Self-made billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was raised by a model mother — literally.
On Wednesday, world-renowned beauty brand CoverGirl announced Maye Musk as its newest brand ambassador. Maye, 69, has been modeling for 50 years and is now the oldest model to star in a CoverGirl campaign, she tells The New York Times.
In an Instagram post announcing her new role, she writes, "Thank you COVERGIRL, for including me in your tribe of diversity. Beauty truly is for women of all ages, and I can't wait to take you all along this amazing journey with me!"
Last year, she signed with agency IMG Models, which represents runway icons like Miranda Kerr, Gisele Bündchen and Karlie Kloss.
Earlier Thursday, the Silicon Valley titan congratulated his mother Maye Musk on her new gig.
"Aging has been good for me. You develop confidence, you're able to handle the knocks a little easier," she tells the Times.
"Just getting started" is my hashtag," she tells the newspaper since she previously only modeled part time. "I had three kids in three years, so that slowed me down somewhat. I was 28 and the oldest model in the city."
After a few minutes of browsing through Maye's Twitter feed, it's easy to spot what she is most passionate about: advocating for her children and her career.
In addition to her long-time modeling career, Maye is a dietician-nutritionist and full-time fan of her three entrepreneurial kids Elon, Kimbal and Tosca Musk.
While Elon works on launching rockets and digging urban tunnel systems, Kimbal is pioneering a sustainable food movement and Tosca is making moves in the film industry with her upcoming launch of PassionFlix, the Netflix for romance movies.
The Musk siblings have their mom to thank for teaching them at a young age the importance of creating your own opportunities.
In her own adolescent and teen days, Maye helped her father with his chiropractic clinic, working as a receptionist and putting client newsletters together, Paul Armstrong reports for Forbes. Maye began modeling at 15 and by 21, earned her bachelor's degree and a spot as a 1969 Miss South Africa finalist.
At 31, Maye divorced her engineer husband of nine years and left South Africa with her children for North America.
As a single mother, Maye raised her children with help of her twin sister Kaye, and returned to modeling as a side gig.
"They grow up knowing you work hard, and the harder you work, the better you do and the luckier you get," Maye told Vanity Fair in 2015. "They also had to be responsible for themselves, because they had to help me."
Maye Musk Elon mom u r a genius tweet
Maye continues inspiring her family as a champion of inclusion and diversity in modeling while steadily advancing her career.
Maye's penchant for keeping optimistic and working hard appears to be inherited from her father, as she wrote on her Twitter and Instagram recently: "'Keep Smiling' was my Dad's motto. #happyfamily."
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This is an updated version of a story that appeared previously.