:jpistudios.com)

Meryl Streep(27 of30)

Often known as the great actress, Streep has embraced her age -- and recently being a rom-com leading lady -- with admirable glee."I'm 60, and I'm playing the romantic lead! Bette Davis is rolling over in her grave!" she joked with Vanity Fair in 2009. (credit:jpistudios.com)

Nia Vardalos (28 of30)

This has been a big year for Nia Vardalos. Not only did the actress just turn 50, but she's also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the release of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," the film that made her an overnight sensation. When asked what she'd tell her 20-year-old self today, Vardalos said: "Don't worry so much about sucking that gut in. No one is looking. All those body issues ... I was such a confident kid and I think it's a real testament to my parents. If you were funny you got attention in my family. No one cared about looks. I would say not to worry so much. People are not focused on you all the time. They are focused on themselves." (credit:WikiMedia:)

Bernadette Peters (29 of30)

Bernadette Peters has been acting for almost as long as she could talk, making her television debut at the age of three. Now, 61-years-later, Bernadette is on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, has recorded six solo albums, won two Tony awards, appeared in countless broadway shows, television shows, and movies, and authored two children's books. The red-headed beauty isn't stopping either, as she will be appearing in the upcoming season of Smash. (credit:jpistudios.com)

Susan Sarandon(30 of30)

When it comes to aging and beauty, Sarandon takes an admirable "to-each-their-own" mentality, telling The Independent she would never weigh-in on what people do to make themselves happy. Her best advice? Sarandon has said: "The only thing I'd say is that learning how to forgive yourself for not being perfect is probably a really positive step." (credit:Patrick Fallon / Reuters)

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