You know about Elon Musk’s two companies: electric car-maker Tesla and rocket-launcher SpaceX.

But do you know about his mom?

She’s Maye Musk, and she explains a lot about her son.

She’s been a model since the 1960s, and she’s still doing big national campaigns. She’s also a working dietitian.

Maye is as tech-savvy as you would expect Elon Musk’s mom to be. She’s on YouTube. She has a Smugmug portfolio of her modeling work.  

In fact, we only discovered her because she “faved” a tweet.

Yesterday we wrote about how, growing up, Elon escaped bullying from other kids through computers and business. Rocco Pendola of TheStreet.com tweeted out the story, appending, “How you like me now!!?” 

On Twitter, Maye is an unabashed Tesla and SpaceX fangirl.

She’ll tweet stuff like this:

Beautiful video. RT to winter-driving naysayers “: Model S in sub-zero temperatures of Norway: ”

— Maye Musk ()

Maye also has a YouTube channel under the username Ourma7. There, she’s got clips from her modeling work, like this commercial for JC Penney.

She’s the woman with the silver hair:

Here’s Maye on NBC’s Today show:

Maye’s been a working model since the 1960s. She has a Smugmug page showing off all her work since then. (She also lists her representation, in case you’d like to book her.)

Maye also has multiple dietician degrees, and continues to work in the field. Here she is on CBS talking about good food to buy for Valentine’s Day:

Back in 2012, Tom Junod profiled Elon Musk for Esquire magazine. 

In the story, Maye says that she has two brilliant children — and Elon, a genius.

“I can’t explain Elon,” she says.

Funny thing is, getting to know Maye a little helps explain a lot about Elon.

Lots of entrepreneurs have big, audacious ideas — but few are as talented at showing them off as Musk is.

Remember how this past summer he had the media transfixed with his “hyperloop” idea? Ever seen his presentation on how fast Tesla can swap out Model S batteries?

Now we know where he gets it from.

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