Whatever Happened To...Kajsa Ceder

OK, I'm still on my 'Teen magazine kick. I just recently picked up six 1984 issues from eBay, and as I page through them I get a warm and fuzzy feeling. Tickle antiperspirant, Silkience shampoo, Ralph Macchio movies...so many things we thought would be around forever, then one day they just weren't. And hey, if it weren't for the full-page ad on page 34 of the June issue, I would never have known that Beat Street was released on my birthday.

One thing I've started to wonder about is this: whatever happened to the 'Teen cover models? These were girls (well, they certainly seemed to be women to me, back then...today they look like children) whom I yearned to be just like. Yeah, yeah, beauty's only skin deep and all that, but somehow I was sure that all my troubles would vanish if I could only look just like Catherine Gilmour.

Yep, that's her. Why couldn't I get my eyes to open that wide? Dumb droopy eyelids. Whatever happened to Catherine Gilmour, anyway? She was the 1979 Rose Bowl Queen, then she went on to be a model (mostly for 'Teen, from what I can surmise...she seemed to be on virtually every cover between 1981 and 1983), she can briefly be glimpsed in the background in a single scene of the 1982 movie Night Shift (as a prostitute), and IMDB lists some one-shots on a handful of TV series from the early '80s. Then, post-1986...nothing. She apparently dropped off the face of the earth. 

So this entry isn't about whatever happened to Catherine Gilmour because what the hey, I didn't want to do that much work. Instead, we're going to find out whatever happened to Kajsa Ceder - a darned nice-looking girl, even if she wasn't the one I hoped and prayed I'd be once I grew up (and I turned out to look about as much like Kajsa as I did Catherine...which is to say, not at all).

Here's Kajsa, circa 1984, exercising her little heart out.

Like the pants? They're parachute pants. YES. 'member them?

Anyway, because of her name, I was convinced Kajsa was an exotic Scandinavian who probably spoke only a tiny bit of English with the coolest accent imaginable. Maybe she could introduce me to ABBA!

The above photo is from a March '84 article titled "A Day in the Life of a Model." In typical 'Teen fashion, we get a few sentences assuring us that being a model is "a lot of hard work" (Kajsa sometimes has to get up early to do her own hair and makeup!), then several paragraphs listing in meticulous detail everything she's wearing on her face and bod ("Two Blondes mesh top, S-M-L, $24, and scarf. T.A.C.I. belt. Burlington Socks sweat socks. Sporto hi-top sneakers. To flatter her complexion, she uses Ivory Shine Free Oil Control Makeup and Shell Pink Shine Free Oil Control Powder Blush." Believe it or not, that's a tiny fraction of the info we're given about the artifacts she's bedecked with.)

Anyway, you probably don't want to know all that, right? But I'll bet you're dying to know (as promised above) Whatever Happened To...Kajsa Ceder!

 

Turns out Kajsa is now a pilates instructor with her own studio in Topanga Canyon (a well-known hippie/new-age/kooky artist enclave in the greater Los Angeles area).According to her website, "as a trained Holistic Lifestyle Coach she combines her unique passion for health and wellness with a classical approach to Pilates. She is also trained in Somatic Respiratory Integration which is the process of releasing trauma and transforming ones awareness through breath." Yes, but does she do it all wearing purple parachute pants?