Brooke Shields has lived her life in the public eye, and at 58 years old, she has no intention of stopping.
The actor, author, podcast host, and entrepreneur is gearing up to launch Beginning is Now later this year, an online health, beauty and wellness e-commerce platform and social network designed to help Gen-Xers navigate their 50s and 60s. Shields traveled to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas earlier this month to promote the project as well as her iHeartMedia podcast “Now What?”
“Every line on my face — I earned it,” Shields said during a March 9 freestyle Q&A with SHE Media CEO Samantha Skye. The 50-minute session was part of the SHE Media Co-Lab installation hosted by the women’s lifestyle digital brand during the festival. (She Media, SXSW and diverse Joint owner’s interest in PMC).
Here are highlights of the conversation:
I watched your documentary “Pretty Baby” on Hulu. I think this is another example of wanting to talk about uncomfortable things for the benefit of a larger audience of women and girls. Beauty fell on you early. It was a big part of what you were told.
When you’re born, you look a certain way, right? And so when I was on the cover of Time magazine (in February 1981) as “The Look of the Decade”** it was so ridiculous to me because it sounded like that – I couldn’t understand where that was coming from. It was arbitrary—did God come down and say, “This is the face?” But you learn how to navigate it because if you have good people around you, you start to look at it not as something that is your currency but something that can be used. It was a source of income for me and my mother, but it was also something I started at a very young age to really associate with wellness. And when I say that, it was the external aspect that was really emphasized. What I wanted was to focus on internal things, not just health and all that, but growing my mind, growing the things that people can’t see. So that I don’t become just a statistic.
Beauty is a form of privilege.
Beauty – not how you look. It’s really how you take care of yourself and what that means to you. You know, I’ve never been skinny. I was called “healthy” in my industry, not skinny, that’s what it was. And when you get older though, and you start to feel ashamed of your body, because there’s so much that we all experience. My experience was more public.
How do young women today understand your early life?
I have two young women (daughters Rawan and Jarir), who we also have to learn from. We have to guide them to understand that this is a reality (of aging). This is what their mother looks like now. This is what your mother is experiencing now. And my oldest daughter, when she saw the documentary (“Pretty Baby”), she said, “Mom, women need to see this, women need to see this,” and she was 20 years old. So that was a big deal because she understood what that meant. And I compared that to what happened on social media, and what they encounter every day, and that started a conversation I never would have had.
Related content“Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields” movie review: A documentary of remarkable depth that holds our voyeuristic image culture into the light
At the height of your early fame you decided to attend Princeton University. Why?
I knew I was in an industry where they couldn’t wait to take absolutely everything from me. They want to take my identity, they want to take my trust. They wanted to take over my youth, and they wanted every possible thing they could get their hands on. I knew that I needed to develop an opinion and a mind, that I needed a family, and I needed friends that I could grow with.
How did you come up with the concept behind Starting Is Now?
It’s a community. It was during COVID and I basically started my version of the blog. It was an online platform to bring together women who I hoped were like-minded because I found myself at this era in my life thinking, this is the beginning for me. I’ve done a lot but now I can focus on myself and try new things. Suddenly the doors were closed. Listen, I get it, in my line of work. You are no longer creative. But I have not been baptized yet. I mean, I’ll get there, don’t make me laugh so hard. Whenever something happens in my life, I think, “This is so isolating. I feel like I’m the only person who’s ever felt this way,” and then I step back and say, There’s no way you’re the only one experiencing this. So I started this community called The Beginning Is Now.
What was your goal at that time?
I wanted to meet women – amazing, beautiful women from all over the world – who would say I wasn’t quite sure where I was in my life right now. Then we started talking and then I realized there was something here. There is research to be done with them.
This led you to the role you have now, which is CEO.
“I’ve been a CEO since I came out of the womb,” my best friend said. And I thought that was kind of true because part of what I realized through starting a business and actually being in this position was the way I lived my life. Because I’ve had to pivot and pivot and reinvent, and when one medium doesn’t want me, I try to find another. It’s this constant shift, and then you get to a point where you realize, okay, I know what I’m good at. But now I need to surround myself with actual industry experts. And that’s what I did. And what has happened is that it has brought us to this place now and it is exactly where I prayed and hoped we would get to because (the community) is constantly growing.
You’ve always seemed very comfortable with being vulnerable, including opening up about your struggle with postpartum depression. Is this why people come to The Beginning is Now?
It’s a good question because I believe weakness is a sign of strength. When you’re someone who’s been in the public eye your whole life, everyone has decided who you are, what you are, what you feel, and what your experience is. So from a very early age, I realized that in order to have my own narrative, which I probably wouldn’t have been able to articulate at age 11, but in order to have my own experience, I had to precede it before anyone else’s opinion. (he was there). And it was a case of me saying, “Okay, this is something that happened.” Once you say it, it’s undeniable. People can have opinions, but you’re ahead of the game and own your story. And so (postpartum depression) was the first thing because I couldn’t believe the misery, the fear, the loneliness, the shame I was going through. I did not understand that. So I started searching. I started learning and when I realized what it was, a very dear friend of mine said, “You know, why don’t you write about it?” So I said, “I’m not going to be another celebrity who stands on a soap box and tells you all about my bad experiences.” I was like, “I can’t do that.” He said no, but if you share, as if you own your whole life, you open it up for everyone so they don’t feel alone.
Remove stigma.
What’s also interesting is that in this day and age we’re not just about menopause. Yes, all these things happen and things change. They’re terrifying and embarrassing, but why don’t we talk about it and say, “Okay, yes, that’s a product of who we are in this age. However, it’s not just about who we are.” …Can we demystify it? Can I as an entrepreneur, or a CEO, or the person who said let’s make this company find ways to help us do that, to help facilitate all of that? Let’s say it’s not about trying to look younger. It’s about showing up your best wherever you are, and admitting that it’s okay.
What do you think women need to know more about this time of life?
I think it’s about encouraging women to go into this without fear, so to speak. This means you can let go of things, and you can try new things. The women I know over 40 are completely different. And it’s so beautiful to see – we’re having these group conversations with the community, and it’s great to watch them support each other. There’ll be a woman in France, and she’ll say, “Oh my God, it’s great that you did that. I wish I was surrounded by more of these women. When you start to feel your little seeds growing, when that started to happen around 2022, I thought, OK “This is magic. This is real and I can’t disappoint and I can’t let him down or give up on him because there’s a real need here.”
Does feminism as a movement have a role in this?
Feminism is a really interesting word. I will say some things to my kids that are the least feminist things you can imagine. I think true feminism is really valued when the value isn’t just the fighting, right? This isn’t “I’m a woman, hear me roar.” It’s “I am a woman, listen to me more.”
** (Editor’s Note: Brooke Shields graced the cover of the February 9, 1981 issue of Time magazine with the cover title: “The 1980s Look”)
(Pictured: Brooke Shields and SHE Media CEO Samantha Skye in conversation at SXSW)