'Just Don't Stop Moving': Marissa Teijo, 72, Was the Oldest Miss Texas Contestant Ever. Her New Goal

'Women our age can do what the younger girls do,' the former teacher, beauty queen and influencer tells PEOPLE

Marissa Teijo, a 72-year-old retired elementary school teacher and grandmother from El Paso made history last month as the oldest contestant in the Miss Texas pageant.

"I got so many cheers," she says.

Teijo taught elementary school for 38 years before retiring care for her mother. She ballroom danced and volunteered with the Junior League, then worked at a substitute teacher for a few more years before retiring again.

She was looking to try something new when about a year ago, a friend suggested she try modeling. “I'm always open for adventure,” she says. “It energized me."      

After taking classes and going to casting calls, she entered a Top Model competition. "I won most photogenic, which totally surprised me," she says. At first she said no when her friend suggested she enter the Miss Texas pageant, which took place weeks before her 72nd birthday.

“She goes, 'It'll be your chance to inspire more women of your age ... Women our age can do what the younger girls do'," Teijo recalled.

At the pageant in Houston in June, Teijo says the contestants — alongside their mothers and grandmothers — told her she inspired them, and asked her for beauty and fitness tips. "I accomplished my goal," she says.

Teijo started lifting weights when she was 40, and entered body building competitions shortly after taking up the sport. Now home in El Paso, she is making videos of her workouts and sharing them on her Instagram.

“My oldest granddaughter, who's 21, she used to say, 'You're not a regular grandma,' because most of the grandmas around here in El Paso are grandmotherly, and I'm not grandmotherly,” she says.

This grandmother walked a pageant competition stage in a swimsuit showing off her six-pack abs. She spoke to PEOPLE about beauty, nutrition and her fitness regime.

A: I don't consider myself beautiful. Beauty to me, is just being really, really happy. And I think being happy, exuding joy and being kind to people, brings out energy and beauty in you, so people are drawn to you. I look at beautiful girls and they have the perfect features, and they're tall, and I'm not. At times I get intimidated.

Most of the pageant girls had been in pageants several times, and some of them were winners, but I didn't let it faze me. I think that's another thing about beauty: Having confidence in yourself no matter how you look or what your shape is. I've had to work on that. I've had to work on my confidence a lot. But at my age, it's gotten much better.

A: I started lifting weights at 40 and would do it five or six days a week. ... I was always a runner, and I would do step aerobics classes. But when I started weightlifting, that's when my body evolution started. Weightlifting will give you the bes -

The Mini Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Rolls ,...

t shape; it looked like I had a very small waist, because you gain muscles in your upper body, so you get that hourglass look.

Now that I'm older, I cut back to weightlifting three days a week, and on the other days I do cardio. I either go spinning or walk my dog up and down the hills here where I live.

I'm very active. I don't stop. And that's one of the things that I would highly recommend to anybody: Just don't stop. Because no matter how old you are, you can still move. And if you keep on moving, you'll be able to move the older you get.

A: I eat very, very clean and healthy. My nutrition is mostly a lot of vegetables and a lot of fruits, oatmeal. I do eat meat. I eat chicken, fish every once in a while. I love steak because my husband is from Argentina, so he loves that. I don't eat cheeses. I don't eat processed meats. I do not eat white bread; I only drink non-dairy milk. But I do indulge every once in a while. I try to eat cookies that are made with almond flour and very little sugar.

When I was training for the pageant, I wanted to be as fit as possible. On my training days, I would eat sweet potato and jasmine rice or brown rice and oatmeal, and then lots of vegetables at every meal, lots and lots of vegetables and fruits too. I cut out all sugar. And on my off-training days when I was not weightlifting, I would not eat any carbs at all. I would just eat protein, fruits and almonds. That was a little bit more stringent, but it wasn't for a long time.

I did that for about two and a half months; I don't recommend that long term. In my bodybuilding days when I was training for a contest, I would eat six meals a day. But for this pageant, I ate four meals a day.

A: I've always taken very good care of my skin. My mother taught me that. I use a skin therapy oil on my face in the morning after I wash my face, and then I put on sunscreen. If I'm going out, I'll wear makeup, which also has sunscreen. But if I'm not going out, I just wear on top of the sunscreen a tinted sunscreen and a little bit of blush. And then at night, I wash my face with a gentle cleanser, then I put on oil and moisturizing cream.

A: I am working on getting beauty brands and gyms to endorse me. And I’m working on commercials also. Tomorrow I’m doing a commercial for a local furniture store. But my major goal is I would like to represent brands that we older women use.

My main message is: Health through fitness and taking good care of your skin, using products to keep your skin healthy and out of the sun.

That’s what I’m working on. I’m also working with a modeling agent, the one that convinced me to do the Miss Texas pageant. She wants me to be an influencer and do YouTube videos. I’m working on fitness videos so I can start showing people what it is that I do to stay fit and to have healthy skin and a healthy lifestyle.

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