Meet VMP Covergirl is……Reyné O'Shaughnessy! 🎉
Meet cover girl Reyné O’Shaughnessy! ✨
For more than 35 years, Reyné flew commercial aircraft around the world, including the Boeing 747, helping break barriers in a profession where few women occupied the cockpit. But one of the most important lessons of her aviation career became deeply personal: she knew how to protect an airplane’s safety margins while overlooking her own.
A health crisis threatened the career she loved and prompted her to study health, wellbeing, and human performance. Today, the retired captain, author, and speaker is helping women question something so many of us have been praised for: how much we can carry.
Her book, At Capacity: How to Reclaim Your Margins in a World That Glorifies Overload, draws on that experience. As she shared in her interview, “Don’t forget that you belong on the list of people you’re called to care for.”
What struck me was how she described this chapter of her life. She feels more creative, courageous, and fulfilled, with a clearer sense of how she wants to use everything she has learned to serve others. Her accomplishments are remarkable, but she also wants people to see the woman behind them: a devoted mother, loving daughter, loyal friend, and someone who cares deeply about making a meaningful difference.
That’s what makes her words about photographs especially fitting:
“Every line on my face represents a story, a lesson, a risk I was willing to take, someone I’ve loved, or something I’ve survived.”
Reyné, it’s a privilege to celebrate you as part of 50 Over 50. Your story reminds us that caring for ourselves belongs alongside caring for everyone else, and that some of our most meaningful work may still be ahead.
Here's what Reyné had to say about this season of her life...
💎 Did you have any older female role models when you were younger?
I was fortunate to have several women who influenced me at different stages of my life, but none of them handed me a roadmap. They modeled something even more valuable: resilience, grace, and quiet strength.
In aviation, there were very few women ahead of me. That meant I often had to become the example I was searching for. Looking back, I realize my greatest teachers weren’t necessarily the loudest voices. They were women who carried themselves with integrity, treated others with kindness, and showed that you didn’t have to sacrifice your character and integrity to accomplish extraordinary things.
The advice that has stayed with me wasn’t a single sentence. It was the example they lived: do your work well, let your actions speak louder than your words, and never stop learning.
💎 How did you mark turning 50? How did that feel to you?
Turning 50 didn’t feel like an ending. I was still flying airplanes internationally, raising a family, and checking all the boxes society says should make you successful. From the outside, life looked amazingly remarkable.
What I didn’t recognize then was how close I was living to the edge of my own capacity.
💎 What advice would you give your younger self?
I would hug her first.
Then I’d tell her to keep loving deeply, serving faithfully, and pursuing her purpose with all her heart. Those were never the problem.
What I would whisper is this: Don’t forget that you belong on the list of people you’re called to care for.
For years, I poured my heart into my faith, my family, my career, and the people I loved. I wouldn’t change that for a second. But somewhere along the way, I stopped extending that same care to myself.
I wish I had understood sooner that my body wasn’t working against me. It was trying to get my attention. Every symptom was a signal, not a betrayal.
After spending 35 years in aviation, I knew we would never intentionally fly an airplane at the edge of its safety margins because that’s where risk increases. I just didn’t realize I was living my own life that way.
If I could tell my younger self one last thing, it would be this: Protect your margins. Not because life is meant to be easier, but because the people you love deserve the healthiest, most joyful version of you—and so do you.
💎 Do you feel like you've changed since you've turned 50?
Completely.
When I was younger, achievement often felt like the measure of success. Today, I value peace more than proving myself.
I’ve also discovered that beauty has very little to do with perfection. Confidence, curiosity, kindness, and purpose are what make someone truly attractive. Those qualities deepen with age.
I don’t feel invisible after 50. I feel more like myself than ever before. I’ve never been one to impress people, I’ve been far more interested in making a meaningful difference in people’s lives.
💎 What positives have come from being over 50?
The biggest surprise has been realizing that some of life’s most meaningful work doesn’t begin until later.
Over 50, I stopped chasing what cultures definition of success and started asking better questions. What really matters? How do I want to spend my time? How can I use everything I’ve learned to serve others?
Ironically, I feel more creative, more courageous, and more fulfilled now than I did decades ago. This season has given me permission to become exactly who I was meant to be.
💎 Do you have any goals or projects you're working on? What dreams do you have for the future?
