‘Dharma & Greg’ Star Jenna Elfman ‘Loved’ Turning 50: ‘I Feel Younger Than I’ve Ever Been’
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Jenna Elfman, 50, opened up about aging and beauty standards in a new interview.
The actress said she currently feels “younger than I’ve ever been.”
“I feel like I have so much more knowledge about life, about myself, that I’m truly, genuinely enjoying life, and that gives you energy,” she said.
Jenna Elfman wants you to know that aging is truly liberating. The Fear the Walking Dead star and ’90s icon (calling all Dharma & Greg fans!) is approaching her 51st birthday and guess what? She’s excited about it.
In a new interview with Glamour, the actress opened up about turning 50. And the whole idea that wisdom comes with age, in her experience, is very true. “I feel younger than I’ve ever been, I feel like I have so much more knowledge about life, about myself, that I’m truly, genuinely enjoying life, and that gives you energy,” she explained. “I’m less stressed. I’m more interested. I get more sensation out of living than I ever have in my whole life. So I loved what 50 was.”
The best part, she said, is truly letting go of feared judgement and expectations. “You really, really stop being so concerned about approval from other people. It doesn’t matter. They’re not living your life,” she said pointedly. And that newfound freedom leaves room for following her heart. “Do you feel capable of living the way you wish? And if not, what do you need to do to accomplish that? What do you need to learn? That’s what’s very exciting to me about living,” she added.
The whole mindset is a page taken out of Reese Witherspoon’s book. “I saw [she] posted on her Instagram a couple weeks ago about how when you really genuinely stop worrying about what other people think of you, you truly feel free,” she said. “I couldn’t agree more.”
The mom of two added that, in general, it’s much easier to be authentic and care-free today than it was in, say, 2007, when she had her first child.
“My body really changed afterwards and it did not bounce back,” she recalled. “I was filming [soon after] and seeing all of these ‘body after baby’ media releases about celebrities after they have their children and how fantastic they look. And I did not look like any of them ... I looked like I was still pregnant. I had to bind [my belly] down and cover it with a coat.”
She continued, sharing that paparazzi photos of her appeared in magazines. “And I was always trying to find, do other women look like what happened to my belly?” she said. “It only got worse after my second kid. It was extreme, and you’d never show that. No one seems to want to talk about it or share that because it’s really vulnerable.”
She’s glad conversations around body image and beauty standards—in and outside of Hollywood—are slowly changing, though. “I feel like it’s a much more welcoming, open place, the world,” she added.
But there’s certainly still a long way to go.
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