As any woman in or approaching middle age can tell you (this writer included), there’s a certain sense of invisibility that sets in, no matter how “pretty” you may be or have been. For Halle Berry, now 58 and arguably considered one of the world’s most beautiful women at any age, that invisibility has manifested in not feeling known for all of her other qualities.
“I have always known that I’m more than this shell that I walk around in. I have longed for someone to say something to me other than ‘Oh gosh, you’re so pretty,’” says the Oscar winner in a now-viral interview with Fortune magazine while appearing at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit on October 15. “I’ve longed to hear other words. I know I’m more than this, so as I’ve aged, I’ve been determined to age gracefully and naturally.”
“I think it’s a shame that, as women, we’re being told that we have to find a way to stay ‘eternally young’ [or] ‘forever 30,’ as though we’re not allowed to be human and do what we’re naturally born to do,” Berry continued. “We’re born to age and die. But somehow, as women, we have to do the unthinkable; we have to figure out a way to do it, and unfortunately, we’re turning ourselves into monsters trying to do that. So I’m committed to being a spokesperson for allowing yourself to age gracefully, knowing that you’re more than this shell you’re walking around in.”
After several decades as a Hollywood A-lister, Berry is no stranger to reinventing herself; a task that has often proved challenging in a beauty-obsessed industry. Her latest evolution is as an entrepreneur, launching the menopause-focused wellness brand Re-Spin. Having become something of an advocate for “the change” in recent years, even lobbying for health care legislation, Berry was proud to declare onstage at the summit: “I’m in menopause … How liberating is that?”
Elaborating on the topic for Fortune, she explained, “You know, historically women, as we age, we just get old, right? Men get sexy — they get gray hair, they’re silver foxes. We’re just old, right? And we’re haggard, and society tells us or has told us that our time is up; we should go out to pasture. We’re done with our baby-making years — we’ve been viewed as that being our primary purpose for being here is to bear children — and when we’re done with that at 35, 40, there’s nothing left for us.
“Well, I know that we’re just getting our groove,” she continued. “We’re just starting but women don’t really understand that yet because society has told us something different. So they don’t want to talk about being a mid-lifer because that means there’s no place for them; they’re not wanted. So it’s about us women reclaiming that narrative, right, and changing the way we’re seen throughout the entirety of our [lives].”
That may seem easy for someone like Halle Berry — a woman blessed with beauty, fame and fortune — to say. But no matter who you are, she insists the key to confidence in aging is maintaining not only our physical selves but a holistic view of the non-physical attributes and interests we each bring to the table.
“When you just focus on your physical self, well it’s really hard, if that starts to change, to feel confident — and it’s going to change. Everyone must know this: it’s going to change,” she emphasized. “But if that’s where you’ve put all your focus your whole life, then you’re going to feel completely out of control and you are going to start to feel like you know your worth is declining. But when you know that you’re more than that and you work on your inner self — you continue to read and grow and learn and be curious and educate yourself, start new businesses; you know, follow your passions, follow your dreams — when you’re doing all of that, you have no choice but to feel good about yourself,” she added.
For women especially, Berry hopes to reinforce that aging is not only inevitable but potentially exciting.
“Aging is a privilege. It’s a privilege to age and we should see it that way,” she said. “We should feel that way about getting older. We should feel like the crowned jewels of our society.”
