Introducing the winners of the More 40+ Model Search
The third time, as the saying goes, is a charm.
I am thrilled to report that our third annual 40+ Model Search with Elite Model Management once again elicited a flurry of entries for us to scrutinize, categorize and agonize over.
The big question: How to pick only five finalists? Another pressing question: Why would a clairvoyant enter a modelling contest if she can foresee the future and know she’s not appearing in More’s crystal ball? Aside from the psychic, among the 1,600 midlife model wannabes were a pet therapist, two organ transplant coordinators, two matchmakers, a Mountie and a laughter yoga teacher — along with, for some reason, lots of realtors (maybe the housing market hadn’t picked up yet). Our oldest contestant? Marlene from Calgary, age 74. Our farthest? Probably Judith, from Inuvik. Our friendliest? The easygoing women I met at our Tabi in-store event in Vancouver. At the airport that September morning, I started chatting with a lovely lady at the luggage carousel, and before I knew it, there she was, just hours later, entering our model search. Another entrant cheek-kissed me delightedly, having recognized me from a year spent at the same small university in France in 1982! And a petite lady asked me for a hug because, through my Letter from Linda column, she felt as if she’d made a friend (fortunately, it was more weepy than creepy).
The tears kept flowing once our finalists met up in Toronto last November. I hate the word empowering — especially when applied to modelling! — but it was. While posing for the cameras (for both this photo shoot and ET Canada) in their glamorous Lucian Matis gowns, Ara, Elisabeth, Susan, Tammi and Suzie spontaneously held hands in a circle, but it was surprisingly moving, not cheesy. Best of all? Their glow lasted far beyond the few days they spent together. Here’s what one finalist later said: “When I got back to work, the gang in the X-ray department had plastered an old photo of me all over the place that read, “…we love Sue.” They also made me put on a crown…. It went on for days and days.”
Ultimately, what emptied my own Kleenex box? The last line on the thank-you card from our grand prize winner: “It took me 50 years to find this woman,” she wrote. “You revealed her in four days.”
For more on their transformations, meet the winners of the More 40+ Model Search 2009!
