Dianne Cumberland's Biography

On Being a Model

When I was a teenager in the early sixties I was fascinated by movie stars and celebrities and photos of models in the magazines. I cut out pictures from magazines and put them up on my bedroom walls and always thought how fun it would be to be a model and get to wear all those beautiful clothes. It took me a long time getting ready for school in the mornings, spending time on my hair and makeup and putting together just the right outfit for that day, often resulting in the school bus driver honking the horn for me to hurry up as I would be running to catch the bus at the last minute. We had a limited budget so I sewed a lot of my own clothes. I would pour through the pattern books choosing the styles and fabric to try to imitate what the models were wearing in the magazines. I remember saying to my mom one day that I wanted to be a model when I grew up and I wanted to enter a contest that I had read about that was offering a modeling course as the prize. We lived in a very small town on the British Columbia coast, far removed from the big city and accessible only by ferry and float plane. My mother, along with the rest of the community was very conservative in their thinking and approach to life. Her response to me wanting to be a model was, “Oh, you can’t do that – that isn’t a nice profession.” I was disappointed, but not one to go against my mother’s wishes and what was “acceptable” in those days, I gave up my thoughts of becoming a model.

Those old “tapes” and that way of thinking are long gone. Many years have passed and many achievements have been reached along the way but the thought of being a model still lingers. It would be FANTASTIC at age 61 to be a model and show other older women that with confidence and attitude we can all look GREAT in whatever kind of clothes or style we choose AND we can pursue whatever dreams we have for ourselves – no matter what age!

Dianne Cumberland