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Brooke Shields is celebrating aging in her new book despite being made to feel like she shouldn’t be in an awkward interaction that inspired the book’s title.
The 59-year-old actress was hosted by Flow Space on Jan. 13 for An Evening With Brooke Shields in celebration of her her new book, titled Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman where she revealed the tongue-in-cheek reason for the title.
Shields recalled speaking to a man at a cocktail party her daughter asked her to attend to meet parents of friends from her school. “We were talking about wine, and I made the horrible misstep of telling him my age,” the Commence founder said.
“I was thinking a 1965 bottle of Barolo, is it like jam at this point?” she joked referencing the year she was born. “He changed his tune so quickly.” He said, ‘You really shouldn’t have told me that. I really wish you didn’t.’ I was like, ‘Wow, wait a minute you know my age and now it’s offensive?'”
“I went back to my editor and I said ‘What do you think of this title?'” she added.
“But we do that. We imprint on people. We imprint upon our children at certain ages,” she elaborated. “When grow older, we’re not ready for it because our personal relationship with that person is no longer the same and therefore we’ve aged as well,” Shields said before adding defiantly, “I had the gall to actually get older.”
In her new book, which is out Jan. 14, Shields unpacks aging, menopause and societal constraints placed on women over 50.
‘Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman’
In the official description, Shields says “the passage of time has brought freedom.” “At fifty-nine, she feels more comfortable in her skin, more empowered and confident than she did decades ago in those famous Calvin Kleins,” the description adds. “Now, in Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old, she’s changing the narrative about women and aging.”
“This is an era, insists Brooke, when women are reclaiming agency and power, not receding into the shadows. These are the years when we get to decide how we want to live―when we get to write our own stories,” the description says.
“With remarkable candor, Brooke bares all, painting a vibrant and optimistic picture of being a woman in the prime of her life while dismantling the myths that have, for too long, dimmed that perception. Sharing her own life experiences with humor and humility, and weaving together research and reporting, Brooke takes aim at the systemic factors that contribute to age-related bias.”
“By turns inspiring, moving, and galvanizing, Brooke’s honesty and vulnerability will resonate with women everywhere, and spark a new conversation about the power and promise of midlife,” the description ends.
With candor about a topic that’s still all too taboo, we can’t wait to read Shields’ perspective and be inspired by it as we read. Adding to our shopping carts ASAP!
Before you go, click here to see all the best celebrity memoirs you can read right now.
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