Turning 50 is a milestone that should be celebrated. So how do you do it? Throw a massive party and invite all your closest friends and family? Go on a healing journey a la Eat, Pray, Love? Well if you’re Gwyneth Paltrow, you drench yourself in gold and pose naked.
Speaking to Vogue ahead of her milestone birthday, the Oscar-winning actress opened up about turning 50, as well as how she approaches aging and embracing those new wrinkles.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Journey With Aging
“I feel great. I feel very happy and fulfilled and not scared and weirdly not freaked out about it.”
Opening up about aging, Paltrow revealed that when turning 30, she felt as if she had disappointed her parents. She was not in a serious relationship, and instead was a “weird artist.”
She adds that when you’re in your 20s, you’re seen as a kid. However, once you turn 30, there’s this expectation that you are going to have a better handle on your life. Suffice to say, Paltrow didn’t believe this to be true at 30. It’s no wonder that she freaked out once she turned 40.
“…I was really questioning, what does it mean to lose that, if I am going to lose that? And how do I approach aging, and how do I want to define myself as a person who’s aging?”
Paltrow shares that she remembers going to get Botox and how she found the experience embarrassing because she believed that she had become a cliché. Speaking about turning 40, she believed that she had to redefine so many aspects of who she was, however, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
“It wasn’t as scary as I thought, by the way, but going into it I think I had a particular set of unique circumstances.”
Gwyneth Paltrow Turns 50: A New Chapter
Gwyneth Paltrow/Instagram
While turning 30 and 40 was definitely an adjustment, Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that turning 50 had been a lot smoother than she thought it would be.
In fact, leading up to the milestone, the actress has spent her time ruminating on different chapters in a woman’s life as she ages, particularly what she experiences when going through perimenopause and then later menopause.
Speaking about her health, the 50-year-old shares that she’s grateful for the investment she made in her health during her mid-to-late 20s, sans the occasional smoking that she indulged in.
“I feel like those choices that I started to make in my mid-20s around implementing a yoga routine; starting to really research and anecdotally experiment with healthier food, less processed food; and doing detoxes and stuff like that really set me on a path of getting to a place of turning 50, and crossing that threshold feeling great.”
Becoming an aging beauty
It’s one thing to age in a society with archaic beauty standards. However, it’s a whole other thing when you’re aging in front of the entire world. Speaking to Vogue, Paltrow points out we’ve been left with very little when exploring youth and beauty, especially when it comes to how we see ourselves. Thankfully, she herself has never had to battle with this.
“Maybe it’s because I have wrinkles and I’m almost 50 years old, but I’ve really recalibrated the way that I look at that stuff. I don’t relate to a 26-year-old model…I don’t want her face…don’t want her experience. I’ve earned my life. I’ve earned my wrinkles.”
Finding your purpose as you age
Paltrow has accomplished so many incredible feats in the past few decades, yet she doesn’t spend much time ruminating about what her purpose is. While she can acknowledge that she’s put things into the world that have been helpful and resonant to some people, her purpose isn’t something that she can pinpoint to one thing,
Gwyneth Paltrow/Instagram
“I think it’s always evolving, what my purpose is. I honestly don’t know if I’ll know until I’m on my deathbed. So I just follow my instincts and kind of keep going along.”
MAIN IMAGE CREDIT: Gwyneth Paltrow/Instagram
Want to know more?
At 50, Gwyneth Paltrow radiates health and wellness, but how does she do it? The actress recently provided insight into her daily routine, and one aspect of the routine that caught our attention was the fact that she enjoys 20 minutes of alone time in a private sauna with celery juice and a book.
