If there's one woman who knows what it's like to have every detail of her life scrutinized, it's Jennifer Aniston.
From her starring role on "Friends," to her marriage (and dissolution of that marriage) to Brad Pitt to a constant "bump watch" on her stomach, everything the actress and producer does is discussed endlessly. Hell, we're about to do it right now — though we do think it's for a good reason.
In a new interview with Glamour, Aniston, 48, got real about several topics, not least of which was the scrutiny over her reproductive options.
"If your body is in a normal moment of having had a bite or two, or you're having a moment of bloat, then there's arrows circled around your stomach, telling you that you're pregnant," she said to the publication.
"And it's like, actually no, it's just my body. Not that it's any of your business to begin with. Having a child, as we know, is no one's business except the couple or individual that's going through it."
In an open letter on HuffPost last year, Aniston made similar statements, explaining that the singular ideal of a married woman who's also a mother simply doesn't apply anymore.
"But I'm not in pursuit of motherhood because I feel incomplete in some way, as our celebrity news culture would lead us all to believe ... We don't need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own 'happily ever after' for ourselves."
And Aniston — who is, incidentally, married to actor Justin Theroux — is very much ready for the next phase of that story, as she nears 50, an age that historically has left women in Hollywood by the wayside.
[Aging is] something that we look at as a negative, and yet every single person on this planet does it. I don't understand why it's not something that's celebrated.
"I don't think life stops after 50 — if anything, it gets more and more exciting," she told Glamour. "For some reason, we don't honour or pay respect to aging. It's something that we look at as a negative, and yet every single person on this planet does it. I don't understand why it's not something that's celebrated, why there's some sort of an expiration date on who you are as a person worth watching and a story being told about you."
She also name-checked actors like Helen Mirren (72) and Meryl Streep (68), noting their storied and robust careers, as well as sharing a note of optimism about the generation of stars that existed before the internet, and how they might defy the expectation of what life post-50 looks like.
"There's so many stories that are there to be told. Just because you can't bounce a penny off your tummy anymore, because you're not 22 or 32, doesn't mean that should quantify what makes you relevant and interesting."
Jen, we have a feeling people will always find you relevant and interesting, so keep that positivity flowing.
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