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Old women especially are invisible. I have been to parties where no one knows who I am, so I am ignored until I introduce myself to someone picked at random. Immediately, word gets round, and I am surrounded by people who tell me they are my biggest fans.

Reluctant as I am to regard myself as a style icon, I would love to think I could inspire older women to make the most of themselves.

I'd really like to show women my age - who've had children grow up or lost husbands or retired after working all their lives - that there are options. There are choices. We don't have to just sit around and be invisible.

I think I'd like to be one of those eccentric 80-year-old women.

I was the Kate Moss of my day, atypical of what the public wanted, which was Brigitte Bardot. I was always tall, skinny and angular. But now, society has bought 55 years of my marketing 'Carmen,' and I'm considered beautiful. I hope that empowers older women.

Some women say as they get older they're no longer noticed: they disappear. Men, for instance, don't see them. Nobody wants them. That doesn't happen to me because of who I am. Not because I'm any more scintillating company, but because I'm Ruth Rendell.

I was kind of an invisible girl when I was young.

It's unfortunate that we live in such a panicked, dysmorphic society where women don't even give themselves a chance to see what they'll look like as older persons. I want to have some idea of what I'll look like before I start cleaning the slates.

I am enormously honored to be one of the spokesmen of the New Age Womens Health Campaign, so you'll be seeing me in public service announcements and public appearances supporting the campaign.

I see a lot of women of every age trying to be something else. I see them trying to imitate behaviors that they think belong to successful people.