At 58, Brooke Shields embraces new ‘Beginning’

Famous since she starred in an Ivory Soap ad as a baby, Shields could write a book of life lessons. Instead, she’s forming a community.

At age 58, Shields says that she has eased into midlife and learned a few things along the way. “This age is not just about menopause,” she says. “Yes, all of those things are happening and there are things changing.

“But I’m proud to be this age. I’m a product of this age. However, can we demystify it?”

What’s most important for women to know about this time in their lives? “I think it’s about going into this age fearlessly. It means you can let go of things and you can experience new things. It’s beautiful to see,” she says.

Shields is a multihyphenate these days: actor-author-podcast host-entrepreneur. She stars in the upcoming Netflix flick “Mother of the Bride” and is preparing to launch “Beginning Is Now,” an online health, beauty and wellness platform to help women over 40 age fearlessly, optimistically and on their own terms.

“Whenever I have something that happens in my life, ‘I used to think, This is so isolating — I feel like I’m the only person ever to feel like this.’ And then I sort of stepped back to say, ‘There is no way you’re the only person experiencing this.’ So, I began this community called Beginning Is Now,” she says. “It’s an online platform to bring people together and have a conversation.”

Shields has been thrilled with the results. “It’s wonderful to watch women hold each other up,” she says.

Based in New York, Shields has two daughters, Rowan, 20, and Grier, 17, with her husband, TV producer Chris Henchy.

Her good life tips:

Share something new

Shields says that her mission with “Beginning” was simple. “I wanted to meet women — fabulous, beautiful women from all over the world — who are saying, ‘I’m not quite sure where I am in life right now.’ And then we start talking about it and sharing.”

Be your own CEO

“My best girlfriend said, ‘You’ve been a CEO since you came out of the womb.’ That’s sort of true. Part of what I realized by starting a business and actually being in this position is to examine how I’ve lived my life,” Shields says. “Everyone is their own CEO.”

Shift and reinvent

“I’ve had to pivot and shift and reinvent,” Shields says of her career. “When one medium doesn’t want me, I try to find another one. Life is this constant shift, and then you get to a point where you realize, ‘OK, I know what I’m good at.’ ”

Beauty in every age

“Beauty is not how you look. It’s really how you take care of yourself and what that means to you,” she says. “As I’ve gotten older, I want my message to be beauty as wellness. We need to change the narrative and say there is beauty in this age and every age.” Shields’ feelings about her looks have changed over the years. “To focus on the internal is what I want,” she adds. “It’s health but also cultivating my brain and cultivating the things that people can’t see.”

Be frank about aging

Shields observes that Hollywood doesn’t know what to do with female actors as they age. “At 58, you’re too old to be the ingenue, but you’re not quite the granny yet,” she says. “The goal is to find and ferret out the filmmakers who appreciate a woman over 40 … appreciate the life experience, the fact that we’ve raised the children, we’ve had the families and we’ve had businesses. We’ve had professional lives. We’ve left them. We’ve gone back to them.”

Own your years

“This age isn’t about trying to look younger. It’s about looking your best where you are, and owning that it’s OK,” she says. She tries to teach her daughters a healthy view of getting older. “I say, ‘This is what your mother looks like now. This is what your mother is living now,’ ” she continues. “We have to talk about the reality of aging.”

Multihyphenate multitasker

“All of my girlfriends are the same. We fit so much into one day. Most men don’t even get how much a woman can do in one morning,” she says. “If I’m only doing five things at once, it’s like I’m leading a life of leisure.”

Know your priorities

From an early age, Shields was very clear about what was important in her life, including insisting at the height of her fame that she attend Princeton University. “I knew that I was in an industry where they just couldn’t wait to take absolutely everything away from me,” she explains. “They wanted to take my identity. They wanted to take my confidence. They wanted to take my youth. I knew I needed to develop an opinion and a brain and that I needed a family and I needed friends I could grow with.”

Be strong — and vulnerable

“I think vulnerability is a sign of strength,” Shields says. “When you’re someone who has been in the public eye for your whole life, everybody has decided who you are, what you are and what you feel like. And so, from a very early age, I decided to own my own narrative and own my own experience. I’ve allowed people to see me at my most vulnerable, including when I dealt with postpartum. It was open up and share so others wouldn’t feel so alone.”