A WOMAN in her 50s has been flooded with praise online after showing off her massive “glow up” – and people are calling it “legendary.”
The brunette beauty named Kristina told how she achieved her flawless skin and youthful appearance without surgery or any invasive procedures.
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Kristina has been flooded with praise after showing off her glow upCredit: TikTok/kristina.maay
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She showed photos of herself from in her 40sCredit: TikTok/kristina.maay
So it’s little surprise people have been begging the brunette beauty to reveal her anti-ageing secrets.
Taking to TikTok (@kristina.maay), she penned: “When you’re a good-looking 50, but you were very ugly in your early 40s.”
In the clip, she shared a stunning video of herself revealing her flawless skin now – and there’s not a wrinkle in sight.
She then posted a series of photos from in her 40s to show just how much she believes she has changed.
In response to one person who commented that she must’ve had a change in money to achieve her new look, Kristina confirms: “No change in finances.
“I spent more before on my face tbh.”
Kristina also shared a second post shared to TikTok and went on to reveal some of the changes she made in just six years that she believes have helped to turn back the clock.
Firstly, she explains how she started using glycolic acid, microcurrent, gua-sha and doing facial yoga.
Next, she made changes in her eating and started focusing on consuming a high protein diet.
Kristina also says she stopped eating gluten and started ditching alcohol and sugar.
As for exercise, she took up weight training and shed a whopping 5kgs.
“Weight loss is absolutely a massive glow up isn’t it?! Body composition changes are an even bigger glow up,” she wrote, in response to one social media user.
She notes that ditching the “ugly fake lashes” also helped to make a huge difference and says she also let her feather touch brows fade.
Along with having 2 pre-cancerous moles removes, Kristina also started her supplement regime.
This is promising news for disease prevention and slowing the ageing process. It also:
Boosts Collagen Production: Collagen is a protein that maintains the skin’s elasticity and firmness. As we age, collagen production decreases, leading to wrinkles and sagging skin. Turmeric helps stimulate collagen synthesis, thereby promoting firmer and more youthful skin.
Improves Skin Health: Turmeric has been shown to improve various skin conditions, such as acne, psoriasis, and eczema. Its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties help soothe the skin, reduce redness, and promote a clearer complexion.
It wasn’t long before the post went viral, racking up a whopping 408k views and several comments from very impressed social media users.
“Wow we who, what, where, when and HOW!!!” wrote one.
A second commented: “We are sat for lessons!”
A third wrote: “You are beautiful no matter what. Looking more sophisticated now and natural so well done.”
Meanwhile, a fourth added: “You were beautiful before, but the glow up is legendary!!!!”
It wasn’t so much the culmination of a career as it was another signpost pointing the way to the Hall of Fame.
It certainly wasn’t the last pitch Clayton Kershaw will ever throw for the Dodgers, but it will likely be among the most memorable.
Because when Chicago White Sox third baseman Vinny Capra took a 1-2 slider for a strike to end the sixth inning Wednesday night, Kershaw became just the 20th pitcher in major league history to record 3,000 strikeouts.
More people have flown to the moon than have struck out 3,000 major league hitters. And for Kershaw, who has been chasing history since he threw his first big-league pitch as a skinny 20-year-old, entering such an elite club will be a big piece of his legacy.
Only now he has the wisdom and the grace to realize it was never about him in the first place.
“It’s an incredible list. I’m super, super grateful to be a part of it,” Kershaw said. “But if you don’t have anybody to celebrate with, it’s just doesn’t matter.”
Kershaw would know since he’s one of the most decorated players in history. Twice a 20-game winner, a five-time ERA champion and two-time world champion, he’s won three Cy Young Awards, was a league MVP and is a 10-time all-star.
“The individual stuff,” he repeated “is only as important as the people around you.”
So while Kershaw stood out when reached the 3K milestone on the 100th and final pitch he threw in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win, he refused to stand apart, pausing on his way off the field to point at his family sitting in their usual seats in the front row of the loge section. He then accepted hugs from teammates Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernández.
But he saved his warmest embrace for manager Dave Roberts, who bounded up the dugout steps to greet him.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” said Roberts, who has guided Kershaw through doubts and disappointments, through high points and lows in their 10 years together.
“I’m one of the few people in uniform that has been through them,” Roberts said. “That was kind of what the embrace was.”
