Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old

December 13, 2024

When women are praised for their beauty from a young age, it can be challenging to accept aging. With self-deprecation and humor, Shields's latest memoir (following There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me) weaves together her experiences with postpartum depression, medical issues, menopause, an empty nest, and her insecurities about midlife with reports and statistics about women and aging as she tries to discover who she is at 59. She had been a dutiful daughter, a responsible parent and wife, and a working actress, but as she aged and those roles changed and fell away, she had to learn how to navigate being "a woman of a certain age." She shares what she has learned: to live for herself, to savor her independence, and to embrace joy. In 2023, Shields starred in a one-woman show in New York City. Her memoir urges women facing midlife to embrace their own (metaphorical) one-woman shows. VERDICT Shields's fans will particularly enjoy this engaging and down-to-earth memoir. It is also an inspirational and reassuring reminder to all women that even the famous must come to terms with aging.--Rosellen "Rosy" Brewer

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2025
The iconic former child star would like to change the narrative on "women of a certain age." "At fifty-nine, I'm the one making the calls in my life--not my mother or the media or Hollywood or my family--which is something I've never felt before." Shields' third memoir (her first two were about postpartum depression and her relationship with her mother) paints a three-dimensional portrait of a very real woman, with aspirations, problems, and points of pride that will feel relatable to her target audience. Though she is proud of her accomplishments, and of the 2023 Hulu documentary (Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields) that reviews them, she can be self-deprecating: "My whole life has been Brooke Brooke Brooke, and there's been this image of me as larger than life, and to be honest it can be a lot. I get a little sick of me." She is quite specific about her health issues, which include a grand mal seizure and a broken femur, but these stories are told in service of a point about taking the reins of one's medical care. In a chapter called "More Than Just a Pretty Face," she writes about taping her thighs to her Spanx to improve the appearance of her knees, though she's well aware of the irony of railing against beauty standards she helped establish. In "What Could Have Been," she laments the limitations of her career as an actress: She has no Oscars or Emmys, she compares her accomplishments negatively to those of Natalie Portman and Jennifer Lawrence, but she also admits that the "commodity aspect" of her celebrity has its upside, at least financially. To wit: her new postmenopausal hair care product line, hopefully more successful than the 1980s blow dryers she says are still stacked in her garage. Though the reliance on research sometimes veers into the silly--studies show women criticize themselves eight times a day!--and the pep talk aspect can be a bit much, Shields' engaging candor generally saves the day. Read the book, watch the movie, order the shampoo. A Brooke Shields festival!

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December 1, 2024
Getting old, as they say, is not for sissies. Having catapulted onto the national scene when she was only 11, Shields seems as flummoxed as anyone to now find herself at 59. She confronts middle age with a mixture of shock and awe: shock at the bodily betrayals of flimsy joints and erratic hormones; awe at the unexpected confidence that comes from weathering life's inconsistencies. But there's dismay, too, at ageist attitudes that pervade the entertainment industry and society writ large. The dichotomy of feeling she's at her peak while the culture deems her irrelevant and invisible is vexing. Shields is nothing if not proactive, and she navigates phases as enervating as empty nesting and as invigorating as starting a new business enterprise with curiosity and humility. Do not dismiss this as simply another "celebrities, they're just like us" revelatory memoir. The situations Shields finds herself in are indeed recognizable and relatable, and the wisdom generously shared is more salient for the ubiquity of the experiences upon which it is based.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Shields' fame, the book's provocative title, and its relevant subject will add up to wait lists.

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