71-Year-Old Model Challenges Beauty And Fashion Stereotypes When It Comes To Age

Rosa Saito is proving to the world that age is just a number and not a determinant of beauty or style. She has worked with several brands and attended Sao Paulo Fashion Week thanks to her drive and determination to break stereotypes about women her age.

Aside from showing off creative pieces, the Aracatuba-born model is also good at singing, drawing, and writing. “I always knew I was going to pursue something creative, something I could invent. Everything I do, I take to that side,” she explained.

Meet 71-year-old model Rosa Saito

Saito started her career at 68 and changed her first name, Setsuko, to Rosa for easy pronunciation by her followers. She had a challenging life caring for a sick mother at 22 and being a single mother to three children after losing her husband. She found comfort in plants and meditation, which is obvious from some of her posts. “It is important to seek and find yourself,” she revealed. “And my moment of peace is with them. I go to my garden and talk to them.”

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Saito got lucky when professionals approached her with modeling offers, and by the third invite, she was sold. “Twice it was by professionals from the Mega modeling agency and once by a photographer,” she recalled. “I let the idea mature for a year, after all, it had costs too, it wasn’t something I was going to get into just like that, blindly. Until I decided to take the risk.”

According to Saito, the secret to her beauty is nature. She claimed to be “kind of against everything that is chemistry” due to her upbringing. “It was all based on tea, and in my essence…So I always took care of myself with aloe, coconut oil, and olive oil,” she explained, adding that beauty also starts from the inside. “The beauty itself is in really taking care of your thoughts, your spirituality,” she quipped.

For Saito, her appearance is beyond “the beauty all stretched and perfect.” She believes that a “person can become beautiful, captivating, friendly” from “the content that counts.” She also addressed the beauty industry and applauded the changes happening within whilst encouraging brands to evolve with the times. “I feel that slowly we are changing. People are living longer, taking care of themselves more and companies really need to open up more in that sense and visualize these potential customers,” she said.