Kershaw, 37, is just the fourth left-hander to reach 3,000 strikeouts but more important, he said, is the fact he’s just the second in a century, after Bob Gibson, to do it with the same team. No pitcher, in fact, has spent more years in a Dodger uniform that Kershaw.
“I don’t know if I put a ton of stock in being with one team early on,” he said. “Over time you get older and appreciate one organization a little bit more. Doc [Roberts] stuck with me, too. It hasn’t been all roses, I know that.
“So there’s just a lot of mutual respect and I’m super grateful now, looking back, to get to say that I spent my whole career here. And I will spend my whole career here.”
Kershaw struck out the first batter he faced in his Dodger debut 18 years ago, getting the Cardinals’ Skip Schumaker to wave at a 1-2 pitch. It was the first of three strikeouts he would record in his first big-league inning. So even from the start, the K in Kershaw — the scorebook symbol for a strikeout — stood out more than than the rest of the name.
In between Schumaker and Capra, Kershaw fanned nearly 1,000 different hitters, from CJ Abrams and Bobby Abreu to Ryan Zimmerman and Barry Zito.
He’s stuck out (Jason) Castro and (Buddy) Kennedy, Elvis (Andrus) and (Alex) Presley and (Billy) Hamilton and (Alex) Jackson. He’s whiffed (Scott) Cousins and brothers (Bengie and Yadier Molina), a (Chin-lung) Hu and a Yu (Darvish), a Cook (Aaron) and a (Jeff) Baker as well as a Trout (Mike) and multiple Marlins (Miami).
Former Giant Brandon Belt was Kershaw’s most frequent victim, striking out 30 times in 62 at-bats. Fewer than 50 batters have faced him at least five times without striking out, according to Baseball Reference.
Along the way Kershaw’s unique windup, the right knee pausing as he lifts both hands just above his cap, has become an instantly recognizable silhouette for a generation of Dodger fans.
There’s only one other left-hander in team history that can compare with Kershaw, yet he and Sandy Koufax are so different the comparisons are more contrasts than anything.
Kershaw has been brilliant over the entirety of his 18-year career, winning 10 or more games 12 times. He’s never finished a season with a losing record and his career ERA of 2.52 is the lowest of the last 105 years for pitchers who are thrown at least 1,500 innings. Even at 37, he’s unbeaten in four decisions.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw walks off the mound after recording his 3,000th career strikeout as right fielder Andy Pages, left, and first baseman Freddie Freeman, right, react behind him.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Koufax was 36-40 with an ERA above 4.00 through his first six seasons. And while Koufax’s career was ended by injury before his 31st birthday, Kershaw has pushed through repeated problems with his back, shoulder, knee, toe, elbow, pelvis and forearm.
Only Don Sutton has won more games in a Dodger uniform than the 216 that belong to Kershaw, who will soon be enshrined next to Koufax and Sutton in the Hall of Fame.
“Early on they were talking about this next Sandy Koufax guy, this big left-hander. Really didn’t have an idea where the ball was going, but pretty special,” said Roberts, who retired as a player after Kershaw’s rookie season. “It’s much better to be wearing the same uniform as him.”
But Roberts has seen the other side, when the young promise gives way to pitfalls. He’s seen Kershaw battle so many injuries, he’s spent nearly as much time on the injured list as in the rotation over the past five seasons. Alongside the brilliance, he’s seen the uncertainty.
So with Kershaw approaching history Wednesday, Roberts loosened the leash, letting him go back to the mound for the sixth inning despite having thrown 92 pitches, his most in more than two years.
“I wanted to give Clayton every opportunity,” he said. “You could see the emotion that he had today, trying to get that third strike. But I think it just happened the way it’s supposed to happen, in the sense that it was the third out [and] we got a chance to really celebrate him.”
Each time Kershaw got to two strikes, something he did to 15 of the 27 hitters he faced, “I said a few Hail Marys” Roberts said.
“It’s the last box for Clayton to check in his tremendous career,” he added, saying he doubted many more pitchers will ever reach 3,000 strikeouts. “You’ve got to stay healthy, you’ve got to be good early in your career, you’ve got to be good for a long time.”
And Kershaw has been all of that.
That, Roberts said, was behind the second long hug he and his pitcher shared in the dugout Wednesday night as a highlight reel of Kershaw’s career played on the video boards above both outfield pavilions. The sellout crowd, which had long been on its feet, continuing cheering, eventually drawing Kershaw back out onto the field to doff his cap in appreciation.
