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Ordinarily, you wouldn’t bat an eyelid at the sight of two forty-something women – even A-list women – smiling next to each other on social media. But a new snap of Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz caused a stir on Instagram this week, with followers lauding their evidently injectable- (and filter-) free skin. They were “embracing their age gracefully”, as one admirer put it. The photo had significance.
The sad reality is, though we may finally be embracing grey hair, cellulite and other features that were once deemed to be “ageing” or “imperfect”, seeing stars with smile lines, crow’s feet, folds or forehead movement remains a rarity. We still do a double take when presented with a high-profile face that hasn’t been tampered with (save for some excellent beauty treatments), and which reflects its owner’s true age.
Whether you blame it on Hollywood or the rise of Instagram, women have long been expected to appear line, wrinkle, blemish and pigmentation-free long well into middle-age. So what should be an unremarkable photo of two actors hanging out – and likely is, from Cameron and Drew’s perspective – is instead held up as a defiant stance against unrealistic beauty standards. Should it be revelatory? No, but it is.
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As the number of positive comments in response to the post indicate, the majority of us really like seeing real skin. It’s not just Barrymore and Diaz who have got us talking lately, either – we’re also going wild for Sarah Jessica Parker, Sharon Stone and Andie MacDowell, all of whom look excellent for their age, but don’t subscribe to the wrinkle-free aesthetic. Instead, they focus on getting their glow on, looking luminous, and flashing wide smiles while they’re at it.
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Of course, it’s ultimately all a matter of personal choice. After all, cosmetic procedures have become a common part of the average woman’s beauty routine – more so than ever in the Zoom era. Diaz, who is 49, previously discussed trying a “tiny touch” of Botox way back in 2014, but said she regretted it because it changed her face “in such a weird way”. “I’d rather see my face ageing than a face that doesn’t belong to me at all,” she explained. Meanwhile Barrymore, who is 46, hasn’t tried any injectables and “would like to try not to”.
These leading ladies are not dismissing the benefits of tweakments and injectables – nor ruling them out forever – simply opting for the path they’ve found offers them the most effective beauty ingredient of all: confidence. It’s heartening to see that come from simply, as the saying goes, loving the skin they’re in. Learning to embrace all parts of getting older – lines, collagen-depletion, menopause, grey hair and all – may take some time but, if Cameron and Drew are any indication, it will be more than worth it.
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