Once revered by many as one of the world's sexiest females, former "Baywatch" star and Playboy regular cover girl Pamela Anderson said she plans to age gracefully and has no plans "to chase youth."

Now 47 and still actively modeling, Anderson opened up in a candid and far-reaching Parade Magazine interview

"I never felt pretty enough," she said. "... I think I've provoked feeling about how I look. But not as a beauty, but as a mischevious little rascal."

No matter what her approach may have been, Anderson's style and appeal has surely proven difficult for many of her peers to duplicate.

"I want to get old," she added. "I want to experience all the seasons of my life. I just don't want to be afraid of it. And I think in this industry you're surrounded by a lot of fear of getting older and fear of your looks leaving you. I thought 'Well, I'm lucky, then because I never really felt that great looking.' I felt like I could be sexy. I could be provocative and I could use my image to get attention for things that I cared about."

Much of that spunk and attitude stems from a quality the twice-divorced Anderson recalls her mother instilling in her long ago.

"My mom always told me beauty comes from within," she said. "And I know that's maybe a cliché, but I do believe that. And I think that's what lasts forever."

In fact, Anderson insists she hopes her legacy comes to be all about someone who might not have always come across over the TV screen.

"I want to be remembered as someone with a big heart," she said in reference to the Pamela Anderson Foundation she recently launched that will work to protect human, animal and environmental rights. "I believe artists are the freedom fighters of the world."

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