“That ovation,” he said “was something that I’ll never forget, for sure.”
Natalie Z. Briones is a concert veteran. She’s been to heavy metal concerts and a punk music festival where she napped most of the time. On Sunday, she attended her first baby rave.
Natalie is a few months shy of two. In the arms of her dad, Alvin Briones, 36, the pigtailed toddler squealed “Hi!” to anyone passing by the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood where the Briones family was lined up to meet Lenny Pearce, the mastermind behind Natalie’s favorite song, “The Wheels on the Bus.”
Natalie Z. Briones, held by her father Alvin Briones, sports rainbow face paint at the baby rave.
(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)
It’s not the classic version most parents sing while slowly swaying and clapping — Pearce’s rendition rages with enough bass to rattle rib cages. Natalie is here for it, and so is her mom, Alondra Briones, who plays the techno remix during her drives to work even without Natalie in the backseat.
“It’s a pick-me-up,” said Alondra, 28, from Compton, before filing into the theater with other parents and caregivers for an afternoon rager with their kids.
In Pearce’s techno remixes of classic children’s music, an unexpected subgenre is taking off — toddler techno — which melds the cloyingly sweet lyrics of songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” with the edgy beat drops associated with music from gritty warehouse parties.
The unlikely musical pairing creates a bridge between parents like Sandra Mikhail and her 6-year-old daughter, Mila. Both dressed in fuchsia at Pearce’s dance party, the mother-daughter duo were there to celebrate Mila’s promotion from kindergarten. In their Riverside home, Pearce’s music is on heavy rotation.
Children squeal in delight at the baby rave at the Roxy as Kuma the money, Lenny Pearce’s sidekick, hypes up the crowd.
“I can handle kids’ music now,” said Sandra, 38. “With the beat and [Pearce] adding that techno touch to it, it makes me able to tolerate listening to it all day long.”
For the last year, Pearce has been hosting sold-out dance parties boldly called baby raves — first in his native Australia — then on the first leg of his U.S. tour, which culminated in a June 29 double-header at the Roxy.
In the afternoon show timed for that sweet spot many parents know well — post-nap and right before the evening witching hours — Pearce pranced, high-fived kids and waved at babies being hoisted in the air.
Lenny Pearce vibes with the crowd at his sold-out show at the Roxy.
(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)
At 34, he’s been an entertainer for most of his life. Over a decade ago, he was dancing in music videos as a member of the Australian boy band, Justice Crew. Now, he’s firmly affixed in his dad era. His dance partner is now a large balloon spider named Incy Wincy.
“I’m just being a dad on stage,” said Pearce in a video interview from New York. “I can make a clown of myself to entertain kids.”
From boy band to toddler techno
Lenny Pearce uses props during his shows, including an inflatable duck.
(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)
Pearce’s journey into children’s entertainment seemed preordained, if only because his identical twin brother is arguably the second most famous purple character on a children’s TV show (behind Barney, of course).
“We’re both in the toddler scene,” said John Pearce, the older twin by minutes, who in 2021 joined “The Wiggles” cast as the Purple Wiggle. “[My brother’s] stuck with it for a long time, and it’s all paid off now.”
At the Roxy, many parents and caregivers said they found Pearce through the Purple Wiggle. Others discovered him on social media: He has more than 2 million followers on TikTok and more than 1 million followers on Instagram.
Before becoming children’s entertainers, the Pearce brothers were members of Justice Crew, a dance troupe that won “Australia’s Got Talent” in 2010. For a few years, the boy band’s future burned white hot with the aspiration to break through in the U.S. — a dream that never materialized.
Lenny Pearce started making what he calls toddler techno music after his daughter was born in 2022. As a dad, he says he’s happy to act silly for kids.
Most boy bands have a finite time in the spotlight, said Pearce. In 2016, he quit the Justice Crew to focus on DJing and music production, but the transition from boy band to toddler techno didn’t happen overnight. For a time, he worked as a salesperson at an Australian electronic store.
“People were like, ‘Aren’t you from Justice Crew?’” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah. Now, do you want this lens with that camera?’”
In 2022, becoming a dad to his daughter Mila changed the course of his creativity. Pearce started remixing children’s songs with “ravey” music and filming himself dancing with her to the songs. Soon, other parents started sharing videos of their kids dancing to his songs, too. In this way, social media allows for ideas to be refined until something sticks.
