Brooke Shields Gets Real About Aging, ’80s Style and Embracing the Hustle (EXCLUSIVE)
'We deserve to be in the room and we don't have to be angry and we don't have to yell, but we need to be heard'
Decades into her legendary career, actress, model, author and businesswoman Brooke Shields is busier than ever before. The star just published her book Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman and launched Commence, a line of haircare products for women over 40. Shields also recently became a spokeswoman for THRIVE@50+, GSK’s initiative to raise awareness about shingles.
Following a star-studded THRIVE@50+ event with Donna Kelce and others in celebration of the first Kansas City Chiefs playoffs game, Shields spoke to Woman’s World about her positive approach to aging, the ’80s trend she’s most nostalgic for, her famous eyebrows and more.
Woman’s World: Your THRIVE@50+ partnership, book and haircare line all seem to fit together. What is it like working on all these different projects and creating a new narrative?
Brooke Shields: It’s been amazing. I’ve never had such a throughline that taps into all the areas of my life. In starting Commence, I’ve been working with women all over the world and talking to them about what problems they wanted to solve and what they thought was not being represented in the market. I never thought I’d be a CEO, and in doing that, I decided to write a book about being over 50 and starting a company, and the book led me to this campaign.
I did a movie last year called Mother of the Bride, and it was about a woman in her 50s who gets a new lease on life and finds love again. The roles I’m getting are all really about that and it’s been empowering. Women have really reacted positively to this feeling of joy and fearlessness and having fewer insecurities and comparisons of ourselves to other people and less fear about all these afflictions that we’re going to get when we’re aged.
Looking at women in this era, we can self-advocate. We deserve to be in the room and we don’t have to be angry and we don’t have to yell, but we need to be heard. It’s good for my daughters to see, and it goes into my personal relationship with them. It’s a little scary for my husband [Laughs]—like, “You’re empowered now? I can’t come in and save the day the same way I used to?” I’m like, “I don’t need you the same way, so let’s get to know each other again.”
WW: Why do you think there’s been such an uptick in women talking openly about aging lately?
BS: I think women are getting tired of being overlooked. We’re tired of the way we’re treated when we go to hospitals, because our pain isn’t valued the way it should be and we’re relegated to being “hysterical.” Talking about perimenopause and all of that has been really great, but we’re also not just menopause. Women are so vibrant in this era, and we’re starting to speak up.
Now we’ve got people like Naomi Watts writing a book about her menopause experience, and I just wrote my book. The title, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old, is a funny concept, but we actually do that to women. We don’t want to get older and look older.
To me, it’s a privilege to get older and I want to be my best. I want to look my best, but I really want to live fully. A lot of us are starting something new or getting rid of things that don’t serve us, so I think the message is getting pushed out there because women are more willing to talk about things without shame or fear.
WW: Since you’ve been in the spotlight for so long, many people feel like they know you and you’ve grown up together. What are some of the misconceptions that come with this familiarity?
BS: I don’t think people realize what a hustle it all is. People think certain figures in the public eye or in entertainment have it easy, like everyone is banging down your door and you’re fielding offers and making a gazillion dollars, but if you talk to any actor, it’s all a hustle and we’re all looking for our next gig.
A lot of the stuff I do, I don’t get paid for, but it’s all in this attempt to keep getting a job and keep the ambition. It’s a business. People are always surprised if they hang out with me for an extended period of time and they see the challenges of what I have to do daily—what it entails and how much work it all is. Part of what we do is wish fulfillment and we perpetuate an image that’s just fabulous, but if you look at anybody, you’ll see how hard they work.
I recently went to a Taylor Swift concert, and I was shocked that all these little kids knew who I was and they were giving me friendship bracelets. When you really look at what someone like her does, it’s such perpetually hard work and there are all these pressures. Everybody’s busting their ass, and it’s a privilege for sure, but it’s definitely not for the weak.
WW: Having come up during the late ’70s and early ’80s, do you have nostalgia for any trends of the era?
BS: I actually just packed leg warmers, but I don’t know if I have the guts to put them on. I have to say that the leg warmers and Reeboks era was a really happy time for me. And the bigger hair has become something that I’m embracing again. I do not miss bangs. I do not miss a perm. I do not miss frosty lipstick, which everyone in high school wore. I’m loving all of the ’70s fashion that’s come back, though, like that hippie look. I do not miss a dickey—you know those fake turtlenecks? And what a stupid name, a dickey!
WW: And of course, you inspired a lot of girls to embrace full brows back in the day, and now that look has made a comeback . . .
BS: That’s going to be something I’ll probably branch into at Commence. My mom was always the one who, when Ford modeling agency was like, “We want to bleach ’em, we want to pluck ’em,” said, “Over my dead body!”
As I’ve gotten older, it’s been really weird. My eyebrows have gotten gray, they’ve thinned and I’m like, “These are insured!” I didn’t actually insure my eyebrows, but come to think of it, it might not be a bad idea!
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