For years, Mia Maugé saw ageing as something to battle. Then, at 50, she stopped dyeing her hair - and discovered that getting older could actually make her feel more confident, not less.
Now 61, the model, midlife advocate - and now honouree on the HELLO! Power List - has become something of a positive ageing guru, encouraging women to stop listening to the negative noise around getting older and embrace everything that comes with a new chapter.
In the latest episode of Second Act Unpacked, sponsored by L’Oreal Paris, Mia shares her hard-won wisdom on everything from confidence and menopause to skincare, sexiness and the surprising beauty of getting older.
You can watch it below - and read on for some of her golden rules for keeping your glow in midlife.
Stop fighting your age
“My battle with ageing was won when I stopped fighting it,” Mia says – and that philosophy runs through everything she does.
Rather than looking in the mirror and seeing another wrinkle that needs fixing, she tries to see skincare as a moment of self-care and an opportunity to appreciate what she has now. “I'm going to just honour what I have now,” she says.
Remember: your life doesn't get smaller
Mia believes women are often taught to “shrink” as they get older, as though reaching midlife means becoming less visible, less relevant and less desirable - but she sees it very differently. “Your life gets bigger,” she says. “There's layers to this thing we call life.”
With age comes experience, resilience, love, lessons and, most importantly, a better understanding of yourself. Mia describes each birthday as unlocking a new level, with more knowledge and perspective to take with you.
Don't confuse looking younger with looking better
One of Mia's biggest bugbears is the idea that the ultimate beauty achievement is to look younger than you actually are.
Why do we say someone looks “good for their age”, she asks, rather than simply saying they look good?
“You don't look the same as you did when you were younger, but it's a different beauty,” she explains. “It's not the same beauty.”
Her advice? Broaden your definition of what beautiful looks like – and stop measuring yourself against your 25-year-old face.
Quiet the negative voice
Even Mia, who has made embracing ageing part of her life's work, admits that the negative voice in her head still appears from time to time. The difference is that she now knows how to confront it.
“You've got to have that dialogue with [the negative voice] and just quiet that noise,” she says.
Instead, she reminds herself of everything she has achieved, survived and experienced. “You should be proud and feel accomplished,” she says. “I feel your age should be a badge of honour.”
Treat your skincare as self-care, not warfare
Mia admits she once bought into the language of “anti-ageing”, seeing skincare as a battle against wrinkles. These days, her approach is much more pleasurable.
Her morning and evening routines are about taking 10 minutes for herself rather than trying to erase signs of ageing. “My skincare is my self-care,” she says, embracing sensory rituals over rigid rules.
It's a small shift, but an important one: you can still enjoy beauty products and want to look great without believing there's something wrong with the face you're starting with.
Don't forget you're still allowed to be sexy
Ageing doesn't mean becoming invisible – or losing your desire to feel attractive. Mia, who is single in her sixties, says she still wants to feel desirable and sensual. One of her current confidence-boosters is beautiful, colourful lingerie, but her point is bigger than underwear: sexiness, she believes, comes from how you feel rather than what you're wearing.
“You can also look really sexy in something that's really conservative if you feel it,” she says. “It will come from within.”
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And perhaps most importantly: stop waiting to feel ‘old’
Mia's own turning point came when she realised she was spending too much energy worrying about how society would see her as she aged.
Going grey at 50 felt radical at the time. Now, she hopes women will see ageing not as something frightening, but as somewhere they might actually quite like being.
“I actually quite like it here,” she says.
Listen to the Second Act Unpacked now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts and Youtube.