I have various feelings about getting older; firstly I like the surety it brings. I know my mind better. I don't however like that I see myself in pictures with lines on my face that never used to be there. I like that I know what suits me and I dress to please myself, not others. I don't like that I have to train so hard to keep the body shape that I used to have naturally and dare I say...effortlessly. I like the shared history of my husband and I ageing together; having been side by side since I was 18, he's seen twenty years of subtle changes in me; but I am still me. I don't like that my hair is greying - I will dye it forever. I do like that I see my Mum and how she has aged and she is still beautiful and stylish.
I regard with interest how women of my age look. Especially famous ones. Here are some contemporaries of mine, all born in 1974:
Amber Valetta
Victoria Beckham
Eva Mendes
Kate Moss
Amy Adams
Imagine any one of these women on the school run...they would earn surreptitious stares, for sure. Is it just me who finds the school run the ultimate head-to-toe check out between women? It's a fine art; in one glance we can clock every detail. This morning, for example, I noticed that many women were sporting Caribbean suntans - now they didn't have that as a feature at the old school...
Meanwhile comparing oneself to celebrities. This is what I call the 'Pinterest' effect. I have been spending a lot of time on Pinterest (here is my page) lately - it's a veritable obsession - but all that perusing of beauty makes normal life seem drab by comparison. The messy house. The unkempt hair. The not-quite-right outfit. I realise that everyone on Pinterest is just that little bit more beautiful, preened, slim, something better than reality.
Still of this selection of '74 babies, I do take heart that they look naturally 38 (even Victoria Beckham, who has softened hasn't she?!). There are fine lines and a glimpses of the future, older face and that is what women my age should look like.
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