Meet three stars who are changing how we think about beauty and personal style. Rashida Jones, Tracee Ellis Ross and Connie Britton show off spring’s freshest looks—and inspire all with their empowering attitudes and ideas in the May issue of Good Housekeeping, on newsstands April 18.
- On her awkward teen years: “Between 12 and 15, I was emotional, chubby and awkward. It was puberty and I was a work in progress. Thankfully I got to do that privately. It sucks now that kids have to decide how to represent themselves publicly at such a young age.
- On her famous parents and being raised around other mixed-race families: “My mom is a great beauty, but also a deep well of curiosity. My parents taught me who to be…they worked hard to make sure my sister and I saw people like us. A lot of family friends were mixed-race couples. I picked well! My parents are beautiful inside and out.”
- On Hollywood’s tough standards for beauty: “I don’t like the idea that there is so much pressure on women to look a certain way in Hollywood. There are times when I feel myself buckling under it.”
- How mom Diana Ross was her role model for female empowerment: “We are the first generation of women who can choose the lives we want to live. I had an extraordinary role model in my mother [singer Diana Ross]. She supported me in moments of disappointment and supposed failure from a standpoint of empowerment, not victimhood…partly because of that, I was able to design the life I wanted to have and feel empowered to be the woman I want to be.”
- On celebrating curvy women as sexy: “I remember being very excited by Jennifer Lopez’s body. It was the first time I saw a woman with a similar shape to mine being celebrated as sexy… [growing up,] I was obsessed with Madonna, with Christy Turlington. I identified with all these supermodels who were super thin and didn’t have the curves I had. I was raised not to judge a book by its cover, so I wasn’t focused on the fact that I didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me. In hindsight, I understand how it affected [me].”
- On the importance of inner beauty and self-love: “There are times I put on tons of makeup; there are times I don’t. The larger conversation is about the idea that we have to manipulate ourselves to be lovable and worthy. My life has worth because of who I am as a human being, not because I am an object of desire. I’d love to be in a delicious, romantic relationship, but it is not the point of how I choose to look or feel beautiful.”
- How the stigma of not being sexy over 40 is fake news: “People tell me the 50s are the best time – I’m ready! That whole stigma of being over 40 and not being sexy anymore is fake news. We’re more vibrant because we have experience, we know our bodies. I have a friend who says that you always want to make sure it’s your life that you’re living – it’s a constant mantra.”
- How losing her parents inspired her to adopt and become a single mom: “I’d lost both my parents within three years of each other. A lightbulb went on: What was I waiting for? I’ve been given amazing gifts.”
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