Brooke Shields on aging: “I’m at the beginning of a new, really exciting phase”

Last Sunday, Demi Moore received her first major acting award at the Golden Globes. Brooke Shields watched from home. “My kids will say, ‘Oh, it’s Golden Globes night. Get mom a bottle of wine! Get the tequila!'” Shields laughed. “It’s so interesting, these awards shows, aren’t they? They can be torturous if you sit there and go like, Why am I not valid enough to get it, do it, whatever?“

I asked, “Did you feel it?”

“I’ve felt it all my life.”

It may be surprising to hear that a veteran actress like Shields yearns for acceptance. It turns out that she is completely human. “I was listening to Demi, ‘We haven’t been the ones to ever get awards.’ Like, no. I got the People’s Choice Awards!

“So you get the People’s Choice Award, but you wanted the Emmy, the Oscar?”

“You just wanted to be part of the group, the cool kids,” Shields said. “That’s where the little insecure girl comes out.”

At this point in his six-decade career, the comedian has earned the right to laugh at himself.

Currently 59, Shields said she feels 38. “I definitely feel a youthfulness that I didn’t feel in my younger years,” she said.

She started modeling while wearing diapers. Later, she turned heads wearing Calvin Klein jeans. Shields was expected to sell products and say her lines, all while looking beautiful. She delivered.

But as she approaches 60, she has found a cultural script that she vehemently rejects.

“When you turn 50, they just completely write you off,” she said. “You’re out to grass. Society says, ‘Oh, if you’re not the hot twenty-something at the bar, you’re an old lady.’ There’s this whole demo in the middle that just gets overlooked.”

These are the overlooked women for whom Shields has written her fourth book: “Brooke Shields Won’t Be Allowed to Grow Old” (published Tuesday by Flatiron). “When you’re someone who’s become known for looking a certain way, by virtue of just getting older, you kind of become a disappointment,” she said. “I’ve seen people get a little personally offended that I dare to be 60!”

“And what do you say to them?”

“I just feel bad for them,” Shields said. “And I’m part of the problem because I was the symbol, you know, maybe unconsciously. But I didn’t set out to do that.”

Nearly 44 years after being named Face of the Decade, Shields hopes to be a voice for her generation – empowering women by sharing her personal and sometimes vulnerable experiences.

In her book, she reveals that a doctor performed an operation on her that she did not consent to. “I was asked by my gynecologist if I experienced any discomfort and I said yes.”

In the late 2000s, Shields went to a surgeon to help reduce some labia discomfort. But after the surgery, she says she found out he performed an extra procedure: an unwanted vaginal rejuvenation. “He literally looked at me and said, ‘I tightened you up a little bit,'” Shields said. “And I was like, ‘What?’ And he kind of bragged that he ‘threw in a little bonus’ for me and I was so shocked I just went numb, I didn’t even know what to do.

“What did you say?”

“I didn’t say it, I didn’t say anything because it sounded like he wanted me to thank him,” Shields replied. “I didn’t say anything then, and it’s the first time I’ve ever said anything.”

That so-called bonus surgery has had lasting side effects. The actress and model says sex can be painful.

“This was, you know, a long time ago. We didn’t know what to fight or complain about. I finally got a life and kids and it was like, ‘Dear God, I don’t want that kind of attention,'” she said .

So why is she speaking out now? “Because I have daughters. And there’s no shame in that. And the more we have those conversations with them, conversations that I’ve never had, the more progress I think we’ll have as women.”

Shields is also looking to make progress in other ways. In May, she was elected president of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union that represents 51,000 actors and directors around the country. As a five-time Broadway star, she felt a responsibility to give back to a community that has embraced her.

She has already taken her fight to Washington for more funding and to change tax policy. “It’s been a learning curve,” she said. “It’s an ordeal. I’d never gone on the Hill and met with congressmen and senators. But you know, manufacturers have to take care of the people who bleed for them on a daily basis.”

In addition to being a union leader, Shields is now the CEO. She had founded the beauty brand Commence after hearing concerns from aging women about their hair. “They’ve felt overlooked and that’s just the truth,” she said. “They are not being marketed to.”

When asked what the hardest part of being CEO is, Shields said, “Money to travel. Keeping the money flowing because you have to put it back into the company. And you know, nobody’s getting paid yet. I do at least not!” she laughed.

Don’t ask Brooke Shields if she’s ready to slow down. Age has brought wisdom and she’s just getting started.

“I’m going to be, you know, 60,” she said. “I’m still here. I feel like I’m at the beginning of a new, really exciting phase. The more confident you become – isn’t it interesting – the more opportunities you get. And yet you couldn’t have arrived at said trust without going through all the time to get here.”

READ AN EXCERPT: “Brooke Shields Won’t Be Allowed to Grow Old”

WEB EXTRAS: Watch an extended interview with Brooke Shields

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Story produced by Michelle Kessel. Editor: George Pozderec.