21 Celebrity Women Who Spoke Up Against Ageism in 2022

Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis has become the unsung hero this year of just saying “no” to the beauty industry and its anti-aging message. She took a fresh approach, and it has everyone singing her praises.
 
“This word ‘anti-aging’ has to be struck. I am pro-aging. I want to age with intelligence, and grace, and dignity, and verve, and energy,” she said during the Radically Reframing Aging Summit hosted by Maria Shriver in March. “I don’t want to hide it. I’m not denying what I look like, of course I’ve seen what I look like,” she said. “I am trying to live in acceptance.” Now, this is a message we can get behind!

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey has a similar message to Jamie Lee Curtis about ageism — and she’s done with a society that is obsessed with youth. “The whole culture is set up to tell you that the thing that is most natural — we’re surrounded by these beautiful trees here that literally get better with age,” she explained to Maria Shriver on The Checkup. “I think we all get better with age — the culture is set up to tell us, in our particular society, that it’s the wrong thing.”
 
The media mogul is advising women to stop listening to anyone or any company that is using the words “fighting” or “resisting” when it comes to aging “because, in the end, aging is gonna win.” It’s about embracing the wisdom and beauty of growing older because there is a huge privilege to living a long life.

Renée Zellweger

Renée Zellweger is 53 years old, but it was turning 50 that was a game-changer in her life because it “felt like a whole new beginning” for her. She finally believed she was at “the point where you can stop listening to all those voices in your head and all those expectations and projections people have of you and become more authentically yourself.” The Oscar winner added, “You’ve got to survive a lot to get to my age, and I’ve earned my power and voice.” And now, Zellweger isn’t afraid to speak up — we love an empowered woman!

Elizabeth Hurley

Elizabeth Hurley is known to share a bikini snapshot or two on her wildly popular Instagram page, but please, stop with the criticism just because she’s a 57-year-old woman. The Christmas in Paradise star has a strategy when it comes to her fashions. “I look at myself with an eye,” she explained to SheKnows. “I know I’m not wearing things today that I wore when I was 25. And I could if I wanted to. And if I wanted to, I would. But I don’t want to, because I know someone aged 25, that’s their clothes. And I know that’s not my clothes. I feel absolutely fine with that.”
 
Hurley would love it if others could keep their opinions to themselves if they don’t like someone’s fashion choices — there’s no room for ageism in fashion. “It’s completely absurd if people think they can’t put a bikini on and enjoy being on the beach because people might think their body looks too old,” Hurley remarked. “I mean, that’s just obscene. It’s a terrible point of view.” She advised that “women should do whatever the hell they want to do” when it comes to style. “And damn anybody criticizing them,” Hurley summed up.

Eva Longoria

At 47, Eva Longoria is done resisting the aging process. She knows “it’s inevitable and it’s happening.” She’s decided to look at this season of life with a grateful heart. “I don’t think we should fight it too hard,” she explained to Prevention magazine. “I associate aging with wisdom and experience and maturity. For me, I lean into it. So I kind of have a different approach.”

Naomi Watts

Naomi Watts is one of several actresses in Hollywood who is leading the “menopause movement,” especially since she was someone who went through it earlier than most of her peers. At 53, she told SheKnows, “I hope my generation is the last to be suffering in silence.”
 
She’s decided to approach this time in her life with humor and even partner with a greeting card company to design The Naomi Watts Menopause Collection. Yes, menopause can be funny. “We’re taking a step to empower women during their menopausal transition,” she shared. “Humor is a big way to access uncomfortable conversations and wherever there’s pain, there’s a need to defuse it… and yes, if we can’t laugh, we’ll just cry, and god knows we’ve done enough crying by now.”

Viola Davis

Everyone should be rushing to the theaters to see Viola Davis in The Woman King this holiday season because they will only be thinking of how powerful her character is. The idea that’s she’s a 57-year-old woman isn’t the first thought that crosses your mind — which is exactly why she took on the challenging training for the role. She wanted to play a fascinating character with many dimensions to her — a role that is often written for men in Hollywood.

“It wasn’t a want, it was a need,” she toldHarper’s Bazaar. “It was up to me to be the change that I was looking for… If you’re not pitching interesting, layered narratives then it’s not going to be done. I wish that the public could sit in on these studio meetings and witness the fight. Because it’s always a fight.”

