I remember when it first came out last year that I made the top 12 or 7 or something and it was on Yahoo. They're probably bots or just disgruntled people, but they would say things like, “you're old grandma, go out to pasture, put a bag over her head” or just dumb stuff. It’s kind of laughable because, again, I've always said this, I can't be offended, right? You can only be offended if you allow yourself to be. I don't know you, so you can say anything. I'm not offended. I don't know you.

Such a good perspective. Well, we want to know you. Tell us about yourself. How old you are and what you’re up to.

I’m 57 years old. I’ll be 58 this August 25, and I have an encore career now. I am in the modeling and acting world. And prior to that, I spent about 30 years in higher education, workforce development and training, which I still do as well. I still have my toes in that world.

I also consult. Right now, I'm consulting at Cal Poly Pomona for one of the colleges there. So it keeps me still in my passion of higher education and returning adult students, while also being able to embark on this new encore career of modeling and acting. 

You have a doctorate, right? You were a dean or associate dean?

Associate dean.

So you had a heavy-duty academic career, and then how did the modeling thing happen? Was that something you were always involved in? How did that come about?

So the modeling thing happened when I was younger. I was in high school and I was scouted. I grew up in a Filipino military Catholic family, so my parents were more on the reserved side, and so was I. My parents really didn't want me modeling full-time until at least after graduating high school. So I dabbled in it after high school, but at that time, we're talking ’80s, my look wasn't in.

I think the cover girls were Paulina Porizkova and Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford Linda Evangelista, certainly not an Asian woman on any cover. And plus, I wasn't 5'11", or a runway girl. I was 5'8". So catalog was my thing, if I was lucky enough to get booked. I didn't do that much of it, and then I found myself falling in love and having a baby and getting a real job, which was in education.

That was kind of a happy accident to get into education and higher education and workforce development. I did that for the rest of my career and dabbled in acting and modeling here and there, but definitely not to the extent that I'm doing now, which is fantastic. 

And then how did it restart? How did the whole modeling career restart, tell me more about that.

I kept dabbling in it on and off throughout the years while I was still working in higher education and then I had an opportunity in 2022 to do an early retirement. That was coming off the heels of COVID and a lot of things were coming to the forefront, not just for me, but for many, many millions of people around the world. And I thought, if I have this opportunity to do an early retirement, I think I want to take advantage to see what was going on in the world. Not that I would retire from working, but just retire from higher education. And so I did. That was in June 2022. And then I didn't know what I wanted to do. I still continued with my volunteering and then I reached out to one of my agencies and said, “Hey, you know what? I'm fully retired now, and I can actually devote 100% to this modeling thing.”

I said, “Well, here's the deal. I've gone gray.” They’re like, “Really? Okay, you're going to work a lot.” So I started getting auditions and booking things, which was great. And then it was December 2022, and we hadn't been to Australia — my husband's Australian — for about three years because of the pandemic.

So we decided to go for about a month and a half. We went in December and part of January. And as I said, I grew up very traditional, very kind of modest. And so it was in Australia, it was their summertime. It was very hot and I didn't bring a bathing suit. I went to the local store by my mother-in-law's house and the only bathing suit that was my size, and I kid you not, I'm not making this up at all, was a two-piece leopard.

And I'm like, oh my God. And you know, if I wore a bathing suit, it would be a one-piece. But because my husband and I would take walks on the beach early in the morning — we're talking 6 a.m. in the sunrise — I thought, I'll just buy the bikini. I'm retired. I'm just with my husband, no big deal. So we walk out on the beach. It's just beautiful. And my husband takes some candid shots with his iPhone.

And literally this is New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And so we're looking at the photos that night after dinner. And then I'm saying to myself, just joking, not bad for a 56-year-old, gray-haired, retired lady. Because when you think about it, it's like gray hair, retired, you're over the hill. You know, put you out to pasture, you're not sexy, the whole nine yards.

So then we just started this banter and joking around and I said, I'm going to be the next SI Swimsuit model. You know, just joking around because it was kind of the furthest thing from my mind. And something flashed in me, and I'm thinking, wait a minute, I recall that there was a lady, Kathy Jacobs, who at the age of 57 became an SI rookie. I remember seeing it on the news a couple of years prior.

So my husband said, well, you should apply.

And so I looked online thinking, listen, you know, it's December, almost January 1, the application period is probably over. To my utter surprise, Sports Illustrated Swim had extended the application process to January 1 in America. And because Australia is a day ahead, I met the deadline and I cobbled together videos very quickly, put those candid shots of me in that bathing suit. It was nothing professional whatsoever, and sent in my application. And three months later, I got an email from Sports Illustrated Swimsuit saying, “Nina, you made the top 24.”

So I brought my husband into our office here and said, “Look at this email. Can you believe it?” He said, “Oh my God.” And so we went to celebrate at one of our favorite dive places that I've been going to ever since high school, Tommy's burgers. I had my chili cheese fries. And so we celebrated.

And that email said that there were going to be separate interviews, about 12 and 12. They would be Zoom interviews. And when my interview was scheduled, I happened to be house-sitting for my daughter and son-in-law up in Portland. And so I was trying to get the Zoom working and it wasn't working.

And it was this whole thing… and I’m thinking, “Oh no, am I going to be able to get on to have this interview?” Luckily I did by the skin of my teeth and did the interview and then made it to the top 12. And then the top seven. And then it was announced that they were going to pick one out of the seven. And then they picked all of us to be rookies for this year. It's been magical.

