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As the years go by, we care less and less about what others think of us, and many finally dare to let their true, eccentric selves out. Good for them!
Do you remember when Heidi Klum once blurted out during her marriage to Seal that she liked to meet him for sex? “Hey, baby, at six o’clock in the closet.” – that’s how she described it to US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in 2008. It was, of course, highly amusing. Shortly afterward, I met Seal in Hamburg for an interview and followed up: “Is it true that you like to meet your wife for sex in the closet?”
Seal was not amused.
Seal’s reaction? Well, let’s just say he was NOT amused… And it wasn’t long before the divorce was on the cards. Presumably, she eventually became too much for him, and he too staid for her.
May 2026. The “Online Marketing Rockstars” event, a platform for online marketing professionals, is taking place in Hamburg. Heidi is booked as a speaker and enters the stage with a scandalously low-cut top, nerdy glasses, and a lapdog. Her message: “Authenticity beats algorithms,” she won’t be swayed, she just speaks her mind. And everyone was at her feet.
Taking a lapdog to the trade fair
Klum shows how liberating it can be to no longer tame your own quirky, outspoken self. At 53, she’s a woman who doesn’t ask for permission, but simply takes the space. She frees herself from all expectations of how women “her age” are supposedly meant to dress or present themselves.
At the beginning of her career, Heidi Klum came across as rather classic and polished. With Tom Kaulitz (and his eccentric brother Bill) came not only a new man, but also a new lightness: more enjoyment of silliness, more courage to embrace cringe (for example, when she once again feels the need to sing live at the “GNTM” finale…). This has made the entrepreneur one of the most interesting pop figures of her generation, because she lives a life in the public eye that many people only learn later in life.
Many people only let their true selves out at age 70!
Life is too short to constantly pretend to be someone you’re not – and to keep your authentic, eccentric self in quarantine. However, science shows that many people only reach this point very late in life.
Rebecca Schlegel, a psychologist at Texas A&M University, found that most of us believe we get closer to our “true selves” as we age. In our younger years, however, we are often still searching, trying out different roles, comparing ourselves to others, and constantly readjusting. We therefore invest a lot of energy in convincing others that we are the person we would like to be.
Only with time does this pressure lessen. “Studies show that we compare ourselves less to others later in life,” New York geriatrician Rosanne Leipzig told the New York Times. “As a result, we feel more secure in who we are—and in what we believe.” No wonder that, according to studies, adults are particularly happy between the ages of 30 and 34, and then again from age 70 onward.
You don’t have to wait until retirement to start.
I can only agree. I recently turned 40 and became a mother – and I’m getting a little more eccentric every day. I shamelessly walk to the corner kiosk in my bathrobe to buy an ice cream, lie down on a park bench for a nap whenever I feel like it, sing loudly to myself while walking, or hug trees if I feel like it. My little son thinks it’s funny. And the reactions are rarely negative. I believe that when you stop constantly trying to control yourself, you create a kind of silent permission for others to be a little more themselves, too.
Perhaps that’s the real freedom that comes with getting older: stopping the desire to be “normal.” And instead, starting not only to accept your own weirdness , but to celebrate it – just like Heidi does.
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