Actress Renee Zellweger will soon be back on the big screen in her latest movie, Bridget Jones’s Baby, but most of the chatter isn’t about the return of her iconic every-girl character. After staying out of the eye of the celebrity hurricane for several years, Zellweger set tongues wagging when she appeared at the 21st annual Elle magazine Women in Hollywood Awards in October of 2014 looking hardly recognizable.
Though Zellweger claimed her fresh look was the result of rest and relaxation, the popular sentiment was that she’d had noticeable work done. All middle-aged women grapple with the social pressure to look beautiful, fit, and ageless even as our bodies go through the natural aging process. That pressure is exponentially greater for women like Zellweger, 47, who live under the microscope of the public eye and who make their living based in large part on their looks.
This is an impossible situation. If Zellweger looks too old and tired, she gets criticized. If she is suspected of seeking cosmetic treatment, the backlash is even fiercer. How can women hope to win, except to try and hide cosmetic procedures? These days, more and more celebrities and everyday women are being more open about getting treatment, from facelifts to Botox and dermal fillers. We applaud these women who are willing to step out of the shadows and honestly discuss what it really takes to look young and beautiful over the decades.