In March, Pearce released his first solo album aptly titled, “Toddler Techno.”
All along the way, he imagined playing these songs at mini raves. For this generation of kids and their millennial parents, it’s not a stretch, said Pearce. Pretend DJ tables are just as commonly sold in toy aisles as construction trucks.
In the fall, Pearce and his baby raves will return to the U.S. — and, yes, to L.A. — in a 30-city tour. As a solo artist, he’s done what he couldn’t do in a band — he’s broken through to the U.S. and international audiences.
“It’s funny, isn’t it?” said Pearce. “I always felt like I had something to say, but no one really listened.”
But are techno parties OK for kids?
Many attendees at the baby rave were wearing ear covers.
(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)
The roots of techno — in Detroit or Berlin depending on whom you talk to — were always antiestablishment, said Ambrus Deak, program manager of music production at the Los Angeles Film School.
“It was exploratory,” said Deak, a longtime DJ who went by DJ AMB, about techno.
Toddler techno plays with that contrast — an edgy genre made safe for kids. Deak would not attend a baby rave — “It would be very cringe for me,” he said — but sees the appeal.
“I can definitely see a lot of people being into it,” said Deak, 48.
Still, not everyone is sold on the idea of taking kids to a rave — even one held in the middle of the day with a face-painting station. In the comments of Pearce’s social media posts, parents occasionally debate the appropriateness of exposing kids to drug-addled rave culture.
“I know that most people would say, ‘Is this the image we want to teach our kids?’” said Pearce. “What image are you imagining? Because if you think about it, they’re just kids with light sticks, right?”
He gets the concern, but kids don’t know about the darker sides of raves unless they are taught. And that’s not what his baby raves are about.
In the right dose, some experts say techno music and baby raves can be beneficial for kids and parents.
“Parents’ happiness and stress regulation also matter,” said Jenna Marcovitz, director of the UCLA Health Music Therapy program. “Techno can promote oxytocin and boost endorphins. It can encourage joy and play and really support brain development, emotional regulation and really enhance the parent-child bond as well.”
At the Roxy, one man vigorously pumped his fist to the beat of the music.
“Fist pump like this!” he shouted to the child on his shoulders. Both fists — little and big — jabbed the air.
How to keep it safe and sane
Glow sticks were a popular accessory at the event.
(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)
Everything — especially baby raves — should be enjoyed in moderation. The pulsating music, giant inflatables tossed into the crowd and sudden blasts of fog can overstimulate kids.
For the roughly one-hour show, the music is loud. Typically set to 85 to 90 decibels, Pearce said. Having a sensory support plan is key, said Marcovitz, who recommends toddlers wear headphones with a noise reduction rating of 20 to 30 decibels or higher — like this one or this one. Practicing dance parties at home, so your child knows what to expect, is also helpful.
At the rave, look for signs of overstimulation, which can present differently with each child — some might shut down while others might start shoving each other mosh pit-style. At the Roxy show, one toddler sat down, ate half a bag of Goldfish crackers and poured the rest on the floor. Another disappeared into the crowd for a few alarming moments before being returned by a good Samaritan.
Toddlers crawl and lay down amid the crowd at the baby rave.
(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)
“For any child, I would recommend breaks every 30 minutes,” said Marcovitz. “Step outside.”
Because techno hypes people up — even little kids — it’s important to help a child regulate their nervous system back down after the show.
“Lots of cuddles, silence and hugs,” said Marcovitz.
Pearce also starts the party late, so the dance party before the rave can tucker kids out before he takes the stage.
Ashley and Todd Herles drove from Santa Clarita to the Roxy so their son, Oliver, 3, could meet Pearce before the show. They said they bought $120 VIP tickets, which included a meet and greet and table seats where Oliver got to high-five Kuma, Pearce’s dancing sidekick in a turquoise monkey suit. For Pearce’s November 23 show at the Novo in downtown Los Angeles, ticket prices currently range from $48 to $195, fees and taxes included.
Overall, Oliver loved it — until he didn’t.
“[The] meltdown happened around 1:40 so we left then,” said Ashley, 40.
They had big post-rave plans to refuel with french fries. But Oliver was tired.
And, most importantly?
“Our backs hurt,” said Ashley.
Children bopped along to the music from atop their parents’ shoulders during the dance party.
