Paulina Porizkova’s #OldandUgly Goes Viral as Women Fill Social Media With Natural Beauty Shots
Actor/model Paulina Porizkova sparked a movement after a social media user attacked her for sharing a recent bikini photo.
Porizkova is a vocal supporter of natural aging, especially for women, and proudly posts makeup-free photos on social media. After someone viciously attacked her, referring to the bikini photo as “old” and “ugly,” Porizkova took to social media, telling women of all ages to be proud.
Now a slew of women are proudly sharing their favorite photos on social media, sparked by the hashtag “old and ugly.”
#OldandUgly went viral after Paulina Porizkova’s bikini photo
Porizkova shared a collage of photos she found on social media. She admitted to being extremely touched and invigorated seeing the shares.
“Yesterday, I posted yesterday’s shot to Twitter, and to keep it short, just mentioned my suffering at being this ‘old and ugly,'” she wrote.
“What happened next was unbelievable to me. At first beautiful mature women started to post their own ‘ugly and suffering’ bikini photos,” she contined. “Then, close-up selfies of their beautiful faces. And men got in there too, posting themselves at their ‘old and ugly’ age, hiking, working out, climbing mountains, hanging with their grandkids and their spouses – just having the times of their lives. AND – even more surprisingly (for Twitter) they were ‘liking’ each other’s post, commenting with love and grace.”
Celebrities shared their #OldandUgly photos
Porizkova admitted, “I ended up in tears at well past midnight, still scrolling and commenting on this wave of affirmations of one another. For one night, the world seemed a beautiful place. I have used the first photos I saw when I began to read the thread- women celebrating their astounding bodies. There are hundreds more- if you’re a twitterer, check it out.”
She added, “There is no old and ugly. Only shortsighted and ignorant.”
Celebrities also joined the movement. Carole Radziwill from The Real Housewives of New York City shared a bikini pic on Instagram. “I heard @paulinaporizkov posted a bikini pic & was called ‘old and ugly.’ I’m two years older. Here’s my #oldandugly. 58 y/o. (So all the internet sleuths can chill I was 53 in this pix. Still old AF, right? I couldn’t find another bikini shot. Look the same tho.)”
Yvette Nicole Brown shared a selfie on Twitter. “50 over here. Joining the 51 club in three months! Grateful for every day and decade! #OldAndUgly.”
On Twitter, Porizkova added, “The love continues! 57 and proud! Keep posting your wonderful beautiful selves and tag #oldandugly so we can keep sharing the [heart emoji].”
Paulina Porizkova hopes more women can embrace self-acceptance
The bikini photo isn’t the first time Porizkova defended herself on social media. She explained that when she posts about not having Botox or fillers, she isn’t shaming those who do.
“I always have a knee-jerk reaction to this – wanting to defend myself,” she wrote on Instagram along with a photo of her face, using a filter on half of it.
“No, no, I want to say, I’m merely going for representation. This is what it looks like to be an un-tweaked woman of 56, (ok, so on a good day and in great light) I, personally, want to see other women who haven’t tweaked, so I have a sense of what being my age looks like. In our new world of artificial perfection, sometimes it’s impossible to tell what is what, and I’m trying to clarify it for you the way I’d like it clarified for myself. I have zero objections to women seizing their power in any way they see fit. Yes, this is how I see tweaking. Seizing your power and putting it into play.”
“Remaining tweak free is acceptance,” she concluded. “Can you do both? I have no idea. I’m trying, but so far, I keep falling into the muddy middle. I do noninvasive laser stuff … to boost collagen, use my @beautypie regimen and hope one day I’ll wake up not caring so much, or perhaps, accepting that I cannot change societal norms by myself and go and seize my power.”
