February 23, 2023

Unpopular opinion: aging is kinda hot 🎂

I want to challenge the way we think about age and life milestones and where we “should” be.

-How women ‘should’ look.

-How old we ‘should’ be when we get married or have kids.

-How we ‘should’ behave in a whole variety of situations.

I’m over it. We should (and can!) do whatever we want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone (be kind, be kind, be kind).

I listened to this interview that said the current obsession with skin care is really the same as the toxic version of the weight loss industry or any other mega beauty industry that is constantly informing us without any scruples how we *should* look.

We can find cellulite or pockmarks or spots or skin folds or any other very normal human thing and then find a cream or a potion or a routine that helps us fix the culprit.

What if it’s all made up?

What if we appreciate the beauty of age instead of constantly chasing youth?

And duh, I’m definitely not immune. I have bottles of potions in my bathroom and I love wearing makeup. I get Botox. I find wrinkles on places I didn’t use to have them and funny sun spots and weird crepe-y skin and spider veins and a whole slew of other offenders.

I personally have no issues with plastic surgery or any other choice that anyone chooses to make regarding altering their faces or bodies.

But I like to think about where these prejudices came from. What’s ‘wrong’ with wrinkles? Or cellulite? Or a few extra pounds (or a few less if that’s the way your body handles stress?)

What in the world are we supposed to do (especially as women) to avoid feeling irrelevant in a world that tells us we should constantly be chasing youth?

I don’t know the answers but I do know this: I still love being called ‘signorina’ and I’m oh so proud to claim that I’m a woman.

Here’s to not being scared that we “should” be somewhere else, and having the guts to be exactly where we are.