Sensational Seniors: Senior Model On Mission To Educate, Elevate Fashion Industry

By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff WriterCarolyn Doelling is on a mission. At 78, the former marketing executive turned fashion model is campaigning to open the industry’s eyes to what older people bring to the table.& Doelling moved to California in 1975. Over the years, she has lived in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland, where she now resides. The Bay Area senior is living a dream she “fell into.”“I was never aspiring to be a model,” Doelling says. “It kind of chose me. It’s a platform for me to let the world know that a 78-year-old Black woman who is short and gray still has a lot to offer to the world. Part of that is just encouraging other people who look like me, or as old as I am, to empower themselves.”Modeling sprung from an incident while she was preparing for her son’s wedding. As the mother of the groom, Doelling wanted to look her best. In a moment straight out of the Tina Turner biopic “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” a routine perm went wrong.“We had an accident and that took some of my hair out,” Doelling shares.At the suggestion of her hairdresser, she turned...