Actress, model and Hollywood legend Brooke Shields really does have it all. A successful career, a happy family, and, apparently, a rockin’ bikini bod that proves that to her, age really is just a number.
Shields is a woman that you would assume would have no trouble feeling confident on the beach, however, the actress has revealed that she only just started wearing a bikini, aged 53 – and the reason for it is so empowering. Shields says she wanted to set a good example for her daughter.
“We all have different body types and we spend so much of our time comparing ourselves to others,” Shields wrote in a personal essay she penned for Instyle. “But I’ve found if you look at your individual physiological structure and play up the strong points, it’s empowering. It’s not in my DNA to be waif-like, so I ask, ‘What do I have?’ and then highlight that.”
Shields got the scar on her right tight after fracturing her femur in January. At the time, she fell off a balance board whilst at a gym in New York. Following the incident, she had two surgeries infection which required her to return to the hospital for further emergency surgery.
When the time came for her to be released, she learned that she had developed a staph infection from an infection she had developed where she had had her IV inserted. She was rushed back to the hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery that saved her life from the life-threatening infection.
Shields was left feeling “helpless” after she kept getting better with bad news after bad news. Fortunately, she was able to pull through her struggles with the help of her daughters, who helped keep her feeling positive.
In a new interview, Shields opened up about how she instilled in her daughters the importance of being comfortable in their own skin and how they, in turn, did the same for her. “I think they’ve taught me more than I’ve taught them,” she admitted, noting that her two teen girls feel “proud” of their individuality.
Shields elaborated further on the things she taught Rowan and Grier:
“I try to say to them [that] it’s not about a desired look as much as it’s a desired feel, that it involves being healthy.” The proud mom added, “It’s not about weight as much as it’s about being fit and taking care of your body internally and exercising and sleeping; all those things that kids roll their eyes at when they’re younger.”
“I try to focus much more on that and they’re much more proud of their individual strengths and shapes,” Shieldsstated. She went on to claim, “And I think they’re more focused on their individuality, which I think is their generation more, from what I’ve witnessed with them.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Shields also pointed out how staying healthy and feeling good in her skin takes work. She insisted that her daughters have seen her “work really hard at” exercising and “eating right” without denying herself the food that she loves.
“I know when I work out, I eat better. I sleep better,” she said. “There’s a lot of things that [are] sort of the offshoot of that. That’s really the message for me – to celebrate who we are uniquely but also focus on health rather than a certain silhouette.”
