Vogue model Niki Taylor, 51, is now a grandmother living in Nashville.
And she talked to People about how much her life has changed since working the catwalk in New York City decades ago.
Taylor wed race car driver Burney Lamar in 2006, and they have two kids: daughter Ciel, 17, and son Rex, 14.
She's also mom to twin boys Hunter and Jake, 31, whom she welcomed at age 19, after marrying her first husband, football player Matthew Martinez in 1993. They divorced in 1996.
'I always wanted to be a mom at a young age,' she shared. 'When I had twins it was a lovely surprise. I pretty much grew up alongside them. To see Jake and Hunter grow into the men they are today it makes me proud.'
In 2025 she became a grandmother when her son Hunter and his wife welcomed a boy.
And she still works as a model. The star posed for Elle magazine this month and appeared in Talbots new spring ads.
'My day to day is simple,' she shared. 'Being a mom, fitness and working pretty much define my days. Someone once said you spend the first 40 years acquiring, and the last 40 simplifying. I still am in love with the fashion business, but I love coming home to my family.'
Taylor also talked about her early years as a budding model in Manhattan.
The blonde with the radiant smile landed her first magazine cover for Seventeen when she was just 14-years-old.
Taylor wed race car driver Burney Lamar in 2006, and they have two kids: daughter Ciel, 17, and son Rex, 14. She's also mom to twin boys Hunter and Jake, 31, whom she welcomed at age 19, after marrying her first husband, football player Matthew Martinez in 1993. They divorced in 1996
In 1990, she won a coveted Vogue cover, becoming the second youngest person, at age 15, to take the front of the fashion bible.
Taylor went on to grace the covers of Cosmopolitan, Allure, Elle, Marie Claire and Shape. Campaigns for major brands like L'Oreal, Gap, Cover Girl, Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier followed, as well as appearances in dozens of fashion shows.
And she had all the right friends including Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss.
'In a way, I was living two different lives,' Taylor said. 'I was trying to fit in at my high school, but then I would show up on set and all the other models I looked up to were 10 years older than me. There's no handbook for how to handle that.'
She says she was mostly lucky to have a super supportive family -- dad Ken, a former highway patrol officer and mom Barbara, a photographer -- and a trustworthy manager.
Taylor also talked to People about the death of her sister Krissy Taylor in 1995 at age 17 from an undiagnosed heart condition.
'I don't know how we got through it, but time has helped,' she relayed.
'I think about her often. Like when I see a lifted truck, sunflowers, an old country song, sundresses, the beach, certain scents in the air...yeah, it's often. In many ways, Krissy and I had a special bond that was almost like being a twin, even though she was younger than me. I think anyone who knows about Krissy knows that she was my best friend.'
In 2024, Taylor said age is more about your state of mind.
'As long as you feel good and healthy, you can pretty much take on anything,' she told the Daily Mail.
For decades, there has been a serious stigma about aging within the fashion and beauty industries, with many models speaking out about feeling as though they had a 'shelf life.'
However, in recent years, that has begun to shift, with more and more models finding success later on in life.
Taylor believes that this shift has been a long time coming, explaining that she has seen industry insiders making moves towards increasing diversity for years, a trend that she is happy to see is now being represented in advertisements and campaigns.
'It was unheard of to see a fashion model in her 30s back in the day. [But] it's just a number, really! We're all getting older; we're all changing,' she said.
Still, Taylor joked that she prefers the word 'timeless' rather than 'ageless', noting that it better captures her views on aging.
While she looks as though she hasn't aged a day since her first CoverGirl campaign, her life has changed a great deal in the years that followed her history-making 1992 partnership with the brand.