Katie Couric

Katie Couric used her Instagram page to call out ageism and sexism in the workplace. She went to bat for Canadian broadcaster Lisa LaFlamme “who was unceremoniously dumped by @CTV because…well…perhaps because she let her hair go gray or she was making too much $$$ or the guys in charge are idiots.” LaFlamme’s male colleagues were allowed to retire in their late 60s and 70s while she was let go at age 58.

Couric added, “We need to see women aging in every arena. Basically, this sucks. Feel free to sound off in comments. Your friend, Katie.” LaFlamme, and her gorgeous silver hair, landed at another media outlet and Couric got major kudos for having another woman’s back in an ongoing fight about equal treatment in the workplace.

Kate Hudson

Kate Hudson is 43, fabulous, and very busy enjoying her “favorite decade so far.” That’s why she’s calling out the media for constantly asking women the aging question — like, does George Clooney get asked this question in every interview?

“The focus is much more from the outside than it is from the inside, I think, which says a lot about how we’re programmed,” she explained. “Because the only time I think about aging is when I’m asked about how I think about aging.” Hudson also wants to remind the press that men in Hollywood do have aging concerns, “But, you know, they’re just as worried about aging.” Maybe it’s time to ask for their tips on anti-aging — you know, turn the tables for once.

Cindy Crawford

Cindy Crawford never thought she would still be at the top of her career in the fashion industry at 56, but she loves that she’s still thriving as a supermodel. In fact, she thinks that she’s like an athlete who practices their “skill” — over time, “you get better at it.”
 
Crawford understands that “your physical being changes,” but it also brings a new set of talents to the table. “I’m aware that I don’t look the same as I did when I was 25, but I bring experience and confidence in front of the camera that I didn’t have then,” she added. “And I still like what I do. I never thought I’d be working the way that I am at this stage.” The fashion icon is just one example of how designers are making sure women in all decades of life are represented on the runway.

Sharon Stone

Is there ageism in the dating scene? You betcha! And Sharon Stone addressed it head on this year when a potential beau questioned her use of Botox. “It would probably be really good for your ego and mine if I did,” she snapped back to his rather rude question.

The relationship quickly fizzled out with the actress seeing him “one more time” and then he suddenly “wasn’t interested” anymore. Stone wasn’t heartbroken because she knows her self-worth, adding, “If you don’t see me for more than that, you’ll please find your way to the exit.” Stone doesn’t need any man who tries to take her down — she’s got better things to do with her time.

Martha Stewart

At 81, Martha Stewart is still putting out the best thirst traps on Instagram (you saw that sexy pool snapshot, right?). She’s also “not afraid” of aging and her approach is to remember that the aging process begins “the minute we’re born.”

The lifestyle guru shared her perspective with Prevention magazine, “Right away I think it’s terribly, terribly important that we learn something new every day. It really is about constantly enlarging your body of knowledge so that you can have interesting conversations, you can actually teach other people new things, you can help your grandchildren expand their vast and growing knowledge.” Knowledge is power!

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda realized that at 85, she was letting ageism take over this stage of her life, and she made a bold move to change the narrative. “I realized that I was approaching my third act—my final act—and that it wasn’t a dress rehearsal,” she told Glamour.

Fonda “didn’t want to get to the end with a lot of regrets,” so she did something unusual, but very powerful. “And it also then dawned on me that in order to know where I was supposed to go, I had to know where I’d been, and so I thought, Well, now’s the time I’m going to research myself…,” she explained.
 
By essentially auditing herself with “a life review, Fonda realized that she deserved to relish in her accomplishments so far. “It totally changed the way I thought about myself and about how I wanted to live the last third of my life,” she added. “And I realized the importance of being intentional about how we go through life.” It’s all about living a life with intention in any season of life.

Halle Berry

When it comes to finding love over the age of 50, ageism can definitely creep in. However, Halle Berry wants to flip the script that the “prime time” for romance is in your 20s. At 55, she feels like she’s “firing on all cylinders” when it comes to her work and personal life. She found deep and meaningful love with boyfriend Van Hunt because she had a strong sense of self.

“Women are told that when we reach a certain number, we’re no longer valuable,” she toldAARP magazine. “I believe the opposite. Society should look at us as jewels as we get older. Because the older women get, the more formidable we are.” That’s why she appreciates how Hunt sees her because they both share that philosophy that “beauty is deeper than the physical body you’re walking around in.” Hear, hear!

