In a society that often equates youth with beauty and success, there is a growing movement among celebrities who are challenging these norms and choosing to embrace the natural process of aging.
These icons, once synonymous with eternal youth and flawless appearances, have become beacons of inspiration by confidently embracing their changing looks and gracefully accepting the passage of time. As the pursuit of youthfulness gives way to a celebration of wisdom and authenticity, these celebrities serve as powerful reminders that beauty transcends age. In this article, we delve into the lives of renowned personalities who have chosen to let their natural radiance shine, inspiring generations to redefine societal expectations and embrace the beauty that comes with growing older.
NAOMI WATTS
Having launched Stripes, a beauty brand focused on tackling the symptoms of and stigma around menopause, the Australian actress and entrepreneur, 54, says she’s inspired by those who embrace their age.“I look at women like Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon – multiple fantastic, talented, intelligent people and I’m just so impressed by them.”
For Watts, getting any cosmetic enhancements isn’t a priority … yet. “I’ve done plenty of research and have gotten close at times and thought about doing it,” she has admitted to InStyle. “And that’s not to say that I won’t one day. If I knew I could look great and just like myself but less tired, I’d happily do what needs to be done.”
JAMIE LEE CURTIS
The actress, 64, has admitted she began tinkering with her face in her twenties (after a cameraman told her she had puffy eyes), but now she says she’s pro-ageing. “I did plastic surgery,” Curtis said in October. “I put Botox in my head. Does Botox make the big wrinkle go away? Yes. But then you look like a plastic figurine. Walk a mile in my shoes. I have done it. It did not work. And all I see is people now focusing their life on that.”
She went further in an interview with Fast Company, lamenting “the current trend of fillers and procedures, and this obsession with filtering” and warning it’s “wiping out generations of beauty. Once you mess with your face, you can’t get it back.”
PAULINA PORIZKOVA
The former supermodel, 58, often uses social media to vent about the societal pressure on women to maintain their looks as they age. “I’d like to strike a balance between being proud to look my age and still get to feel pretty at times,” she has posted, saying she dabbles with lasers and plasma pen treatments.
“In my job, I’m faced with my own face in almost unnatural detail and although I have come to accept most of it, I still have a rough time accepting it all.” Speaking to People, she said she’s mostly overcome her insecurities. “I felt ashamed to be ageing, and then on the other hand, you go, ‘But, I’m smarter, I’m better, I’m funnier, I’m more patient!’ Overall as a person, I’m the best I’ve ever been. So I’m not ready to be dismissed.”
SHARON STONE
The Basic Instinct star, 65, has told Vogue Arabia that she was keen on cosmetic procedures in the years after finding Hollywood fame, but after suffering a stroke in 2001 and needing a lot of Botox and filler to “make the one side of my face come up again”, she was turned off
for good. Now that she’s older, she told Allure magazine, “I like my body so much more. I’m so grateful to my body. When I was younger, everybody was telling me what was wrong with my body.” She adds; “I’m not afraid of ageing. I stopped being afraid a long time ago. I’m ageing and I’m enjoying the process.”
BROOKE SHIELDS
“I can’t say I love wrinkles, because that would be, like, a lie,” Shields, who turned 58 on May 31, said on TikTok in April. “But what I will say is that I have earned them, and they’re from smiling, so I don’t want to eradicate everything that shows my maturity and my growth and who I am today, and I’m not trying to be like I was when I was 15.”
The actress also told Prevention magazine that shifting her attitude towards getting older has been vital. “You know we fight signs of ageing, we fight growing old, we fight … instead of actually embracing it,” she said. “I’m not saying just forget about it and don’t put any effort into yourself, but to really sort of join forces with ageing and … custom make the way you spend your day to support that.”
JUSTINE BATEMAN
The filmmaker and former star of Family Ties has written a book about rejecting the concept that older faces need to be fixed. “I hated the idea that half the population was perhaps spending the entire second half of their lives ashamed and apologetic that their faces had aged naturally,” Bateman, 57, said while promoting her 2021 book Face: One Square Foot of Skin.
Speaking of her own experience, she told Australian 60 Minutes earlier this year that she embraces how her appearance has changed. “I like feeling that I’m a different person now than I was when I was 20. I like looking in the mirror and seeing that evidence,” she said. “I think I look rad. I think my face represents who I am. I like it.” The star added; “I would say to any young woman … you’ve got awesome things coming your way!”
JULIANNE MOORE
Back in 2011, the actress, 62, was clear about her stance on surgery. “My feeling is live and let live,” she told Health magazine. “Some of those procedures that make you look younger, I don’t know that they really made anybody look younger. I think most of the time they make you look like you’ve had something done to your face.”
