She Was the Face of ’70s and ’80s Cover Girl. This Beauty Is Now 71 — Here She Is Today

In the late 1970s, when billboards were bold and magazine covers were the pinnacle of fame, one woman’s face became almost impossible to miss. Her name was Lena Marlowe—a model whose luminous smile and windswept blonde hair helped define an era of effortless, natural beauty. Long before social media, filters, or digital retouching, Lena’s look was considered the gold standard. When she became the lead face of Cover Girl in 1978, her presence transformed not just the brand, but the entire landscape of beauty advertising.

Today, Lena Marlowe is 71 years old, and her life looks entirely different from the glamorous whirlwind that once surrounded her. Yet her story remains a testament to resilience, reinvention, and the kind of timeless radiance that has nothing to do with makeup and everything to do with character.

A Star Born Out of Simplicity

Lena grew up far from the spotlight—in a small Ohio town with one main street and a single traffic light. She didn’t dream of modeling; she dreamed of traveling beyond the cornfields that framed her world. At 19, after saving her paychecks from a local diner, she took a train to New York City with two suitcases and a handwritten phone number for a modeling agency someone had clipped from a magazine.

Her first audition was a disaster. She tripped on the runway, blushed furiously, and apologized so many times that the casting director burst out laughing. But there was something about her—something sincere, something uncluttered—that the industry hadn’t seen in years. She wasn’t glamorous; she was genuine.

Within months, Lena went from sleeping on a friend’s sofa to landing small catalog jobs. Within two years, she had signed her first major cosmetics campaign. And by 1978, she became the face of Cover Girl, ushering in an era where beauty looked fresh, clean, and alive.

The Reign of an Icon

To call Lena famous felt like an understatement during her peak years.

Her face appeared on:

• Times Square billboards

• Magazine covers in over 30 countries

• Television commercials that ran during prime-time

• Department store displays that greeted shoppers everywhere

Her signature look—sun-kissed skin, feathered hair, soft lips—became a blueprint for the decade. Teenagers cut her photos out of magazines and taped them to their mirrors. Makeup artists studied her face like an art form.

But fame, as Lena would later say, came with two shadows: expectation and exhaustion.

The more glamorous the photoshoots became, the more she longed for quiet. The bigger the beauty contracts grew, the heavier the pressure felt to remain eternally youthful. And as the ’80s surged forward with bolder, louder trends, Lena found herself wanting something different—something real.

Why She Walked Away

In 1989, at the height of her visibility, Lena stunned the industry by stepping down from her major contracts.

Her reason was simple:
“I didn’t want my worth to be tied to perfect lighting.”

She moved away from New York and bought a small, sunlit house in the Pacific Northwest. With a garden, a fireplace, and long stretches of silence, she finally allowed herself to breathe. For the first time in decades, she was anonymous again—and she welcomed it.

Over the next several years, she explored passions that had been placed on hold:

• Painting landscapes and abstract pieces

• Hiking through forests that stretched endlessly

• Writing letters, journals, and eventually a gentle memoir

• Teaching art at a local community center

She married a former photojournalist, someone who understood both the power and the pitfalls of fame. Together they raised two children and built a life defined not by flashbulbs, but by ordinary joy.

A New Kind of Beauty at 71

Today, Lena Marlowe is 71—and she looks nothing like the 22-year-old whose smile once sold millions of compacts and mascaras. She looks better.

She’s embraced her silver hair, which falls softly to her shoulders. Her face carries the kind of lines that come from laughter, curiosity, and years well lived—not from stress or regret. She still wears minimal makeup, mostly out of habit, though she laughs when neighbors ask her for beauty tips.

Her answer is always the same:
“Sleep, sunlight, and loving your own reflection, even on the tired days.”

Lena remains active in her community. She hosts weekly art classes for seniors, teaches local teens how to paint portraits, and volunteers at a nearby wildlife sanctuary. She also paints nearly every day—large canvases filled with bold blues and soft golds, the very colors that once adorned the cosmetic ads she starred in.

Her art has gained a quiet following. A few galleries have showcased her work, though she insists she paints for herself, not for praise.

Looking Back Without Being Defined by the Past

Every so often, old photos of Lena resurface online—retro Cover Girl ads, classic magazine covers, screenshots of vintage commercials. People comment on how impossibly beautiful she was, how she embodied a specific moment in beauty history.

Lena appreciates the nostalgia, but she doesn’t live in it.

She’s said in interviews that the best part of her life didn’t begin until she stepped away from modeling. She’s grateful for the career that opened doors and offered opportunities. But she’s even more thankful for the second half of her life—the part that allowed her to grow beyond a photograph.

Who She Is Today

At 71, Lena is:

• A painter whose canvases shimmer with emotion

• A grandmother who bakes cookies better than she once walked runways

• A mentor who encourages young artists to embrace their quirks

• A woman fully at peace with her looks, her age, and her path

She still receives letters from fans who grew up seeing her face on beauty products. They tell her that she shaped their idea of femininity, confidence, or self-expression. Lena writes back when she can, signing her notes not as “Lena Marlowe, model,” but as simply Lena.

A Final Thought

Time changes faces, but the spirit behind them is what endures. Lena Marlowe’s journey—from small-town dreamer to ’70s beauty icon to fulfilled 71-year-old artist—reminds us that aging doesn’t erase beauty. It deepens it.

She was once the face of a decade’s definition of glamour.
Today, she’s the face of something far more powerful:
a life lived with grace, authenticity, and joy.