Have you ever had a moment in which you wished you could turn back time? Or, better yet, hit pause for just a second in order to think, really think, about the path you are on? Many of us graduated college and began a career for the sake of earning a living. Who wants to continue living in their parents' basement right? Or maybe you went a completely different path and found success by accident. How many times have you thought "What am I doing?" or, "How did I end up here?" not to leave out my personal favorite, "Wasn't I was supposed to change the world?". Well, if you're a woman over thirty, there is a good chance these thoughts have crossed your brain at least once or twice. Better yet, if you've put your career on hold to raise a baby or two you may even be terrified to re-enter the work-force. But, is it too late to live? To be the best YOU you've ever dared to dream of? Truth be told, you could probably kiss your hopes of being an Olympic Athlete good-bye, and, you have, for sure, missed you're calling as a model for Seventeen Magazine! However, you are never too old to surprise yourself!
# 6 Julia Child didn't even learn to cook until she was almost 40...What?
Julia Child was born Julia McWilliams in Pasedena, California. The oldest of three children and the daughter of some really educated parents (we're talking Princeton and Smith people!) and it has been said she was expected to attend Smith since birth. Speaking of birth, she was born in August 1912. Julia fulfilled her destiny by graduating with a degree in history, and, in 1935, she moved to Manhattan to pursue her career as a writer. Two short years later she was back home in CA to care for her ailing mother whose life sadly ended shortly after due to high blood pressure. The world went to war and Julia became a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which I believe is a sub department of the CIA, eventually becoming Chief of the OSS Registry! Pretty heavy stuff!!! She did write about her time spent in France, and later many, many, of your mother's favorite cookbooks. (If you're reading this, chances are you have one or two of them in your kitchen. I'll never tell!) Long story short, it isn't exactly clear to me how this 6'3" larger than life girl from Pasedena who had traveled the world ended up with a spoon in her hand, but we are all so sure glad she did! Yum!
www.thejuliachildfoundation.com
Picture courtesy of http://thedinnertablerestaurant.com/cooking-classes.html
# 5 Laura Ingalls hadn't even begun to write Little House on the Prairie until she was in her 60's
Laura Ingalls-Wilder was born in the 1880's and literally traveled the plains in a covered wagon. An early educator, she probably taught in a school much like the single schoolhouses we read about in her books. She married and had two children, a daughter and a son. Tragically, her son passed away at an early age and her husband had fallen very sick shortly thereafter and never really recouperated. It wasn't until her daughter, Rose, a rising writer and reporter herself, thought there would be much interest in her mother's early life on the prairie. After much encouragement, Laura Ingalls-Wilder took the advice of her daughter and didn't stop writing until she was in her 70's. Thank you Rose Wilder, without you we would have been deprived of all those tear jerking moments, life lessons, and, especially, Mr. Michael Landon!
"Rose Wilder Lane, by then grown up and a reporter for the San Francisco Bulletin, encouraged her mother to write about her childhood."
" Wilder completed the last book in the "Little House" series in 1943, when she was 76 years old."
www.biography.com
# 4 Vera Wang designed her first wedding dress at age 40, when she, herself, got married. It was her own!
There isn't a bride from here to eternity who can open an issue of any given bridal magazine and not become transfixed on the fabulous fabrics and sleek designs of a coveted Vera Wang gown. Would it surprise you to learn she hadn't even thought of designing bridal gowns until becoming frustrated in her search to find that perfect dress for her big day? Would it surprise you to learn she was also 40??? Vera, who initially fancied herself a figure skater or an actress, decided in 1972, to begin a new career in fashion. She was a natural, working alongside the iconic Ralph Lauren and landing a job as an editor at Vogue with virtually no experience! She began to design and had a famous client or two, however, wedding dresses were not even on her radar until she was unable to find one for herself! Can you imagine Weddings without Wang? I sure can't.
VERA WANG
"She was an editor at Vogue for seventeen years and Ralph Lauren design director for two years, despite having no formal design training."
"After a long and strenuous search for the perfect wedding dress for her own lavish wedding, Vera decided to design her own line of wedding dresses. In 1990, she opened the Vera Wang Bridal House Ltd., on Madison Avenue in New York."
www.thebiographychannel.co
# 3 Lucille Ball
(We can't be sure because it was seldom spoken about, but we know she was somewhere between 38 to 40 when the world fell in Love with Lucy!)
It may come as a surprise to learn this red-headed queen of slap-stick, who had a very difficult time saying "Veta, Vita, Vegeman", and can stuff as much chocolate in her mouth as a speeding conveyer belt can throw at her, was actually a very demure, very classy, old-time model. After years of commercial print modeling, Lucille Ball decided to venture into acting. She landed many roles, as extras, before hitting the small screen and blowing up every household television Gimbels, (I have no idea who sold televisions in the 50's!!! An established department store since 1902 or some crazy early time sounds good enough for me!) could sell!
"By the mid-1930s, if you went to the movies (and in the 1930s everyone went to the movies) you would be certain to see Lucille Ball. Sometimes a nurse or a dancer, sometimes a flower clerk or a college girl, but always there. By the end of the decade she had been in forty-three films and was known as “Queen of the B Movies.”"
"After two successful years of “My Favorite Husband,” Ball moved her act to the new medium of television, bringing along her husband, the Cuban band leader Desi Arnaz, as a co-star. Together they created the most popular television show of the 1950s. I Love Lucy was the perfect home for Ball..."
www.pbs.org
# 2 Martha Stewart worked the stock market for years prior to helping you with those perfect place settings the first time your in-laws came for dinner!
Born in 1941, Martha Stewart dealt with money long before being America's most famous homemaker became her trademark. Finance was her career of choice and boy, was she good at it! That is, until Martha, then 31, and her husband bought and restored an old farmhouse in 1972. Fame didn't find Martha until she was over 40! Fame and fortune arrived at this mogel's immaculately decorated doorstep in 1991. Fame didn't work so well for her marriage, unfortunately, and, after a three year battle royale, she divorced her husband and continued on to build her brand, by that I mean empire, and virtually rule the world! Wow, talk about the one that got away! Right on Martha!!! You make us proud!
"In 1991, Martha Stewart, Inc., became Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc., with the release of her magazine, Martha Stewart Living. Stewart's lifestyle empire soon grew to include two magazines, a checkout-size recipe publication, a popular cable television show, a syndicated newspaper column, a series of how-to books, a radio show, an Internet site and $763 million in annual retail sales."
www.biography.com
# 1 Phyllis Diller...The one and only!
Phyllis Diller married in her early 20's, gave birth to six children, and was 37 when she made her comedy club debut.
A household name appearing on shows such as The Tonight Show, Hollywood Squares, and Sesame Street, (not to forget Scooby Doo), Diller was revered by all. Known for her quick witted spirit and tell it like it is style, as well as a voice like no other(except maybe someone's grandmother with years of smoking under her belt and living in a senior community down in Boca!). She was a pioneer for female comedians and is recognized by the comedic community as one of the best there ever was!
"Along with Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and Joan Rivers, Diller helped pave the way for women in comedy. Mining issues of domesticity, femininity and aging for her stand-up act, Diller developed a brutally honest, self-deprecating and audaciously witty voice that would influence generations of stand-up acts to come."
www.huffingtonpost.com
