Tara Shannon

I photographed Tara Shannon a few weeks ago. A couple of weeks after that, she posted one of my images of her on her Facebook page. It was one of my favorites. In it, Tara stands on a little yellow table, wearing a Wonder Woman training bra over a bathing suit she bought at Target, looking off to the side—fierce, confident, strong. Her own tagline went up on the photo : “My age is my superpower” and her age, 61.  Facebook went wild, her feed lit up.

“I do value my age, my youth was just the vehicle that brought me to here. I don’t want to be younger. I’ve come to see aging as a spiritual ATM where I can cash out all the experiences I’ve had,” she told me later. “It dispenses a multitude of riches, like the mastery of my talents and intuitive insights.

It’s not that she hasn’t had experience with this kind of attention. Born in Denver, Colorado, Shannon hustled hard as a young model—aspiring to absorb every facet of the business and to express herself as an artist in a way that inspired art directors and photographers. She knew she was an atypical beauty and that actually helped her articulate what she had in a way that translated cinematically on film. She learned how to bring the viewer into her experience.

It’s why she been loved by the greats: Helmut Newton shot unforgettable images of her on the beaches of Cannes for French Vogue. She worked with New Yorker legend Richard Avedon and was a favorite of the inimitable Irving Penn.

What has she learned coming back to the fashion world in her 60’s? “In the modeling and film world, there is an old adage that you’re only as good as your last project. During our shoot, I realized how that point of view had kept me from valuing my experience and discounting it’s importance.” she says. “It was very empowering to own it. It shifted the focus from the external  to the internal value again. It’s exactly what I did at the start of my career. I came home, again.”

I’ve talked to many women in the course of doing our AGEIST interviews who feel as if they turn invisible after a certain age. How does Shannon see that as an avoidable trap? “There are actually two questions behind the invisible issue: “Do I matter, and to whom?”
I value my point of view, above all others and that makes it a non- issue,” she says. “I know my worth when I step into any situation. When I’m in the presence of someone who doesn’t value me, it has nothing to do with me.   I know who to go to who has the skill of valuing. If someone doesn’t “see” me, I accept it, don’t assume they should, and go to someone who can.”

Hearing that, it might not come as a surprise that Shannon is a respected international private coach who, since 1997 has developed a unique set of skills which enable her clients to value and monetize their authenticity. “I love my clients because I was my client when I was their age! I get to see them grow into women who negotiate financial summits and make tens of thousands of dollars per piece for their art. The thing is.. valuing your authenticity enhances every area of a woman’s life- her financials, love, health… and in the most beautiful and tender of ways, her spirituality.“

Younger women want so much to be validated- and need to be mentored- to find their value and know it will never leave them. It’s transformative to realize that it can never be taken away from them and most certainly, not by age. ”

The timing has been remarkable, but in the last few weeks I’ve been seeing—and posting on my LinkedIn page—ads and commercials in which aging isn’t being stigmatized. Maybe others are starting to figure it out (and, um, maybe you can help them by sharing our newsletter).

“The world is catching on, it always does,” says Tara. “So we just need to keep at it. Keep showing them what it can look like, and that the ride is enjoyable and profitable.”