“Aging is just another word for living.”
Society puts so much pressure on women to avoid aging, even though it is, quite literally, inevitable. It’s also pretty disheartening to be faced with rich A-listers, who pay tons of money for cosmetic procedures and products that keep them looking unattainably young — yet we’re all told that we should strive to be like them. That’s why hearing a more refreshing take on aging, like Anne Hathaway’s, is such a breath of fresh air.
Hathaway did a new interview with Japanese skin-care brand Shiseido, where she talked about the pressures she faces as a new mom in her 40s. One of the first things that came up was just how much pressure she faces to stay young — but Hathaway said she’s learning to let go of that.
“Aging is just another word for living,” she said. “And what you do with it from there is personal and up to you. I feel great—I feel better than I did in my 20s because I’m taking much better care of myself.”
She also talked about how each decade of her life has been different, and come with new lessons to learn.
“In my 30s, I had to give up alcohol. I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t lead the life that I wanted while drinking,” she explained. “And in my 40s I’m finding I have to support myself differently nutritionally. I want to go back and talk to my 25-year-old self who felt like she didn’t have to do anything and just be like, ‘Oh honey, honey, there’s a whole other world out there and it tastes like an avocado.’”
If that isn’t just a mood.
Later in the interview, Hathaway touched on being a mom — particularly, the pressure she faced to “snap back” after giving 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡.
“People don’t talk about this and it really made me feel better when I found out about it. It takes three years for your body to fully recover from a pregnancy,” she said. “I didn’t snap back. I want to be very, very clear about that. With my second, it took every minute of those three years. Let your body be a body. There’s nowhere to get to. It’s just now. Be present and take care of yourself and don’t set expectations.”
And if Anne Hathaway can be that kind to herself, we all can.
