At 56, Brooke Shields Says the Time Has Come to Change ‘How We Label’ People ’Over 40’
At 56, Brooke Shields seems to have effortlessly mastered the art of wearing many hats—and it’s not just because of her modeling prowess. The supermodel, actress, author, business owner, and spokesperson (so many titles!) is busier than ever these days, and she’s here to let you know that with each passing year comes new opportunities. In fact, she thinks getting older is a beautiful thing—and we’re inclined to agree.
The mother of two recently sat down with Prevention to discuss how much like a fine wine, we’re all getting better with age. This fits with her partnership with Clos Du Bois, which aims to reframe the concept of growing older. Ahead, find out her perspective on the passing of time, and the wisdom that comes with it.
When asked about her philosophy on aging, Shields said it’s all about your relationship with the idea of growing older.
“When you look at it as something that you’re fighting … already you’re initiating the relationship to it with, I think, the wrong perspective. You know we fight signs of aging, we fight growing old, we fight...instead of actually embracing it. And everything presents this sort of battle of you against something. And I think that the more that we can embrace, and I’m not saying just forget about it and don’t put any effort into yourself, but to really sort of join forces with aging and…custom make the way you spend your day to support that.”
As for how she prefers to think about getting older, Shields says the word that comes to mind is “vitality.”
“There’s a lot that’s available to help with vitality. Not looking at it as aging. I mean I have to say, I don’t look like I did in my 20s, but I don’t want to be in my 20s, so what can I do to look my best? Part of that’s water and exercise and eating well and giving myself a break when I need to and sleep and all of these things create a sense of vitality that moves me away from, ‘oh I’m aging, therefore I’ve just got one foot in the ground.’ To me I just try to stop fighting it but take full advantage of whatever I choose to that’s available and whatever that means.”
While she doesn’t wish to be in her 20s, she did have some great advice on aging that she’d tell her younger self, and her daughters.
“Don’t be afraid of it. Don’t rush to be older please, for your own sake. But also this is what it looks like, you’re not to be afraid of it. Instead of focusing on all of the things you’re not and how you should look like this or want to look like that person, whatever the restrictions are you put on yourself, I’d say you're totally enough and you should just want to be you.”
Exactly how she’s spreading the message of vitality
“Clos Du Bois has a Long Live campaign and that’s a much more active way of saying ‘long life.’ We need to start having the dialogue change between how we label once you’re over 40. And really looking at it as vitality and maturity, as a beautiful thing—and confidence and experience and coming at life as ‘yeah you might have wrinkles,’ but think of how many times you’ve laughed and gotten those wrinkles. Instead of beating ourselves up for not looking or being the way we were, try to take where you are and embrace it and move forward with it, and take care of it.”
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