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Hi there, Julie Cross here, and it’s about asking Julie, the things that I get asked. So since I hit 50, 51 in December I’ll be, I have been getting asked about Botox. Have you had Botox, will you get Botox? So that’s probably the answer to your question. Are you likely to get Botox? Here’s my philosophy on this.
Now I’m answering this question because I’ve been asked and I do get asked and I want to share my opinion. My opinion doesn’t mean that I judge other people who are having Botox so in sharing my opinion of whether I would do it I’m not judging you for doing it. So I don’t judge people that do it so please don’t judge me if I don’t. But I’m simply sharing an opinion. It’s like you’ve gotta have a disclaimer if you want to talk about anything that somebody might be offended that you’re talking about it or think that you’re having a go. I’m not having a go at anybody that chooses to have Botox the question is would I choose to have Botox. And here’s the reasons that I would say no.
So, you know, I’m all for aging well. I’m all for aging well and I do look after myself and I do, you know, have a good regime of self-care and skin cream and I do do those things. I keep fit, I try to keep happy, I meditate to keep my soul well which I think is reflected then in your face and your body. So I do try to stay active, I do all of those things. ‘Cause I want to age well, there is no doubt about that.
People could challenge me and say, “Well, why do you color your hair?” Now I grew up in the hairdressing industry where we colored our hair right from the minute you started the hairdressing, and I have been every color that you can imagine. And so coloring my hair started out about not looking younger but it was all about fun. Now, am I still coloring it for fun? Well I’ve been blonde for a very long time now and I do notice there’s regrowth coming through and I’m about 100% white round my face. So am I still coloring it for fun or to cover the gray? Well that’s debatable. And there will be a time where I let it out and go gray.
But for now, you know, I know that I want to age well. So why not Botox then for me? Why not, I wear makeup, why not Botox? So the thing is for me, it would just be too much against everything I talk about, everything I talk about about loving ourselves up, it’s contradictory to my message. It doesn’t look like I’m walking my talk. And it’s important to me to do that. You know we keep asking as women for men to accept us aging. We keep asking for society to accept us aging. When we look at the disparity with newsreaders between male and female, we keep saying that society should accept women aging, and I agree with that.
But we have to accept ourselves aging first. You know, because not until we accept ourselves aging can we expect anybody else to accept it. And I believe that aging, you know, we’ve got to a stage of thinking that aging seems to need to be cured. Cured and endured. When I think it needs to be, you know, accepted and celebrated, not cured and endured. It should be celebrated and, you know, we celebrate. And it’s interesting, isn’t this interesting too. You know, two year-olds we find cute, five year-olds, little girls we find cute. They’re cute, and a little girl doing a dancing video gets millions of views and it goes viral. Then the old lady at about 80, you know, if she’s dancing on Facebook and she’s, you know, we accept that she’s oh out there, she goes viral because everyone loves her.
But it’s like there’s this gap in the between and especially when you hit around the 50s where you’re not young anymore, not enough to be cute. You’re not old enough to be cute so you’re in this middle stage. So what, we’re not cute anymore? Ah well, we’re still damn cute! And so let us own that, let us own our cuteness. And you know, the other reason, and say it’s okay. Because once somebody starts doing it then we all get that it’s okay, we have a new benchmark for what it is. So I will not look like Cher when I’m 70. I will not! So you know, that’s okay with me because that’s an unrealistic, you know, image of what 70 looks like. And so, you know, I choose not to participate in that.
And the other reason is simply this. I’m a storyteller, I’m a speaker and I’m a storyteller. So part of what makes my stories and that you get into my stories with me and you come along on the journey and that you feel my emotion is my facial expression. And so I take that away, then you start missing my communication. That’s how I feel about that. That maybe you start missing the intensity or the passion that I’m speaking with, because there’s a reason that our face does that, and it’s to show that. To show that emotion and passion and to communicate that to you. And that’s also what makes me funny, it’s those facial expressions, you know, that I add to everything that kinda makes me, and it also looks ugly at times I know.
But that is my face, so I’m gonna have to own that like I own the dimples in my thigh, and you know, that doesn’t mean I’m not challenged. That doesn’t mean that I don’t look at myself sometimes and go, “Oh Jesus, God that’s not a good look.” You know, when you grab your phone and you’re accidentally looking down and you have it on a selfie. Oh, you know, that’s not me, I haven’t gotta work at them. I’m a sparkle it’s alive. I love my face, I love my face, I love.
Of course I’ve gotta work at it like everybody else with that mental game. But no, not having Botox anytime soon and I’m not gonna say never. I’m just saying, and you’ll call me on it if I do and I decide to change my mind. But at this stage I think I want to be an advocate for aging well, aging healthy, doing it naturally, as naturally as I can, call me on the gray hair. Yeah, we’ll see, we’ll see when I’m 60. We’ll see what I’m saying then.
Thanks, thanks for listening. Thanks for asking, you can share your opinions too. And remember it’s not about attacking anybody or judging anybody, we all have a right to make those decisions for ourselves and to not be judged for making those decisions this is not a judgment so let’s not be judging about it. Okay, see ya.