Fearless Aging: Famous Women Embrace the Wrinkles

Don't we feel better when we have women who embrace their aging honestly? Aren't those lines on our faces in fact a road map of our lives -- aren't they the placeholders of our stories?
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  • Diane Keaton

  • Bobbi Brown
  • Helen Mirren
  • Meryl Streep
  • Who Else? Who is aging gracefully and honestly that we identify as women role models?

    My mom says I am the first person to ever write about fearless aging. But, I'm taking my cues from the cosmetics industry and Hollywood. Years ago those two sources would have added misery to my self-image but times they are a'changin. Leave it to the baby boomers to put a new age spin of acceptance on the inevitable.

    I am delighted to know that at mid-50 there are women at the forefront of these two industries who are softening our perception of aging. There are women in both cosmetics and entertainment who are not turning their back on the aging process. We have women like Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Dame Helen, Meryl and a host of others who are embracing aging with grace and talking about it.

    We should just pinch ourselves that we are mid-lifers in 2014 vs. the middle ages (ha ha) of our moms' era.

    This past Friday the featured article in the NY Times style section highlighted key spokespeople on this topic starting with Andrea Robinson (cosmetics industry guru from Revlon, L'Oreal, Ralph Lauren and more), who is publishing a book for we BA50's, Toss the Gloss: Beauty Tips, Tricks & Truths for Women 50+. And, here's the most comforting quote of all:

    "Her book intends to 'unconfuse' those women whom the industry has already dismissed, she said. Ms. Robinson writes that 'most men running the major beauty corporations where you undoubtedly have spent a lot of money (even if you're not a cosmetics junkie like me) think you've lost it at 50.'"

    Don't we feel better when we have women who embrace their aging honestly? Aren't those lines on our faces in fact a road map of our lives -- aren't they the placeholders of our stories?

    No way I could ever have made it to this ripe mid-50 age without facial fallout. If you've had some worries, shed a fair share of tears, parented children, dealt with loss and laughed until you peed in your pants -- you've generated lines. It's just life happening on your face. Sure I'd love the dewy complexion of my son's girlfriend -- who wouldn't -- but there's no over the counter potion I could buy that will bring me back my youth. Ouch or no ouch?

    One of my favorite cosmetic gurus, Bobbi Brown, embraces her 57 years and believes:

    "There is no cream that fixes wrinkles. I'm sorry, but there's not."

    Now doesn't that feel good to hear a cosmetics industry leader speak so honestly? What a relief to hear those words spoken from someone in charge of our faces.

    Girls, we can stop trying to beat the wrinkles. Instead, she proposes makeup application methods to make women look "fresher," like using liner and matte shadow to add eye definition and mask crêpey lids.

    That's language I can embrace.

    And what about Diane Keaton -- we love having her on our team at 67. It's a relief that she looks her age, not all pulled and stretched -- so Annie Hall-like, so relatable and self-accepting. And, bravo to L'Oreal who has hired her as a spokesperson. That just feels right.

    I am hearing a subtext from the cosmetics industry, or maybe I'm just hearing what I want to hear and that is: Embrace the lines -- you earned them.

    This article was originally published on Better After 50.

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