The other six rookies who kind of competed with me could be my children, you know, they're my children. I'm 23 years older than the next oldest.

I'm like, listen, I'm going to slay the gray. I'm going to flip the switch. There are so many trailblazers. I'm coming on the heels of a lot of people, but I'm here to say that I'm standing with my silver sisters. We are not over the hill. We are not, not sexy. You can have gray hair and still be youthful. You can do anything.

It's kind of like you won Miss Universe because it's global.

I have to give a lot of props to MJ Day, the editor in chief for Sports Illustrated, for many things, because she's really turned the page on what it means to be beautiful in the modeling industry, and embracing every shape, size, color. She's embracing what beauty is because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And it's not this one-dimensional, you know, three or four people deciding what beauty is and then putting it in a magazine.

So it's been really cool. And I applaud SI Swimsuit for doing this, and MJ, and then also other magazines and other companies that are doing it as well, and designers. I'm starting to see that more, which is so encouraging, for sure.

Very encouraging. When did you decide to go gray? How did you embrace it? What was that time period?

I started to go gray when I was 26, when I was pregnant with my daughter. So I just started dying my hair at 26 years old. And I wanted to go gray about 10 years ago, but then, you know, society and different things…. Instead of letting my hair go gray, I started to lighten it so it would blend in with the grays and I didn't have to touch up the roots all the time, right?

Because I found myself touching up the roots every two weeks, it was just craziness. Then when the pandemic hit and I got to work from home, I just thought to myself, hey, I'm going for it. I want to be my authentic self. I wanted to do this 10 years ago. Some people were telling me, don't do it. You know, other people were saying, yeah, embrace it. And I did. Of course, my whole family was like, yeah, embrace the gray.

My mom had white hair, and my dad, we called him the silver fox. So I was hoping that I would get the color gray. It's gorgeous. 

So you had it on both sides, basically. You had the gray gene. It was inevitable. So you went through a process where you were lightening it for a couple of years and then during the pandemic, you decided to just let it grow out. And how long did it take you to do your whole grow-out?

It probably took me about a year-ish. I'm lucky. My hair grows really fast.

That is really fast, actually, to do the whole grow-out. And now that you've embraced your gray, what are some things that have stayed the same and what's changed?

One of the things is I get a lot of “ma'ams” now because I think people still think gray equals more mature and you must show respect. I do get, you know, “your hair doesn't match your face” or “you don't look your age.” You know, working in the modeling industry, because of my age now, because of my hair, I’m definitely working more than I ever would have when I was younger.

It's just a different time. I think the world is embracing it. And as I said, all sizes, shapes, forms, everything, uniqueness, authenticity is in that. I'm loving it. 

What have been your biggest surprises? Any big surprises from the whole process of embracing becoming a silver vixen fox?

I'm doing a lot of commercials and print work, and everybody's loving the gray. That's a surprise to me because I still thought I would get resistance from some people, but to be honest, I haven't received any negativity, none. 

You are clearly being booked because of your gray hair because they see your portfolio. What do clients say about your gray hair?

We love your gray. And it's wonderful because it enhances your features. And they said that it really looks good with my skin tone and my eyes. And see, the thing is that I feel sort of lucky, or maybe lucky is not the right word. Some models who have been known for being models — big, big models — might have a harder time turning gray because people know them with their brunette hair or with their blonde hair.

So if they did a whole gray-hair look, it might change their entire image. No one knew me before my gray hair. So they don't have any comparison to me with my gray hair. so I think it makes it easier for me and they just know you like this. Whereas, some other models might have a harder time doing the transition and getting work because of that.

Another surprising thing is because I'm gray haired, I get a lot of pharmaceutical anti-aging work. So it's been fun. Hey, it's work and I'm booked so I'm happy and grateful and it's things that align with what I believe in. So it's really good.

But it is nice to at least see companies not using 20 year olds for a cream that's supposed to treat signs of aging. At least they're using people who are age-appropriate. So what campaigns have we seen you in recently?

Do you have any advice for other women who are in modeling who are thinking about gray? Is there enough room for multiple gray-haired models? Any advice for them?

Do what you want to do, but try out the gray if that’s what you want, because guess what? You can always dye your hair back if you've been dying your hair. So try out the gray. But I understand that gray is not for everybody, right? I have a friend who will continue to dye her hair. She will not turn gray. And that's awesome. Good for you.

I just want to empower individuals to do what they want to do for themselves. I'm here to say that, you know, I flipped the switch and I'm so happy that I did. It worked out for me. But if I didn't do it, if I kept dyeing my hair, how would I have known that it would really be a blessing for me? 

Yeah, that is so it's so true. And this thing that you were hiding is actually an asset. It's crazy. It's amazing.

But in this day and age, though, because if we did this 20 years ago, they're not going to book you, right? But now everything has completely changed for the better, which is very encouraging. 

Any advice for women in general who are thinking about their gray-hair journey or just kind of on the sidelines thinking about it? 

Just go for it, and there's going to be that in-between stage when you're going to have the roots. But, you know, time waits for no one. Time passes regardless of what you're doing or not doing. I mean, I look back and four years ago was a pandemic? Seems like yesterday, but it's been four years.

I don't really think I had any mental obstacles, because again, I go back to that, you know, I can only be offended if I allow myself to be offended. Maybe I was just frustrated because I wanted it to be done already.

Those are all my questions. Thank you so much. Honestly, I feel so inspired talking to you.