Judy Greer

Judy Greer is another Hollywood celebrity “starting a conversation” about perimenopause and menopause. She’s ready to “move away from the ageism” and “pave the way for the generation after us.” The 13 Going on 30 star wants to be sure “this stuff is discussed more openly” and that “we can all feel like we’re not losing our minds when we’re starting to experience these symptoms, however young and however long they last.”
 
As a proud Gen-Xer, Greer knows the conversation didn’t happen with her Baby-Boomer parents, so that lack-of-communication cycle stops here. “My parents, I love them, but they didn’t tell me sh*t,” she joked to SheKnows, “You don’t talk about it because it’s not happening — drugs, alcohol sex, all those things. So the fact that, in my household, my period wasn’t discussed, sex wasn’t discussed, it doesn’t surprise me at all that I never heard my mother talking about her menopause and her perimenopausal experience.”

Demi Moore

Demi Moore pointed out an area of ageism that happens to women when it comes to the length of their hair. She hates how old patriarchal myths seem to dictate the fashion and beauty industry.
 
“I remember hearing someone say that when women get older, they shouldn’t have long hair. And something about that stuck with me,” Moore explained. “Like who says?’ She rebelled against that idea, which only made her lean harder into her gorgeous long locks.

“It made me feel like, well, if it can grow and it’s not unhealthy, then why shouldn’t we? I’m not comfortable with rules that don’t seem to have any real meaning or justification,” she said. At 59 years old, Moore is living the long-hair, don’t-care mantra.

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker is thinking about aging like a man. She finds it fascinating that “there is such a huge amount of focus and attention on women and aging.” She added, “I’m confounded by the fact that we simply don’t talk about men that way. It’s bizarre to me that we are still so transparently sexist about these things.”

Even though she’s calling it out, Parker doesn’t love that critics always want to have a say about letting her hair go gray. “I’m forced to think about it because of what I do for a living and because other people seem to want me to think about it or they’re thinking about my age,” she said. Parker is making a clear choice on how she wants to look as a 57-year-old woman, and she’s not letting Hollywood, nor society, influence her decision.

Brooke Shields

After years of having tons of attention constantly focused on her, Brooke Shields realized that things had suddenly changed when she turned 50. “It wasn’t until I got past 50 where I thought, wait a minute, there’s nobody out there talking to me. They’re overlooking me,” she explained.

Shields is focusing on self-love in her 50s because there is something sweet about reaching this milestone. “This is the period of my life that I feel finally much more confident and less complicated, and very clear about what I want and who I am. And that’s only come with years,” she summed up.

Andie MacDowell

Andie MacDowell’s decision to let her hair go gray during COVID lockdown became a major conversation starter for the actress about not conforming to any beauty standard set by society. This perspective is allowing her to celebrate her 60s in a refreshing way. “I’m 64, and this is the time of my life,” she said. “Eventually, I’m going to be silver. And I wanted to have this experience of feeling what it is.”

That also means teaching her daughters Rainey Qualley, 32, and Margaret Qualley, 28, to be “kinder” to themselves. “Aging is a really, really intimate educator on loving yourself because you can’t stop it,” she explained. “It’s going to happen.” And MacDowell is doing it in a way that works for her, not anyone else.

LeAnn Rimes

LeAnn Rimes turned 40 years old in 2022, and she’s already thinking about the next stage of her life. She’s ready to “question all those narratives” that try to make women feel “disposable.” Instead, the “How Do I Live” singer is ready to start the conversation. “I want to talk about real things — aging and menopause and periods and sex,” she explained. “I want to see women powerful and contributing to this world and sharing their wisdom. It’s time to make a shift.” She’s sounding an empowering rallying cry to the Millennial generation.

Jennifer Love Hewitt

Jennifer Love Hewitt grew up as a child star and she’s still learning to navigate the pitfalls of social media when it comes to ageism. Those pesky filters lean right into the anti-aging narrative. So, she decided to post an unfiltered, makeup-free selfie with a very raw and revealing caption.
 
“I posted this pic earlier and have heard a lot of positive thoughts. It means so much to me because aging is weird. And growing up with you guys over 33 years has been amazing, but the filters of it all can be tricky.” She added, “You can’t help but want to look better or even perfect to keep up. They are so fun but they also can be really hard because you can forget to feel good about your real face. Maybe I just need to be better at the balance. Anyway, thanks for letting me share and feel good as just me today. Love to you all.” Filters can be a trap that many of us fall prey to, so remember each line on our faces is a badge of honor, not a curse.