BROOKE SHIELDS: OK, at 59 I don't look like that Calvin Klein pin-up any more. But - newsflash! I wasn't put on this Earth just to make men feel virile
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In the first part of her gloriously candid memoir in yesterday’s Mail, Brooke Shields described how age and the menopause had slammed the brakes on her sex life. In today’s extract, the iconic beauty rails against the invisibility of mid-life women...
![[As a model for Calvin Klein in the 1980s]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/12/14/94009155-14275791-image-a-3_1736691736463.jpg)
The first time it hit me that I’d reached ‘a certain age’ was while strolling through the streets of downtown New York with my daughters. They are, if I may be so bold, stunning girls. Rowan is a strawberry blonde with curves to die for; Grier is six feet tall, all legs, and towers over me.
![[With Christopher Atkins in film The Blue Lagoon in 1980]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/12/14/94009149-14275791-image-m-5_1736691752495.jpg)
We were walking side by side, me in the middle, and it was impossible not to notice the admiring looks from passers-by. Over the years I’ve become used to being recognised on the street but this time was different: the looks weren’t cast in my direction but at the two beauties by my side.
![[Brooke as a stalker alongside Matt LeBlanc in Friends in 1996]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/12/13/94009151-14275791-image-m-3_1736690160879.jpg)
I had every single feeling, all at once. What are you doing ogling my babies but also aren’t they gorgeous but also, wait, no one’s gazing at me? When did that happen? Am I over?. Protectiveness, pride, melancholy – it all smacked me in one quintessential New York minute.
As my forties progressed into my fifties, I began to notice that external perceptions didn’t seem to match up with my internal sense of self. Brooke Shields at a recent awards event in New York. My industry no longer received me with the same enthusiasm. The vibe from casting agents and producers, but also my fans, was more: you need to stop time... and maybe even reverse it.
