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A 67-YEAR-OLD model is ignoring ageists who suggest she dye her silvery hair — because plenty of people think she looks decades younger.
Yazemeenah Rossi is a grandmother of two who wears her wrinkles and long white hair with pride, and she insists she’s not hung up on aging.
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Though Rossi says she isn’t chasing a fountain of youth, she keeps healthy with yoga and an unprocessed diet — including a cup of coffee with coconut oil and egg yolk in the morning.
This has given her a bit of an ageless quality.
She told The U.S. Sun that some people find her to be “very young” for her age, “like 30.”
“Others think I am much older than my age,” she added.
Many of these people, she added, think changing up her hair — which started graying when she was 11 — would make a difference.
They’ve suggested that she “should cut my hair and add dye to look younger, but this has never crossed my mind,” she said.
Rossi firmly believes age is just a number: She said this is something that everyone, regardless of hold old they are, must realize.
Based in Malibu, California, Rossi insists that she doesn’t have an anti-aging routine.
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“For me, there is no such thing as anti-aging,” she said rather defiantly.
Instead, she added: “I am simply pro-well-being [and have done] everything I can since a young age to maintain peak physical and mental health.
“Like everything in nature, we age and we are going to die.”
Any attempt to deny this rather brutal fact “is like swimming against the current.”
Ironically, she noted, it’s this very obsession with aging that leads to stress, “which then creates oxidative damage and toxins, thus making us age faster.”
As for her daily routines, Rossi hates boredom and stresses the importance of avoiding repetitive, monotonous tasks that bring you no pleasure.
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The smart sexagenarian spoke about the importance of yoga, which she confesses to “practicing regularly, for more than 40 years.”
Her diet consists solely of natural, unprocessed foods: no refined sugars, no unhealthy takeaways, and no late-night snacking.
A vegetarian with a penchant for high-quality, grass-fed beef from time to time, Rossi eats plenty of fruits, nuts, olives, veggies, and beans.
Furthermore: “I always present all my meals in beautiful dish settings [because] eating is also a pleasure for the eyes.”
Each morning, she has one cup of black, organic coffee, often with coconut oil and sometimes — if she is feeling adventurous — an egg yolk.
“All in the blender,” she stressed. “It is delicious!”
She regularly takes lemon juice shortly after waking, “sometimes with water, sometimes pure.”
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She learned to embrace simplicity at a young age.
Born in 1955 on the French island of Corsica, Rossi was raised in a rather unique manner.
Although the island is renowned for its stylish lifestyle, there was nothing stylish about her upbringing.
Raised by her grandparents, Rossi said that her life was very “simple” — an understatement if there ever was one.
Her grandparents’ home lacked both running water and electricity.
Rossi washed herself in a nearby river, and at the back of her grandparents’ home was a small garden where the family grew fruits and vegetables.
Interestingly, Rossi doesn’t look back on those days of financial hardship with pain.
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On the contrary, she remembers her childhood with a great deal of fondness.
Rossi entered the fashion world at the age of 30, but she didn’t make it big until she moved to NYC in 1999.
With her striking features, she immediately struck fame, signing deals with the likes of Barneys and Bloomingdale’s.
Even then, in her early 40s, her hair was completely white.
However, instead of seeing this as a flaw, Rossi saw it as something that made her unique.
Her decision paid off. In addition to taking to the catwalk at Paris Fashion Week, she has appeared in three films: Revelator (2017), The Grasslands (2017), and Timeless Beauty (2018).
But, as she was quick to emphasize, Rossi doesn’t just see herself as a model who can act.
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She sees herself as a role model and an activist.
Rossi spoke about the role of happiness in her life, of always trying to find joy whenever and wherever possible.
Appreciation and gratitude, she noted, are also of vital importance: “These are values which elevate and feed the soul,” she mused.
Rossi, who still has a strong French accent, certainly has a joie de vivre.
“When you realize how amazing it is to be alive and how fantastic the human body is, there is nothing but amazement,” she said.
“For me, it is impossible to separate the body from the psyche. I am a spiritual being of light enjoying a journey here on planet Earth.”
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This occupancy of a “physical body” is what “makes my life magical.”
Rossi spoke about the importance of solitude and silence in her life and how they both play key roles in helping her maintain a healthy body and mind.
“I love to be alone and in silence,” she said. “It is vital to me.”
As for her sex life, Rossi was rather blunt: “I cherish my celibacy. After two marriages and two children. I have all the time for myself, for my creative projects.
“I am never alone, never feel lonely because I am in an intimate relationship with my Higher Self.”
In this “intimate relationship,” there is no room for TV.
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“I cannot stand to watch TV,” she said, revealing she hasn’t owned one for the best part of 50 years.
“My home is very peaceful,” she noted. “All natural fibers, no synthetics at all, minimal electric appliances in the kitchen, no microwave, no dishwasher, no cleaning lady.
“For me, daily tasks are meditative, they also give me a deep and pleasant feeling of accomplishment.”
Living somewhat of a hermetic existence, Rossi also confessed to cutting her own hair, never visiting hairdressers, and never getting manicures.
“All these things cannot drain me as they are not part of my world.”
A critic of runaway capitalism, Rossi firmly believes that “consumerism is a disease of Western countries.”
“We don’t need all these unhealthy, mass-produced products,” she said. “Embracing a simpler existence makes life less stressful.”
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