When you’re in the spotlight, everything about you — especially your looks — is under constant scrutiny. And the sad truth is that social media is anything but forgiving or friendly. But more and more celebrities are embracing the adage that beauty really is only skin deep. Even better, they’re not silent: Many celebrities have spoken out in favor of embracing their age and aging healthy in recent years.
Stars like Jane Seymour and Andie MacDowell (who said she’s an exotic badass at 64) are upfront about why it matters and what it means to them. From supermodels to actresses, many celebrities are speaking out about why getting older is actually an amazing gift.
Most healthy aging celebrities don’t judge others in the industry who have chosen surgery or bulking to deal with the effects of aging. Instead, they focus on themselves and what they have gained as they get older. From posing makeup-free for photoshoots to embracing the inevitable changes in their bodies, celebrities talk about how we all have the opportunity to grow and learn from what’s on the inside, not the outside.
Many have said they deserve their gray hair and laugh lines. Others have said they feel more confident now than they ever did in their earlier years. The most common refrain is that healthy aging is a matter of attitude, not looks. It’s a positive message from people within an industry that has too often promoted impossible standards of beauty.
Find ahead of time words of wisdom from celebrities embracing their age and talking about healthy aging.
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Longoria spoke about dealing with aging with prevention. “I associate aging with wisdom and experience and maturity. For me, I tend to.”
“I’m not pretending not to be my age, I just like to look as healthy as I possibly can,” Seymour told Prevention.
Actress Drew Barrymore has advocated letting nature take its course. She told New Beauty that she’s determined to show her daughters that aging is a luxury: “If we’re lucky, we all get older. I just want them to be comfortable with who they are, not what they look like.”
Supermodel Naomi Campbell has been in the spotlight for more than three decades, gracing the covers of more than 500 magazines. She once told Harper’s Bazaar, “I’m not worried about a number. I’m coping well with aging.”
Reese Witherspoon told Allure that she’s proud of aging and prefers her 40s to her 20s. She told Allure, “I just feel like I deserve this gray hair and my fine lines. I like her.”
The legendary beauty of Iman has endured for more than four decades. Your secret to aging gracefully? “Philosophical? I don’t care,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.
“You have to delete this word ‘anti-aging’. I am pro aging. I want to age with intelligence and grace and dignity and panache and vigour,” Curtis said in an interview with Maria Shriver for the Radically Reframing Aging Summit.
Andie McDowell told W Magazine that she would love to debunk the beauty myth that you have to be young to be beautiful: “Age is not a disadvantage and we don’t have to chase youth. We should all embrace every moment of our lives.”
Penelope Cruz has been open about aging for many years. She told her friend Gwyneth Paltrow, who interviewed her for Interview Magazine, that she tells journalists who ask about aging as an actress, “I’m not even going to give you two minutes to answer your question. It didn’t deserve that.”
Supermodel Christy Turlington told Elle: “Everyone is so anti-aging but I don’t want to look younger than I am. Our face is a map of our lives; the more there is, the better.”
Viola Davis told Bustle that she’s not above using creams and beauty products to improve her skin, but that she embraces her age because that’s who she is: “I can’t imagine that Appearance is more important.”
Halle Berry offered some sensible advice on aging during an interview with Bobbi Brown on Yahoo: “I just always want to look like myself, even if it’s an older version of me.”
Jennifer Aniston has often spoken out about women in Hollywood trying to remain ageless through surgeries. She told Bobbi Brown, who interviewed her for Yahoo, “I’m like, ‘Oh god, if you only knew how much older you look.’ They’re trying to stop the clock and all you see is an insecure person who doesn’t age easily.”
Julianne Moore told Harper’s Bazaar that she would like to get rid of the term “women of a certain age”. “When you say that, it sounds like old age is so awful that you don’t want to mention it. I just don’t think that’s true,” she said.
Kate Winslet told The Hollywood Reporter that aging doesn’t worry her because life gets even better the older she gets: “Aging has been really fun so far and it’s changing so much. You feel more confident.”
Sharon Stone says she decided early in her career that she wouldn’t be afraid of old age. She told Allure, “I started to understand that I wanted to be more like a European woman who got more beautiful with age and could understand that women are more beautiful than girls because they know something.”
Thandie Newton says she’s embracing her gray hair. In an interview with People, she said: “That’s my wisdom, my badge of honor. And I want to see those shades of gray to remind me every day that time is running out and that’s something to celebrate; have no fear.”
In an essay for The Daily Beast, Diane Keaton explained what she thinks about getting older: “I don’t see anything wrong with facelifts, botox or fillers. They only erase the hidden battle scars. I intend to wear mine, so to speak. At least that’s what I tell myself.”
Winona Ryder says she got better roles as she got older: “I know actresses have a hard time because of their age – they just don’t get hired. I know it exists. You are the girlfriend, then you are the mother. But I don’t see it as a bad thing – it can be just as interesting, if not more interesting, than the main character, the naïve phase.”
Gabrielle Union gave Elle her best advice on happiness and aging: “I think you should spend a little more time being yourself and spend a little more time on things that make you happy – if that’s a cupcake is, then it’s a cupcake; if these are your friends, they are your friends; If it’s your man, it’s your man – that’s another beauty tip. If you spend time with people who stress you out, you’ll age faster than anything else.”
Cameron Diaz told Goop that what she liked best about aging was “what I have to offer to those around me, the wisdom I’ve gained through the experiences I’ve had, and looking forward to all of the years rejoice that lie before me.”
Growing up in the spotlight, Brooke Shields hasn’t been shy about speaking out about getting older. During an interview with NPR, she said, “There’s no shame in being older and getting older. I think that comes with a sense of pride.”
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