Getting older isn’t always easy. For starters, it’s harder to do things as we get older than when we were younger. Being as active and energetic as we once were can require extra sleep and caffeine. We look at our kids with all of their energy and flawless skin and remember that we were once like that.

Energy and athletic ability aren’t the only things that change as we get older. The way we look changes too, and we see it when we look in the mirror. Fine lines creep in. Gray hair starts to replace our natural color. It’s natural, but it’s not always a welcome change.

Ads for beauty products try to convince us that with the right cream or medical procedure we’ll look years younger, but should we really be trying to look years younger? Is youth the only thing that’s beautiful?

Shannon Doherty is 50 years old. She is a cancer survivor, and she is thankful for her life. The medications she took during her battle with cancer had side effects. In 2019, she told People, “I’m never going to be the size I used to be. Some of my meds that I’m on keep zapping the collagen out of me, so I’m never going to have a wrinkle-free face. I’m critical of myself. But there are some things you can’t fight.” She added, “And I try to live each day as an amazing, precious gift that I’ve been given.”

Doherty has learned what is truly important in life – life itself. It’s not her dress size that matters. It’s not flawless skin that matters. Yet, why does it seem that everyone on TV is trying to look like they’re in their 20s?

Recently, Doherty shared a selfie on Instagram, but this was not an ordinary selfie. She was completely makeup free. She felt inspired to share the selfie after watching movies and wishing Hollywood would embrace real beauty. She wrote, “Watching movies tonight and noticed there were few female characters I could relate to. You know, women without fillers, without Botox, without a facelift. Women who embraced their face and all the experience it showed.”

Doherty went on to explain why she no longer cares about what is supposed to be considered beautiful. She wrote, “I have lived. I love that I’ve lived and that my face reflects my life. I survived a lot yes cancer but more than that. I embrace me now. Finally. Done with the perception magazines and Hollywood try to make us in to.”

She ended her post with a message of the change she would like to see in the future. “I want to see women like me. Women like us.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by ShannenDoherty (@theshando)

Many of Doherty’s followers complimented her makeup-free selfie telling her that she’s beautiful just the way she is. One comment reads, “We want to see more women like you too. You’re beautiful as you are.”

Many people agreed with Doherty that beauty should not just be considered a youthful look. For example, one person commented, “Unfortunately a lot of women are sucked in by the perception that only youth is beautiful, you can’t turn back time with surgery and we should all embrace our natural beautiful selves as they are.”

Do you think Hollywood stars will one day show a more natural beauty instead of Botox and face lifts?