Everybody ages. It’s a fact that should be mind-numbingly obvious, but by the way Hollywood treats celebrities over 30 — especially women — it’s something that we, unfortunately, need to reiterate. As early as we can remember, the beauty industry has been obsessed with aging and how to prevent it.
However, the tides are finally steadily turning, with dozens of celebrities standing up for natural aging and speaking out against the term antiaging and the negative beauty standard it promotes.
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At the risk of once again stating the obvious, there’s nothing wrong with getting older. It’s unavoidable and happens to everyone. The best we can do is embrace our age — including the wisdom and experiences it brings — and not fret about the natural changes to our bodies as we get older.
Don’t want to take our word for it? Maybe it’ll click when you hear it from one of these celebs. From Jennifer Aniston to Helen Mirren, here are 10 celebrities who’ve been refreshingly real and down-to-earth about getting older.
Originally posted on StyleCaster.
Jennifer Aniston
Though the 48-year-old actor believes in keeping her skin healthy, she is against the term “antiaging,” which she said has a “poisonous spin” to it. Instead, she believes in hydrating the skin with natural products to keep it glowing.
“Well, ‘anti-aging,’ I just don’t think it’s the right word. I think it’s more about keeping your skin healthy. And ‘anti’ anything is… you know, we should be ‘anti-bulling,’ ‘anti-racism,’ ‘anti-all of that stuff,’ but I think anti-aging, we all are aging — it’s natural, it’s what happens,” she told Allure. “But I think it’s about aging beautifully and just being very […] taking good care of our skin. It’s important. Because we can all preserve the youthful glow of our skin with hydration, proper skin-care treatments, with natural products. Nothing like crazy lotions and potions filled with lots of chemicals. [‘Anti-aging’] has such a negative spin on it. But, boy, does it suck people in!”
Julianne Moore
Though the 56-year-old actor believes it’s everyone’s own choice to get work done, she personally doesn’t believe Botox is the way to go. Instead, she prefers to age naturally.
“I hate to condemn people for [getting Botox], but I don’t believe it makes people look better. I think it just makes them look like they had something done to their face, and I don’t think we instinctively find that appealing,” she told Allure. “We think we do, but then when you look at somebody who’s had their face altered in some way, it just looks weird. We recognize emotionally that that’s not what we look like, that there’s something off. You don’t want to take away what makes a face look human.”
Jamie Lee Curtis
In an essay for The Huffington Post, the 58-year-old actor expressed how appalled she is by the term “antiaging,” which she compared to common factors of life, like death and taxes. “I am appalled that the term we use to talk about aging is ‘anti.’ Aging is as natural as a baby’s softness and scent,” she said. “Aging is human evolution in its pure form. Death, taxes, and aging.”
Helen Mirren
When L’Oréal approached the 72-year-old actor for a beauty campaign, before she agreed, she made sure that none of the products she promoted were associated antiaging.
“I said, ‘This word ‘anti-aging ‘—we know we’re getting older,'” Mirren told Allure. “You just want to look and feel as great as you can on a daily basis.
Christy Turlington
Once you read the 48-year-old supermodel’s take on aging, you’ll likely agree with her stance on the term “antiaging” and why she doesn’t want to look young. “Everybody is so anti-aging, but I don’t want to look younger than I am. Our face is a map of our life; the more that’s there, the better,” she told Elle.
Cindy Crawford
For the 51-year-old supermodel, aging is a natural process that she’ll never be able to fully reverse. In a 2009 interview with Allure when she was 43, Crawford spoke about the unfair criticism women often receive for natural body changes like cellulite.
“I don’t have to try to feel young. It’s only when you start thinking about the number that you don’t feel that way, so I don’t dwell on the number,” she said. “I just embrace where I am today. I think I look pretty good for 43. But I don’t look the way I did when I was 23. So if Star magazine or whatever wants to print a picture of me on the beach from the back, at the worst possible angle, and say that I have cellulite, I’m like, ‘Guess what? I do, and I never said I didn’t.’ I’ve had two kids, and I’m 43, so leave me alone.”
Drew Barrymore
The 42-year-old actor has a realistic outlook on aging. Though she admits “no one wants to look old,” she acknowledges that aging is inevitable. So instead of seeing aging as beauty’s death sentence, Barrymore views it as a way to tell your life story in your physical appearance.
“Beauty is truth in the way you age. There is no question no one wants to look old. And yet it’s a battle I choose not to fight because you can’t win,” Barrymore told Allure in 2017. “When I look at women who have not messed with fillers or Botox, I love looking at their face[s]. I love the grace and the story that women are telling by aging naturally. I would rather live my life accepting what comes.”
Halle Berry
Despite her positive stance on aging, the 51-year-old actor admits that she’s susceptible to people who push suggestions for her to look younger. However, after comparing society’s obsession with antiaging to a drug, Berry is campaigning for natural beauty and graceful aging.
“When you see everybody around you doing it, you have those moments when you think, to stay alive in this business, do I need to do the same thing? I won’t lie and tell you that those things don’t cross my mind, because somebody is always suggesting it to me. ‘You know, if you just did a little bit of this and that, lift this up, then this would be a little bit better.’ It’s almost like crack that people are trying to push on you,” Berry told Yahoo Beauty. “That’s what I feel like. I just have kept reminding myself that beauty really is as beauty does, and it is not so much about my physical self. Aging is natural, and that’s going to happen to all of us….I just want to always look like myself, even if that’s an older version of myself. I think when you do too much of that cosmetic stuff, you become somebody else in a way.”
Kim Cattrall
The 61-year-old actor wants people to stop telling her she looks great for her age, something she deems an insult. Instead, she wants to push for beauty no matter what someone’s age is or however they look.
“Aging is going to happen — and that’s only if you’re lucky enough to live that long. I hate when they say, ‘You look great for your age.’ It’s such an insult. I want ‘You look good,’ period. I’m defiant. I want to say, ‘This is what aging looks like! This is what happens!’” Cattrall told Allure. “I read the blogs; I know they called us hags and said, ‘What are you doing trying to be sexy at this age?’ But the more women who think like that, the more it hurts us all.”
Winona Ryder
The 45-year-old actor is happy with her age and wants to encourage other people to see their birthdays as celebrations instead of funerals.
“I don’t have anything I want to fix. I’m happy with how I look and growing older. It’s strange how birthdays are treated so funereally out here,” she told Vogue.
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