Many women have had a fear of aging and getting older instilled from a young age. Think about all the times growing up that you heard someone insult another woman by calling them ‘old—’ we’re willing to bet it’s more than you’d think.
While there’s still a long way to go, the tide seems to be turning ever so slowly when it comes to how women themselves talk about age. According to a recent survey of women ages 35 to 60 conducted by Hone Health, American women in this range seem to feel pretty optimistic about getting older: nearly 59% of the women surveyed said they felt feel generally positive about aging.
Dr. Candice Knight, a longevity physician and Hone Health’s medical advisor, previously told Flow Space that women generally aren’t actually afraid of getting older, but rather fear what’s associated with it. “The optimism we see in this data reflects the disconnect between the story women are often told about this phase of life and what the lived experience actually turns out to be for many of them,” she said.
Additionally, she said the way we talk about aging matters and shapes perceptions and attitudes around it. And beyond influencing mental health and self-esteem, they may also impact aging itself. Recent research has found that fears around aging can actually impact the body on a cellular level and make it age faster.
It may sound funny to turn to Hollywood for inspiring words about getting older, but in recent years many famous women like Kate Winslet and Brooke Shields have pushed back against anti-aging rhetoric and have opened up about their positive experiences growing older.
Untangling negative messaging about aging is tougher than it sounds. But hearing from other people can be inspiring and clarifying. Here are some empowering things celebrities have said about the beauty of aging and getting older.
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Anne Hathaway, 43
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety Anne Hathaway, who is now 43, has been in the spotlight since she made her film debut in 2021 in The Princess Diaries when she was 17. In the years since, Hathaway has gone on to win an Academy Award and star in many more roles—and now she’s sharing her thoughts about being in her 40s.
In a cover interview for People‘s World’s Most Beautiful issue, Hathaway said she’s learned not to be so hard on herself as the years have ticked by and that she appreciates the clarity aging brings.
“I just think that when you’re in your 40s, you’ve had the opportunity to see how certain decisions bore fruit over time,” The Dark Knight Rises star told the magazine. “And so you can assess if you want to continue making those decisions or if you want to make new ones.”
Another great thing about getting older? Perspective. “One of the things I love about being in my 40s is I don’t get so swept up in things anymore. I used to really not understand that phrase ‘Take it with a grain of salt.’ There’s no salt,” she explained. “Every high was so high, every low was so low. And now I really value the chill. It’s hard won, and I really value it.”
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Viola Davis, 60
Image Credit: Earl Gibson III/Deadline Viola Davis has proven to be very wise, so it’s no surprise she has some interesting thoughts about growing older in an industry that prizes youth so highly.
“There’s a feeling like you’re no longer valuable when you get older. I don’t feel that our society has embraced what comes with aging. They think that you just get old, we don’t value wisdom and we don’t value experience,” the Academy Award winning actress said in a 2021 interview with Essence. “Coming through the other side of looking in the mirror and literally knowing that you’re worth it, you don’t have the barter for it. You don’t have to do anything to earn it, you literally are worth it just the way you are. And that in and of itself is an elixir. If you go through life and you truly believe that you’re worth it, then you have found gold.
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Kate Winslet, 50
Image Credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage Kate Winslet, 50, has been very vocal about the necessity of resisting societal pressures to feel bad about aging. She’s said repeatedly in recent interviews that she’s alarmed by the scale and prevalence of anti-aging rhetoric, especially after having time to reflect on the harsh, unfair criticism about her looks after appearing in Titanic.
“There are several things I’ve learned and number one is that women get more beautiful as they get older,” the Academy Award winner told Harper’s Bazaar UK in a 2024 video interview for the publication’s “Life Lessons” series, adding that she finds the wrinkles around the eyes and hands particularly beautiful. “Our faces become more a part of who we are, they sit better on our bone structure, they have more life [and they] have more history.”
She added in the same interview that she’s come to understand that it’s even more important to look after yourself emotionally and mentally as time passes.
“I also have learned it’s important to take care of yourself from the inside—not just how you eat and look after yourself from a nutritional standpoint, but how you look after yourself from a mental wellness standpoint; how you feel about yourself emotionally, physically, your place within the world, how you walk through the world, how you live with integrity and sincerity,” she explained. “I think these things matter and these things come out in how we look, and of course in how we feel. Beauty is more of a feeling, rather than what we look at.”
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Drew Barrymore, 51
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety Drew Barrymore has lived nearly her whole life in the public eye since making her film debut at 7 years-old when she starred in E.T. Now 51, the host of The Drew Barrymore Show has repeatedly shared that she feels better than ever after overcoming many challenges and settling into her own skin.
In a 2025 cover story for AARP The Magazine, Barrymore shared that she didn’t fear getting older. “I have no issues with aging—this is the happiest I’ve been in my life,” she told the magazine.
