Gwyneth Paltrow Made Up Another Term for This Familiar Life Event

Instagram, @goop

Gwyneth Paltrow loves to coin her own phrases and then just use them like they are real phrases that exist that we all know. Like, she fully invents her own figures of speech because our pedestrian way of talking is simply not elevated enough to describe la vida Paltrow. When she and Chris Martin got divorced, she said they “consciously uncoupled.” And now she’s added another term to the Gooptionary: free bird.

It’s not just a song by Lynyrd Skynyrd! In a new profile in People, the Oscar winner explains that as she prepares to send her son, Moses, off to college (daughter Apple is already a college sophomore), she is not an empty nester. She’s a “free bird.” Or maybe the kids are the free birds? I’ll be the first to admit I don’t get this. But I’m willing to give it a try. “Aunt Sally and Uncle Pat just started fostering puppies; they’ve got a lot more room in their house and time on their hands now that they’re…free birds.” Well, okay! But when we call her a nepo baby, it’s mean?

“I’m trying to reframe it so that I can at least try to convince myself there’s some kind of a silver lining,” Paltrow explained of her latest vocab invention. “Empty nest sounds so sad and lonely.” Now this makes sense. She misses her kids so she’s making up words to make herself feel better. Like when Emma Watson replaced single with self-partnered. Been there.

In a recent interview with Glamour, Paltrow mentioned that, as she gets older, she’s learned that “It’s also up to each one of us to sort of recontextualize aging,” so don’t be surprised if she drops some new age-related terms on us soon. Laugh lines are “long dimples,” gray hairs are “wisdom balayage,” dark spots are “time freckles.” If anyone can make us believe, it’s Gwyneth Paltrow.

Originally Appeared on Glamour