Brooke Shields has been staging a mid-life career comeback. After a rough start to the year and spending weeks in the hospital after breaking her femur at the gym, Brooke has been running full steam ahead. Brooke recently starred in Netflix’s A Castle for Christmas movie and launched a lifestyle brand, Beginning is Now, for women over forty. Brooke is beating the drum that aging for women is not necessarily a bad thing. In an interview with Yahoo! Life, Brooke opened up about feeling sexier as she has gotten older. She said that it wasn’t until her forties that she realized that sex was her experience and not someone else’s she had to navigate. Brooke also said that women gain a vitality that expresses itself as we get older. A few highlights from Yahoo! Life:
On women getting sexier as they age:
I believe that it’s a misconception that women can’t be sexy over a certain age. The acceptance of our bodies come at a later date. I live much more in my body now than I ever did.My body actually feels like it belongs to me. And I can’t say that about my youth.
I think there is a misconception that if you are not of childbearing ability, you don’t seem to matter in the world. Because you do not keep the world going anymore. There’s vitality in us. And I think that shows itself sexually.
It shows itself with an adventure. It shows itself in confidence. We walk into rooms now and kind of think, well, I got nothing to lose. There’s an uncomplicated nature to it. Confidence is the sexiest thing that I’ve ever encountered.
I’m continually learning how to love myself. It’s not something that’s easy. Society doesn’t make it easy for us. And then you’ve got social media, which doesn’t make it easy.
On how her sexual experience has evolved
I wanted to market to that, to help women really sort of find the courage and take the chances, and the resilience, that they’ve had to get this far and really kind of embrace the next chapter. Sex for me it has really evolved. My 20s, I was always terrified of it, because I was a virgin until I was 22.And it wasn’t until my 40s that I started thinking of sex as my experience, not someone else’s experience that I just navigated. What I want my daughters to know is that it’s a joint decision. Even with as woke as everybody is, you’d be shocked at how they see themselves within relationships.
On what she wants her daughters to know:
I don’t want them ever to feel used. I want them to feel more in control and not ashamed of anything. I do have a wonderful husband who celebrates me. He loves me at every stage, which I’m very blessed by.
Look, I am 45 and I have been beating this drum for years. The older I get the sexier I feel. And I will not get into how our sex drive goes through the roof. Since this is a SFW site I will avoid the details but what I will say is that Brooke is right. I have more confidence and I am able to communicate what I want without shame or fear. I love how Brooke is educating her daughters about sex. Women have a long way to go to escape patriarchal ideals.
I am also enjoying how Brooke is addressing ageism. If more women speak about embracing aging, it will become less of a taboo. I love the wisdom I have gained over the years, the interpersonal skills that I definitely did not have in my twenties and my ability to say no and walk out of toxic situations. I also am feeling myself more than I did in my insecure twenties. I honestly would never want to go back to my twenties and thirties although I wouldn’t mind having my body from my 33rd year but that’s a different conversation. Anyway, I have signed up for Brooke’s site and I am looking forward to any more gems that she may have to drop.
Photos via Instagram and credit InStar
After being a child star pushed by an alcoholic mother, it’s amazing to me she’s so articulate and has her head in the right place. I’m so glad she chose to attend college, and had an education and a bit of life away from Tinseltown.
I also like her. She hasn’t ruined her face with plastic surgery and she has a happy home life. Well done Brooke.
I just learned her father was from upper class and aristocratic lineage.
Maybe even with all her faults,as a social climber, her Mother acknowleged the importance of education and lead her to have a good one.
I just…really like Brooke. She comes across as thoughtful & grounded, which isn’t always the case in an industry that tends to reward neither quality. I remember years ago when she opened up about her severe postpartum depression & suicidal ideation. No celebrities were really talking about it at the time & I found it really eye-opening.
This also resonated with me: “I think there is a misconception that if you are not of childbearing ability, you don’t seem to matter in the world. Because you do not keep the world going anymore. There’s vitality in us.” I can’t have kids & in a way, it’s been a blessing. I can give so much to my community & be there for the kids I know in ways I probably wouldn’t have had the bandwidth to do if I had kids of my own.
I’m 50, I feel more confident than ever, and I generally feel very good about myself. But I have not found that my sex drive has gone through the roof. I went through menopause at 43 and I feel like I lost my sex drive at the same time. To be honest, most of the women I know (all of us in our early 50s) say they’re not all that interested in sex anymore. I think it’s because we’re all too busy with teenagers and aging parents — classic Sandwich Generation!