Betty White Gets It Right - Harper's Bazaar

On Friday, December 31, 2021, Betty White passed away at the age of 99. Below is a personal essay written by White from the March 2014 issue of Harper's BAZAAR.

I'm not sure why I'm being included in this Fabulous at Every Age issue, because I'm not fabulous—I'm just old. But I'm the luckiest old woman on the planet because I'm blessed with good health and energy. I don't have any secrets for staying sprightly, but people just keep coming to me with great projects and I can't say no.

From the start, I knew I had square jawbones and all the things they tell you are not photogenic. I wanted to look like Lana Turner, and I just didn't. But I did do one modeling job: It was for Sears, Roebuck, and I got 50 cents for modeling a dress. My salary went up from then on.

I'm afraid that my style hasn't changed much, ever. I'm still wearing stuff I wore 40 years ago, mostly slacks and sweaters. I don't wear skirts very often. I wish I would because I've got pretty good legs, but you just get so comfortable in slacks, so I have them in every color of the rainbow. When there's an event I have this wonderful assistant, Janice, who finds me things. She's very diplomatic. She'll bring something in and say, "Why don't you wear this? It's very much in style." And I don't know what's in style for anything, so I say yes.

People take a very dim view of aging not just in show business but in almost every business. They're always looking for the young people coming up, which I understand. But make yourself as useful as possible so that they'll find a place for you too! And don't complain—try to accentuate the positive rather than the negative. If you're complaining, you're not fun to be around, and fun is the name of the game.

I don't need much sleep, and I always have trouble getting myself into bed at night. I have a beautiful golden retriever, Pontiac—he's sitting here right now—and when it gets past midnight he walks over to the stairs and looks back at me like, "Are you ever coming up here?" But if I get four good hours, then I'm fine. I've been that way all my life.

Pontiac and I have a vodka on the rocks and then our dinner. You can't get much better.

I don't eat anything special. French fries. Hot dogs if I can get 'em. And I'm not a big breakfast eater. I'll have a sandwich at lunch and then come home, and Pontiac and I have a vodka on the rocks and then our dinner. You can't get much better.

Speaking of pets, I have a fan club called Bets' Pets that was started more than 40 years ago. It still has a few of its charter members, and I've become close friends with them. But I've also had some crazy fans. Every once in a while somebody wants you to sign something weird. One time this rather heavyset man came up to me with a pen, and he pulled up his shirt and there's this big tummy. And he said, "Sign my belly, oh, please, sign my belly." After that I had to make a rule: I don't sign body parts.

My mom said to never lie about your age because you'll forget what you told one person and get mixed up. My age has been published over the years, so I could no more say I'm younger than 92 than fly to the moon. But it's amazing—past a certain age, you can get away with murder. You can do anything and people will say, "Well, the poor old soul, she's … you know …"