Christie Brinkley reveals her mom's secret to maintaining your youth

By CHELSEA HUANG

On the cover of her new book, "Timeless Beauty," Christie Brinkley sits cross-legged on the floor, with the same bright smile that graced the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue decades ago. In fact, the 61-year-old today is still the spitting image of the teen beauty in the late '70s and '80s.

Brinkley admits she doesn't have a secret fountain of youth, but she has one tip that her mother instilled in her from a young age -- that the "whole foundation of looking good is feeling good."

"One of the things that she would always say to me is that our words have a lot of power and that they can affect our health," she told AOL. "If I would say, 'Ugh, that makes me so sick,' she'd go, 'No, don't say that. That actually will make you sick if you say that.'

"So to stay positive I think was a huge message in our house," she continued. "We never complained. We counted our blessings."

While positivity radiates from the mother of three, Brinkley admits she, too, has "problem spots."

"When I was younger, I never really thought of like age spots or discoloration of the skin, but I've had a lot of sun and so I need products that really are going to address those issues," she said. "I'm very happy to have laugh lines and I think of them as a sign of a life well-lived, but I want my laugh lines to be a little less visible than they might be if I'm not using the proper cream."

When Brinkley was young, she used to "slop something" on her face and run, but as she got older, the model craved something more -- the "right cream" ended up being a product she concocted out of her own desire for a great skincare regimen.

"I'm much choosier than I was, and that was one of the reasons I wanted to create my own skincare line because I wanted everything I wanted, and I wanted it now. I wanted it in environmentally-sensitive packaging, and I wanted it to be cruelty-free, and I wanted it to really work and be effective."

Click through to see Christie Brinkley through the years:

As a woman deemed one of the most attractive in the world by various publications, the model is definitely able to offer beauty tips and snag dozens of lucrative endorsement deals -- but she has been adamant to hawk products that she actually loves and believes in.

"I've always felt that I need to believe in the products that I endorse and that I didn't want people to feel like they didn't trust me. It was important to me too -- If I recommend something that it really works and that people are going to get something out of it," she said.

"I really believe that my pickiness about product endorsement is the reason that I'm still around today."

In addition to her skincare line, Brinkley has also developed a collection of bombshell hair extensions, Hair2wear, to mimic the look of a professional blowout at home -- another product she uses herself.

"I will admit, it's easier to change the world on a good hair day!" she teased at AOL BUILD.

Watch Brinkley dish on her new book, beauty, the modeling industry and more in her entire interview with AOL BUILD above.

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