My dream has become much bigger than writing books or giving keynote speeches.
I’m building The Capacity Collective, a movement that helps women understand that living constantly at capacity isn’t something to admire—it’s something we need to change. For too long, women have been praised for carrying more, giving more, and pushing through. I want to help change that conversation.
Drawing from 35 years in aviation, where we would never intentionally operate an aircraft at the edge of its safety margins, I now help women understand that people need human margins too. They aren’t a luxury. They’re essential for health, relationships, creativity, and a life well lived.
This chapter isn’t about achieving more for the sake of achievement. It’s about using everything I’ve learned to help women reclaim the space they need to thrive. Aviation gave me a remarkable career. Helping women reclaim their margins has given me my purpose.
💎 What is your best advice for other women who are coming up on turning 50?
Don’t fear turning 50.
Fear reaching the end of your life without ever truly listening to yourself.
Your body isn’t betraying you. Your dreams aren’t behind you. You are not “too old.”
This season isn’t about becoming less. It’s about becoming more yourself.
Give yourself permission to slow down long enough to hear what your life has been trying to tell you. Protect your human margins. You are not a machine.
Building margins aren’t selfish - they’re essential.
💎 What do you most want people to remember about you?
I hope they don’t simply remember me as one of the first female Boeing 747 trailblazer or as the woman who flew “heavy metal” around the world. Those were extraordinary privileges, and I’ll always be grateful for them.
I was a devoted mother, a loving daughter, a steadfast friend, and someone who loved deeply and lived with integrity.
That no matter how high I flew or how much I accomplished professionally, I never lost sight of the people who mattered most and my purpose behind the job.
I hope they say I helped women see themselves differently. I reminded them that we build safety margins for airplanes, financial margins for businesses, and profit margins for organizations, yet somewhere along the way we forgot that humans need margins too.
And if, because of something I wrote, shared, or lived, one woman chose to listen to her body, protect her wellbeing, or believe that she deserved more than merely surviving at capacity, then I will have lived a life that mattered.
💎 Why are beautiful photos important to you right now?
People sometimes think beautiful photographs are about ego.
I couldn’t disagree more.
They’re not about being full of yourself. They’re about being full.
Full of gratitude.
Full of wisdom.
Full of stories.
Full of love.
Full of purpose.
I often say my cup runneth over, and that’s exactly how this season of life feels. Every line on my face represents a story, a lesson, a risk I was willing to take, someone I’ve loved, or something I’ve survived. At this stage of life, I want photographs that reflect joy, wisdom, confidence, and authenticity - not perfection.
I hope another woman sees those images and realizes she doesn’t become less visible after 50. She becomes more fully herself.
💎 Is there a moment that everything changed for you?
Entering into motherhood was the moment that everything changed in my life. I LOVED that season of my life! The second moment in my life that changed everything was after decades of flying commercially, I experienced a health crisis that nearly cost me my medical certificate (my job) and the career I loved. At that moment, I was confronted with a truth I could no longer ignore: I had spent my entire career stewarding aircraft with extraordinary care, yet I had never learned to steward myself.
That realization changed everything.
That experience changed the trajectory of my life. It led me into the study of women’s health, stress, hormones, nutrition, mindfulness, and human performance. It eventually inspired me to write At Capacity and create The Capacity Collective. Looking back, what felt like the greatest interruptions to my life became the beginning of my life’s purpose.
💎 What is something you believe about women over 50 that you wish more women understood?
Women over 50 are not winding down. They’re often just getting started.
This is the age where experience meets wisdom, confidence replaces comparison, and purpose becomes clearer than ever before.
Society often focuses on what women lose after 50. I wish we celebrated everything they gain.
Some of the most courageous, generous, and impactful women I know didn’t discover their true calling until this stage of life.
Congratulations Reyné! It’s an honor to help you celebrate YOU and your journey and I’m so glad you said YES to yourself! Ciao Bella 🎉
Your story deserves to be celebrated, too!
While our 50over50 Project is coming to a close, the sisterhood we've created continues to grow.
We'd love to invite you to experience a portrait session of your own… a chance to be seen, celebrated, and reminded of the extraordinary woman you are, and to become part of this beautiful sisterhood of women who are embracing life and all its possibilities.
Because every woman has a story worth telling. Including you. Find out more here.
