Brooke Shields says beauty was ‘a burden and a responsibility’ growing up

For some people, beauty really is pain. Actress and model Brooke Shields knows this all too well.

"Beauty, now, to me, means freedom. Beauty isn't as precious, in the same way, that it was when I was a kid," she said in a video for AARP The Magazine. "When I was younger, it was a burden and a responsibility. Everything was precious."

It's a concept she rigorously analyzed in her documentary, "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields," a nod to the 1987 film where she portrayed a child prostitute. 

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"The ‘Pretty Baby’ documentary definitely empowered me," Shields said. "I had never seen my life in its entirety. It made me feel very proud of my resilience and that little girl. I would be shocked as a kid to know that there would come a time that I would feel like I was enough. I would be shocked if I knew that I would one day really be confident and like myself."

Hypersexualized as she made her way through Hollywood, Shields became accustomed to people having opinions about her appearance. "You have to change the narrative. It’s an affront to people if Brooke Shields gets older," she told the magazine of handling aging. 

"You can’t grow up, you cannot age. It’s disappointing to them that I don’t have the same face I had when I was 16."

"But it’s been so liberating for me not to worry about it all the time," she shared. "The pressure of being skinny is just so exhausting. I like food, and I like tequila!"

Shields is willing to admit that her weight fluctuates now. "If I have a job to do, I know that I’m going to look better if I’m a little fitter. But I also look younger when I have extra weight. What was it Catherine Deneuve said? ‘At a certain age, you have to choose between your face and your a--.’"

Now 58, Shields is embracing this stage of her life by launching a website. "We’ll be creating a platform for women over 40 so they can age joyously and with confidence and vitality and say, ‘We don’t have one foot in the grave, people!’" she said of her new endeavor, Beginning Is Now.

"Founding a company is not for the weak of heart. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. It’s hard to ask for money, especially from men who have already left their wives who are my age and are on to the younger model," she joked. "But I’m getting a kick out of wowing them with how much I know. And it’s very empowering, because I’m not doing it in a snotty way. I’m just owning the power that I’ve learned I have."