Sarah Jessica Parker Teams with RoC Skincare to Talk About the Power of Optimism

The star initially partnered with the skincare brand in 2022 to launch the Look Forward Project, aimed at inspiring women to adopt a positive mindset about aging. Now, they're back together to uplift youth.

In RoC Skincare, Sarah Jessica Parker has not only found a brand that’s suitable for her sensitive skin, but one that also aligns with her state of mind.

So last year, she joined with RoC to launch the Look Forward Project, inspired by research conducted by the skincare company that found the vast majority of women have anxiety about aging.

The goal of the initiative: to change the tone of the conversation. In the days, weeks and months since, brand purpose ambassador Parker, 58, has also lent her voice and shared her personal experiences in an effort to help women have a more optimistic outlook on getting older.

One year later, the project is evolving, encouraged by a new study RoC conducted in which it found more than half the women included felt they weren’t optimistic in their own youth, and more than three-quarters felt today's youth needed more resources to lead more positive lives.

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The initiative has several facets ranging from the creation and distribution of 5,000 booklets (developed by brand purpose experts Dr. Deepika Chopra and others) in middle schools with actionable tips for kids and information for parents, to a limited-edition RoC x SJP skincare set benefitting its program with SeekHer (a mental health non-profit) for a second year.

For the set, which includes items from the brand’s Revive + Glow Vitamin C collection, Parker got to tap into her creative side.

“They told me the idea; they wanted to make this bundle. And they sent prototypes of different pouches [along with] all these Pantone colors. I was like, ‘Okay, so this is going to be out when in what month? How do I want to feel?’ ” Parker tells PEOPLE of her creative process.

“So I picked this [pouch], that has nylon material because I knew it was going to be out [in summer], and it's quilted on the inside, so your glasses aren’t going to get trashed in there. You can bring your phone, your sunscreen, your money, your MetroCard, whatever it is, to the beach.”

Speaking with PEOPLE, the star opened up about her approach to skincare, her take on the notions of beauty and self-care — plus how being optimistic impacts her world.

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PEOPLE: Tell us about your skin and routine!

Sarah Jessica Parker: “I have quite a sensitive skin, so I can't really use stuff that's got perfume in it. I have to be thoughtful about that. [My] day and night [routine] is different. I know the reality of skin that's not 20, I think. But even still, I don't want to have [my regimen] be an endless amount of time. I don't mind a little time. I tend to listen to a podcast or the radio. You can expect some kids may or may not be in or out of the bathroom, too, just asking last-minute questions or whatever. I like the simplicity and the efficiency of it.”

PEOPLE: Do you think of skincare as self care?

Sarah Jessica Parker: “I have to admit, I get a little bit embarrassed by the idea of even carving out that time. I just think it's not a reality for a lot of people and [the idea of] it makes them feel lousy. So I have an aversion [to] self-care, those words, for some crazy reason because I think until everybody else gets to have it, I don't want my own. But I want to take care of my skin and I want it to be effective and I want to feel good about it — and I don't want to spend 20 minutes doing it. I don't want 10 steps of anything. I want three steps.”

PEOPLE: When I think about optimism and beauty, I think about feeling good from the inside out. How, if at all, do those themes intersect for you?

Sarah Jessica Parker: “I don't think of beauty in me. I think, as an actor, I've thought more about character in me, a part in me. For my mother and her generation, beauty was specific to a type, an image. It was for other people. It didn't feel like it was something for me. So I never tried to hook up with it. I always was like, that's fair weather. That's not my thing, if that makes sense.

"So I think over time I just want to feel like me. Not what does beauty feel like, or, am I or can I be or will someone say I am, because that's too unreliable. I don't want to hang out and wait for someone to tell me and then hurt me by telling me I'm not, so that I can't have a relationship with beauty or so that I can. What does me feel? And it's nice if someone else agrees that it's presentable or pretty, but I can't hang my hat on it.”

Related: Sarah Jessica Parker Admits 'I Don't Really Like Looking at Myself' but Still Skips Plastic Surgery

PEOPLE: That's very wise, and brings me to my next question. People say wisdom comes with age. Doesn’t pessimism also come with age? Do you find it harder to be optimistic the older you get?

Sarah Jessica Parker: “I think I'm better at optimism now than I was when I was younger because I didn't have enough experiences to know the spectrum of life's disappointments. I only had what I had and now I have perspective. I've lived years, I've had a lot of experiences, many of which have been fantastic, a lot of which have been hard, sad, challenging, huge losses, some private, some public. And I have realized that I don't want to feel stuck in a saddle of pessimism. It just feels lousy for me. It feels sometimes worse than the bad incident that has promoted it. And I see the potential to stay there forever and it scares me.

"You can have people in your life — family members, friends — who really are attracted to pessimism and the negative. And I understand, because life has led them a lot in that direction. They have a lot of reason to be pessimistic. But I think I'm better suited for optimism. It just helps me climb, even if it's short-lived, even if it's just this small step away from the thing that's scary, bad, upsetting, painful. And as a business owner, as a mother, as a colleague, as a boss, there's a lot of opportunities to not feel good. So I have to find a way of saying, ‘No, this is going to be okay.’ "

PEOPLE: One of the many wonderful aspects of RoC’s initiative is the focus on spreading a message of optimism to youth, whether that be in schools or through the #BeARoC TikTok campaign on TikTok. As a mom, how did you feel to see the campaign expand in this way? And, what have you learned about optimism in youth being a mom?

Sarah Jessica Parker: “I'm really glad because I think we all know that our outlooks are shaped pretty early. It doesn't mean they can't be changed and altered and we can't re-examine them and revisit. But a lot of who we are is shaped by our experiences. And I think there's a lot of landmines today, more so than when I was growing up. And social media, for all the good that it can do, it can do a huge amount of harm too.

"I think the messages that are really important are about individuality and about your own opinion of yourself and having the courage sometimes to be lonely if it means you are not going to join a group that you fundamentally don't agree with. And that's a very scary thing to do because at the tender age of 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, all you want to do is be part of a group. What I share with my daughters [twins Tabitha Hodge and Marion Loretta, 13] is that two friends is as good as 20 and that it's very hard to be an individual and make decisions that are counter, but it's the stuff that pays off big time later.

Related: Sarah Jessica Parker Says She Raises Her Three Kids to 'Understand What It Means to Earn Money'

"So they just need to lean on me and papa [Matthew Broderick], each other, the one or two friends, and trust their own instincts. And that's a very hard thing to do. So I just try to talk about the things that I think are important. Are you a good, decent person? Do you believe in and follow the golden rules? Silly as it sounds. It's everything. Are you interested? Do you have your head in the book or do you have your head in the phone?

How to be a better person, a better friend, a better daughter? I work on it, all of it. I'm still a daughter. I'm still a friend. Still a person. So I try to share those things that have been meaningful to me. You can only say so much because they're influential, but they're also desperate for independence. We do our best.”

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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