That also extends to her appearance. The star has repeatedly said on her show and in interviews that she tries to embrace her changing body without judgement. “Aging is a privilege that I will never take for granted,” she wrote in the caption of a TikTok video showing her makeup-free face and visible wrinkles.
“I don’t really have tip necessarily but I just try not to be so mean to myself,” Barrymore shared during a taping of her talk show when asked for tips on how to age gracefully. “I cannot believe the first things we do and say when we look in the mirror. So the kinder, more patient, more resilient, more patient, more loving, less dismissive that we can be the better it is for our mental and spiritual game, which affects the face more than any lipstick you buy.”
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Jennifer Garner, 54
Image Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty Images Jennifer Garner has a sunny outlook on getting older because she sees it as a result of her cumulative experiences and efforts, she said in a 2025 interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
“I’ve really earned every minute of every day of every year. I don’t want to be younger. I’m very grateful to be exactly this age. I’m trying to soak it up. I feel like I’m living in my power. I’m living in my wisdom. I’m living in my joy and my capacity to do and get things done,” she told the magazine. “So, I’m just very aware of my luck and the grace that’s been shown to me.”
When asked which parts of her appearance she’s grown to love more with time, Garner said she has never spent a lot of time focusing on her appearance and that she’s doing it even less now. While she does have moments where she scrutinizes herself, the 13 Going on 30 star said she tries to push past them and is kinder to herself than before.
“I think less is more, as far as focusing on yourself too much in that way. What are you going to do? I want to age. I want to live to be 100. I don’t expect to look at 100 like I look today,” she told Bazaar. “I want to wear every single bit of those 100 years and feel great about them. But what do I like better about myself? Well, I don’t know that I used to think about it at all, but I’m more friendly to myself in general.”
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Cameron Diaz, 53
Image Credit: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety Actress Cameron Diaz is known for her down to earth perspective when it comes to beauty and wellness and that extends to her thoughts about getting older.
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey for her 2014 special Cameron Diaz & Sharon Stone: Aging Gracefully, Diaz told Winfrey that it’s easy for women to fall into the trap of feeling like a failure for visibly aging.
“We don’t honor the journey and who we are and how much we have to offer,” she said. “I feel like it’s almost as if we have failed if we don’t remain 25 for the rest of our lives, like it’s a personal failure that at 40 years-old I don’t still look like I’m 25. Like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I apologize. I wasn’t able to defy nature.’”
She added that she views having the opportunity to see how you change with time as a gift. “Aging is a privilege and not everybody gets to do it,” she said. “The only alternative to not aging is you’re dead.”
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Angela Bassett, 67
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety After years in the spotlight, Angela Bassett has landed on a very healthy and helpful way to think about getting older: she views aging with optimism and excitement.
“I don’t allow age to impose some limit on me,” the 67 year-old star of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever told AARP in a recent interview after the publication named her to its list of “Most Fabulous Women Over 50.” “Half the time I forget how old I am,” she added.
She also shared some helpful advice for other women to embrace the passage of time. “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep loving life, embracing it,” the 9-1-1 star said. “And just know that the best is yet to come. You can do anything you put your mind to.”
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Penelope Cruz, 51
Image Credit: Swan Gallet/WWD Academy Award winning actress Penelope Cruz, now 51, has said in interviews that she feared aging when she was younger more than she does now.
In a 2024 interview with Elle ahead of her 50th birthday, the Vicky Christina Barcelona star shared some words of wisdom about getting older.
“People have been asking me about age since I was twentysomething. I was more bothered then than now. Now it makes more sense, to discuss turning 50,” she explained. “It’s a huge, beautiful thing, and I really want to celebrate that with all my friends. It means I’m here and I’m healthy, and it’s a reason to have a party.”
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Brooke Shields, 60
Image Credit: Getty Images/Taylor Hill Given her decades in the spotlight, Brooke Shields has had plenty of time to collect her thoughts about aging and beauty. In her 2025 memoir Brooke Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman, Shields discusses what it would be like to reconsider aging not as a loss but as a gain and encourages women to reframe it as an evolution instead of an ending.
The actress, supermodel and entrepreneur has said she wrote the book to herself and others embrace this period.
“I woke up one morning and felt hit over the head with the notion that ‘Oh God, I have no context for this period of my life,’” she wrote. “If I no longer have working, producing ovaries, and if I’m not saying yes to society or someone else’s desires or needs, do I have value? If the same familiar rules don’t exist for this period of my life, do I exist?”
The answer? Emphatically, yes. Shields has also said in other interviews that she feels more clarity and empowerment in midlife than in her earlier years.
“I’m going to be 60 years old,” she said in an interview with CBS News last year. “I’m still here. I feel like I’m at the beginning of a new, really exciting stage. The more confident you get—isn’t it interesting—the more opportunity you get. And yet, you couldn’t have arrived at said confidence without going through all the time to get here.”
