David M. Benett/Getty ImagesChristy Turlington Burns may rank as one of the top supermodels, well, ever. But even she's not immune to outgrowing her high profile profession.
During a model-on-model chat with Iman for Humanity (that's Citizen' of Humanity's mag), the once runway-happy model explained why she walked away from doing fashion shows.
"I thought about it for a long time, and I guess I really haven't fully given modeling up, but in my mind I did, because I went back to school and moved on in my life," Turlington explained. "And when I went back to school, same thing. I remember somebody telling me that they were in a location van and they saw me walk by with my backpack, and they were like, ‘Oh, poor thing.' And I'm thinking–‘Poor thing? I'm getting my education, you fools.'"
And get an education, she did. In 1999, the supermodel earned a bachelor's degree from New York University. She didn't stop there though, and is now working towards a master's degree at Columbia University.
Nowadays, Christy's model ambitions are fine-tuned to print work, counting Donna Karan and Calvin Klein as some of her most recent stints. Since she's left the runway world behind though, the 46-year-old mom doesn't enjoy returning to watch as a spectator.
"I can't go to watch them either. I have over the years every now and again, but it's so stressful to be there when you don't have a reason to be there," she dished. "It's just not fun and you feel like you're in a fishbowl."
Plenty of supermodels have hung up their runway heels in the past, citing their own reasons for walking away. In the same Q&A, Iman said that hadn't strutted down a catwalk since 1989, revealing that her decision to quit happened in the blink of an eye.
"I literally woke up and called my agent and said, ‘That's it,' and they said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, let me call you next week, for my book,'" she said. "And I said, ‘No, I'm done.' And I was done and I never went back.
More recently, Gisele Bündchen retired from the runway after nearly 20 years because her body "asked to stop."
Safe to say, these ladies are more than entitled to enjoy their runway retirement.