More recently, she shared her disdain for the phrase “ageing gracefully”, asking, “Is there an ungraceful way to age? We don’t have an option, of course,” she told As If magazine. “No-one has an option about ageing, so it’s not a positive or a negative thing, it just is.”
SARAH JESSICA PARKER
Parker was 33 when she first stepped into Carrie Bradshaw’s fabulous shoes for the 1998 premiere of Sex and the City. When the show rebooted in 2022 with And Just Like That … (Season 2 premieres June 22), Parker, now 58, was surprised that her appearance became a buzzed-about topic of conversation. “It almost feels as if people don’t want us to be perfectly OK with where we are, as if they almost enjoy us being pained by who we are today – whether we choose to age naturally and not look perfect, or whether you do something, if that makes you feel better,” she told Vogue.
She also told Bustle that she’s “never” stepped foot into a plastic surgeon’s office and is not interested in trying to turn back time. “I think the point of this larger conversation is what makes you feel OK when you walkout the door,” she said. “How best to feel like yourself … I’ve probably spent more time thinking about [that] than I have beauty or ageing because there’s just simply not a lot I can do about it. I could do more, but I guess I don’t want to.”
ANDIE MACDOWELL
The Groundhog Day actress was already embracing natural ageing, proudly eschewing plastic surgery apart from a brief dabble with Botox, when she stopped dying her hair during the pandemic. “It looks good on me,” the 65-year-old told Katie Couric in an interview. “It makes me laugh when someone says it makes me look older … What do you think? I look 75 just because I let my hair go grey?”
However, she said she wouldn’t take too much issue with that anyway. “I want to be old. I’m tired of trying to be young.I don’t want to be young. I’ve been young … Why is there so much shame attached to getting older?” she continued. “We’re towards the end. We have no time to waste feeling shame.”
SUSAN SARANDON
Sarandon’s secret to feeling young? “I mean, honestly, I think staying engaged and staying curious and having a good time is really a lot of it,” the star, 76, has told Vogue. “And not smoking is really important. I think that staying hydrated and not doing anything too extreme, too.” Sarandon has also admitted that she has had some liposuction performed on her neck and chin area and also under her eyes, but she draws the line at fillers and Botox.
“The only thing I have a problem with is when suddenly people have gigantic lips that never had gigantic lips,” she has told People magazine. “I’m a little nervous about anything really huge, or Botox even, because I have to use my face. But I’m all for people doing whatever makes them feel good about themselves.”
MICHELLE YEOH
Accepting the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Yeoh, 60, called out gendered ageism: “Ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime. Never give up.” She expanded on her career struggles in a CBS Sunday Morning interview. “The older you get, they see you by your age rather than by your capability,” she said.
The martial arts-trained star keeps herself more than capable with her healthy lifestyle. “Age should not stop our passion for what we love to do,” she has said. “Exercise has played a very important part in my life, not just for my stunt work but for keeping myself both physically and mentally healthy.” In 2014, she shared her thoughts on anti-ageing strategies. “Non-invasive cosmetic procedures can be helpful, but I don’t believe in cosmetic surgery that changes your look,” she told the Bangkok Post.
CAMERON DIAZ
A decade ago, the actress said she regretted getting Botox. “I’ve tried it before, where it was like a little tiny touch of something,” she told Entertainment Tonight in 2014. “It changed my face in such a weird way that I was like, ‘No … I’d rather see my face ageing than a face that doesn’t belong to me at all.”
She then took a hiatus from Hollywood, which has improved her self-image. “Literally, the last thing I think about on a daily basis – like maybe not at all during the day – is what I look like,” says Diaz, 50, who has been focusing on raising daughter Raddix, 3, with husband Benji Madden. “I literally do nothing. I like never wash my face,” she explained on the BBC Rule Breakers podcast. “I’m just not in that place right now, like where I put in any energy.”
HELEN MIRREN
“People talk about ‘ageing gracefully’, and I don’t know what that means,” Mirren said in an interview with Candis magazine. “We seem to have got to a point where it means not having plastic surgery. To me, it’s more about accepting who you areand what you are and going with it.”
At 77, the Dame says she wouldn’t change a thing. “If someone said to me, ‘I’m going to wave the magic one and you’ll be 25 again,’ I would say no,” she told Vogue magazine. “There are advantages and disadvantages in every age. So, I’m happier to put up with the benefits that come with age, and what it does to my body, my skin and my spirit.”
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