“Why Are We Afraid of Aging?”

By Tina Popadak

If I see a wrinkle that I have not seen before. Then I’m like darn, it’s too bad. Ou, well.. Whatever”

– Brigitte Bardot, a French animal rights activist and former actress, singer, and model.

Is Getting Old Your Main Fear?

Recently, I came across an inspiring video on Instagram that has had a lasting impact on me. It featured a beautiful young lady expressing her fearlessness toward the process of aging. As someone in my early thirties, I couldn’t help but notice the deepening wrinkles around my eyes and the gradual emergence of gray hair, gradually overtaking my Nutella-brown locks.

My hair has always been my pride and joy, something I cherished and appreciated. Thanks to my mom’s influence, I embraced my natural hair color from a young age and had never considered dyeing it. However, lately, I catch myself entertaining thoughts like, “Oh, maybe I should dye my hair soon.” It’s intriguing how we burden ourselves with concerns about wrinkles, face creams, gray hair, and various routines in a quest to preserve eternal youth.

Are You Fearless Too?

Bridgite’s courageous words truly inspired me, and I aspire to live by them as more wrinkles and gray hair inevitably appear in the years to come. I don’t mean to imply that I won’t continue caring for my outward appearance, but what about the inside? There is yet to be a magic solution that can grant us the strength to simply accept the fact that we will age. It’s a natural process that we should embrace rather than fear, with no need for anxiety.

“It’s completely natural it happens to everyone. We’re very young, we grow up, we age and then we die. It’s beautiful, a lady with white hair who is wise and can tell beautiful stories.

I think it’s really wonderful. There aren’t many left, and I believe women should just embrace aging.

Because at the end of the day, it’s much more beautiful to have a grandmother with white hair who looks like an elderly lady than to have a grandmother who is bleached, dyed, and made-up, who looks very much older but also really unhappy,” said Brigitte Bardot in 1973.