Cindy Crawford announces she is retiring when she turns 50

Supermodel Cindy Crawford has announced that she is retiring from modelling when she turns 50 on February 20.
The 49-year-old beauty is calling time on her legendary career - which has lasted for over 20 years - and stepping away from the camera because she doesn't want to keep 'proving' herself.

Cindy - who quit full-time modelling in 2000 - told United Airlines' Rhapsody magazine:

'I'm sure I'll have my picture taken for 10 more years, but not as a model anymore.'

 'And that's OK. I've done it. I've worked with all these incredible photographers,' she said.

Cindy added: 'What else do I need to do? I can't keep reinventing myself. I shouldn't have to keep proving myself. I don't want to.'

The runway star became a household name and a celebrity brand - as she rose to supermodel status in the eighties.

Cindy touched on aging, revealing that: 'I see my daughter - you spend your teenage years wanting to be older. When are you just happy where you are? Both my grandmothers are still alive. One is 93 and lives by herself - but she still calls me for face cream. I wonder if she looks in the mirror and asks "Who is that?"'

Cindy - who has son Presley, 16, and daughter Kaia, 14, with husband Rande Gerber - recently admitted to People Magazine in December that she is planning to 'embrace' being 50 and wants to grow old gracefully.

'Women like Helen Mirren and Jane Fonda, they look amazing and they look appropriate. They look amazing but they're not trying to look 30. I don't want to be trying to compete with my 14-year-old daughter - because I would lose!' 

'I always thought, "When can I just let it all go?" It's just never. There is no age now! It was the aspect of embracing turning 50 and celebrating the past, but at the same time I am embracing where I am.'