50 Over 50 & Fabulous Project Interview Transcript

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

Okay, so let's just start by you telling me who you are, where you're from, how old you are now, and what you do.

Shazia:

I'm Shazia. I'm from Springfield, Virginia. My parents are from Pakistan, so I'm American Pakistani. I'm 52 years old and I work at Safeway.

Irene (Glamour Photographer):

What do you do for Safeway?

Shazia:

I'm a retail director at Safeway. So I manage multiple stores within a division. It can be anywhere from seven to ten stores.

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

So does that mean you're sitting in an office all day? 

Shazia:

I travel to different stores and I go into the corporate office to see where the need is but I do have office days too. 

Irene (Glamour Photographer):

You started as a cashier at Safeway in 1989 and made it all the way to retail director. That's a big accomplishment!

How did you mark turning 50? What did you do? And how did it feel?

Shazia:

By going on a travel binge! I traveled that entire year. I went to quite a few destinations, my biggest being Dubai. I would recommend it to anybody. It was a dream come true.

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

Tell us the story of how you ended up in Dubai.

Shazia:

My boyfriend and I both turned 50 that year, so he surprised me with this trip. He sent me an email and said we were going to Dubai. He gave me three days to make up my mind, so I had to request time off from work and get my passport ready.  It was an amazing, amazing gift! We stayed there for two weeks. 

Irene (Glamour Photographer):

How has your relationship to time changed as you've gotten older? Do you feel like it's sped up or slowed down? When did it move the fastest?

Shazia:

The fastest it moved was when I was a young mother of three toddlers and a newborn. I was caught up in motherhood, marriage, and professional life. It was just going really fast. Once I started hitting my 40s, I slowed down and started to enjoy moments. I started enjoying my children. I started enjoying my promotions at work. 

I started taking time to relax, get my hair done, or just have a day with nothing to do. I think you start coming to terms with your life and realize you don't need to do everything all at once. When you're a mother, you tend to want to capture everything in that one hour. I can do this, I can do that, but you need to slow down.  

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

So if you could give one piece of advice to your 20-year-old self, would it be?  To slow down? Or would it be something else?

Shazia:

I would tell my 20-year-old self to be more assertive and ask questions. I was very timid, and I didn't realize how quickly time was going by. I would tell her, “Just take more risks and be assertive”.

Irene (Glamour Photographer):

Do you think that if you had been more assertive, that would have changed your life?

Shazia:

I think it would have changed my path. I might not have been married so early, but I'm blessed to have three beautiful children.

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

So what gets you up in the morning? What motivates you?

Shazia:

My children: they're my motivation. My grandson... he's the top priority. I want to get up every day and make this world a better place for him. I want him to be happy. I want him to enjoy life, and I want to celebrate my 60th birthday with him.

Irene (Glamour Photographer):

So, speaking of making the world a better place for them, tell us about the nonprofit that you and your friends started.

Shazia:

So this is an interesting story too. We were all high school friends and took our different paths after high school but came together in our 40s and 50s. One day, we were just sitting there having coffee and came up with the idea of a nonprofit organization for the DMV area. We started recruiting members and asking our friends and relatives for donations, and now we just celebrated five years. We work within the DMV area and help anybody in need, whether it's for rent, food, bills, medical bills, or refugees.  You name it; we help anybody that we can.

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

So how do people reach you?

Shazia:

We're on social media: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We also reach out to our community, local churches, local businesses, and hospitals, and we hold fundraisers. We just put ourselves out there any way we can to let people know that we're available to help them.

Irene (Glamour Photographer):

If someone reaches out, how do you determine if they qualify?

Shazia:

We have a form that is set up with your basic questions and we have certain rules on what we approve for each application, but our goal is to approve every application. We don't want to turn anybody down. We've helped a lot of people during the pandemic with groceries and shelter. It's been great. It's made me more humble. Helping someone else creates humility. It's how we should be as human beings. We need to practice humility.

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

 That's amazing. Thank you so much for everything you do. What's the name of your organization?

Shazia:

The name of the organization is 17 Cents a Day. Our email is 17centsaday@gmail.com. Everything is done anonymously. We will not reveal your identity to anybody. 

Irene (Glamour Photographer):

Fantastic. Thank you so much. Well, that probably gives me some insight into how you would like people to describe or see you. As someone who's making the world a better place...

Shazia:

I would hope so because I'm very involved in my community. I am one of those people who likes to do everything yesterday. So if somebody comes to me with a problem, whether it's an employee, a friend, or a relative, I like to resolve that situation right then and there. I'm very good at delegating and I like to find a resolution right away rather than later.

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

Now that you're 52, how do you think that your generation is perceived by other generations?

Shazia:

My kids call me old! I grew up in the 80s and it was like the best of times for me. I think I had a very idyllic American dream. We had very good morals. We were very grounded and had a lot of common sense. We were just decent young adults.  Kids now are very challenged in so many aspects of their lives with social media.

Irene (Glamour Photographer):

What do you want other younger women to know about being 50 plus?

Shazia:

I want them to embrace it. Aging is very different for women. See what you've accomplished in life. See all the good, the bad, the ugly, and be proud because we have too many obstacles set against us as women. So just own everything that you do and make a difference. Young ladies: be confident, be smart, be proactive, speak up, and have a voice.  I feel amazing now. I didn't feel like this in my 20s. 

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

What made you decide to participate in the 50 over 50 and Fabulous project and have glamour photography done? 

Shazia:

I was actually intrigued by how my personal essence would be captured in a photograph. I'm also very intrigued to meet other women like me who are embracing being 50. I can't wait to meet some of these women and share stories with them and see what we have in common.

And how, as a group of 50 women, we can inspire another 50 women. I think age is just a number. It's how you feel in your heart, how you feel in your mind, and how you approach every day of your life that matters. 

Irene (Glamour Photographer):

Yeah, no one in the project has said that they feel old. 

Shazia:

I think this is like the best time of my life! I think I waited for this, so this is definitely a good milestone. I hope I make it to 60 and 70, but for now, I'm going to enjoy being 50.

Irene (Beauty Photographer):

We've finished your styling and concept consultation and got your glamour photography session on the books. What are you most excited about at this moment?

Shazia:

I think I'm just excited to see what the pictures are going to look like. I've never been captured in a formal setting where I've felt this good about having my picture taken. I'm going to have fun with it and enjoy the process.