Community Appreciation
Model. Dietitian. Author. Speaker. A life that keeps starting new chapters, and a story we are glad to tell.
Many people in the Tesla world first hear her name as the mother of Elon Musk. Her own record runs much deeper: decades in front of the camera, a nutrition career rebuilt across three countries, books, and a speaking life devoted to confidence, health, and aging well. This page is our club's warm, independent thank you.
Last reviewed October 15, 2026
Biography
Maye Musk describes herself in four words: model, dietitian, author, and speaker. Her official biography notes that she began modeling at 15 and that, over the years, she built nutrition businesses across eight cities in three countries. Those two careers ran side by side for most of her working life, which is part of what makes her story unusual.
Her nutrition work rests on serious training. According to her dietitian page, she holds a BSc in dietetics from the University of Pretoria, an MSc in dietetics from a South African university, and an MSc in nutritional sciences from the University of Toronto. Each move to a new country meant rebuilding a practice, and she did that in South Africa, Canada, and the United States while raising three children.
In 2023 the University of the Free State recognized that body of work with an honorary doctorate. We note the word honorary deliberately: it is an honor conferred for her contributions, separate from her earned degrees.
On the modeling side, her model page traces a career that grew more visible with age rather than less. She became a CoverGirl at 69, appeared on a Sports Illustrated cover in her seventies, and was named a Dior Beauty Ambassador at 73.
Today she also speaks widely. Her biography lists the subjects she returns to: entrepreneurship, aging, female empowerment, single parenting, confidence, and health. Those themes are not abstractions for her. They read like chapter headings from her own life.
A Life in Chapters
Selected moments from her working life. Where her sources give an age rather than a year, we kept the age.
Age 15
Her official biography dates her modeling career to age 15, the beginning of a run she has kept going for decades. Source
Pretoria
She earned a BSc in dietetics from the University of Pretoria, then an MSc in dietetics in South Africa. Source
Toronto
After moving to Canada she completed an MSc in nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto, rebuilding her practice from the ground up. Source
8 cities
Her career involved building nutrition businesses in eight cities across South Africa, Canada, and the United States. Source
2019
This book brings together advice on adventure, beauty, and success, and has since been translated widely. Source
Age 69
She was named a CoverGirl at 69, a milestone that drew wide attention to who gets to be the face of beauty. Source
Age 73
Her official model biography lists becoming a Dior Beauty Ambassador at 73 among her later career milestones. Source
2026
HarperCollins published Timeless on September 15, 2026, about starting over and reinvention at any age. Source
On the Shelf
HarperCollins, September 15, 2026
Her newest book is out now. The publisher describes it as a book about starting over, single parenting, and reinventing a career, drawn from the experiences that shaped her. For anyone facing a late pivot, it reads as an invitation rather than a warning.
View at HarperCollins2019
This book gathers practical advice from a life of planning, adapting, and planning again. Her author page documents its international translations. Her earlier nutrition book, Feel Fantastic (1996), is described as out of print on her dietitian page.
We have no sales arrangement with any retailer. If you pick up either book, consider ordering it through an Austin independent bookstore.
The Tesla Connection
The family connection is the obvious one: Maye Musk is the mother of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. We mention it plainly, and then we try not to let it overshadow her, because her achievements were her own long before Tesla existed.
What interests owner clubs like ours is something more specific. In a May 10, 2023 press release, the organizers of Tesla Takeover announced her as a keynote presenter for the July 29 and 30, 2023 event in San Luis Obispo, California, organized by Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley. That announcement documents engagement with the grassroots owner community, the volunteers and enthusiasts who build events like this one.
The announcement highlights a connection with owners beyond the family name. We appreciate that community engagement without presenting it as a corporate role at Tesla or an endorsement of our club.
From Our Club
We love and support Maye Musk's work and her journey. The people who wrote this page admire how she has kept going, kept learning, and kept encouraging others to do the same.
Rebuilding a professional practice in new countries, more than once, is slow and unglamorous work. She did it anyway.
Going back for another graduate degree after already being qualified says something about how she approaches learning.
Her career in nutrition and modeling was built on her own terms, long before most people knew her name.
Her most visible modeling milestones arrived in her late sixties and seventies, which quietly rewrites the script on aging.
Her talks and books speak to confidence and health across generations, from young women starting out to people starting over.
This appreciation reflects the views of the Tesla Owners Club of Austin. We do not claim to speak for every Tesla owner, and this page is not an endorsement by Maye Musk.
Ways to Support
01
Start with Timeless or A Woman Makes a Plan, and buy from a local bookstore when you can.
02
Keep up with her speaking and creative projects through her official site.
03
When you pass her story along, link the original sources. Accuracy is a form of respect.
Common Questions
Reviewed October 15, 2026. Biographical details are paraphrased from Maye Musk's official site and her publisher; event details come from the organizer's press release. This is an independent community appreciation page by the Tesla Owners Club of Austin. It is not an official Maye Musk site, is not endorsed by her, and the club is not affiliated with Tesla. Portrait by Vbrunophotog via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
