Older

Lately I've been concerned that neither I nor my clients have any idea what normal aging bodies look like. With social media, diet culture, and Hollywood, we're constantly viewing airbrushed, plumped, trimmed, edited versions of the human body that aim for age 18 (or younger!). I know very few older women who love their aging bodies. They were the generation who grew up sun-bathing to a lovely shade of iced-tea and admiring Twiggy.

We don't see a lot of natural body hair, let alone naturally grey hair, few wrinkles, no age spots, no cottage cheese thighs, and no c-section shelfs (all fairly common experiences with aging bodies). I've been warned about hypothyroidism and lower testosterone (and offered really expensive treatments for those), as if those are dangerous injuries, when slower metabolism and lower testosterone rates are normal experiences with age. I don't want to feel insecure about my body, but I don't even know what normal or healthy look like!

So I'm hereby calling for more reality please. This is my no make-up, sun-kissed face and wrinkling forehead with a good shot of the grey coming in. (Is that dandruff I see? Crows feet?) There's no need to shame those of you who don't prefer to look your real age; I respect your right to choose. I just want us all to have the option of enjoying aging, rather than feeling pressured to look younger and more "perfect" than we are.