Everlasting BEAUTY

Of all the SUPERMODELS, LINDA EVANGELISTA was always SINGULARLY SUPER. But NOW she has a DIFFERENT STORY to tell—about TRUTH, BEAUTY, and learning to LOVE YOURSELF, scars and all.

- LINDA WELLS

Linda Evangelista lifts her shirt over her head. She wants to show me her scars, two purple, ragged parentheses that travel from her outer breasts to her mid back, just under the shoulder blades. I have to muffle a gasp. They look violent, like coordinated shark attacks or swipes from the grim reaper's scythe. She rearranges her black T-shirt, straightens her aviator glasses, tucking her bob behind her ears, and smiles as if to say, "Yes, I lived through that."

The double mastectomy, followed by the removal of a lump between her breasts: lived through that. Liposuction and surgery over and over again—four times under her chin alone—to extract the hunks of hardened fat caused by CoolSculpting machines. Collapsed lungs. So many collapsed lungs. She lived through all of it. Sorry, grim reaper, but you picked the wrong girl.

Now, as she nears her 60th birthday, Evangelista is smiling. Glowing even. She's ready to get on with living, putting the damage and the scars behind her.

Well, maybe not behind her exactly, because she seems proud of those marks. I mean, you don't take off your shirt because you're timid or ashamed. “My double mastec-tomy, I'm fine with it,” she tells me. “I did put in very small implants. What they took out, I put in, cc-wise. I've had all those lung surgeries, oh my God, and my keloids and all the chest-tube scars and my C-section scar. There were a lot of surgeries. I’m cool. I’m fine with those. I won. I’m here. I won.”

It’s a life of winning if you choose to see it that way. Not many people would—unless they consider the alternative. Which she does.