As the baby boomer generation ages we’ve developed all kinds of new beauty cliches, such as “50 is the new 30.” It makes a good marketing slogan for everything from athletic gear to anti-wrinkle creams. The Great (beauty) Lie of our time may well be that we don’t ever have to get old; we can continue to look young and feel young forever. Just buy the latest cream, inject your face with the latest drug, exercise like a fanatic, eat next to nothing and, POOF, you’ll be 30 forever.

Guess what? You won’t be 30 forever. You won’t look 30 forever. You won’t feel 30 forever. You will age despite your best efforts. Perhaps, as a culture, we’ve become so terrified of dying that we want to fool ourselves into believing that the magic waters of the fountain of youth have indeed been incorporated into our face creams and our vitamin-enriched waters. They have not.

Instead of deluding ourselves into thinking 50 is the new 30, why not take the steps necessary to be beautiful and happy regardless of our age? I hear the “buts.” But this celebrity or that celebrity is way past 50 and still looks great! Really, have you seen her up close and in person or just the photoshopped pictures and the carefully filtered videos? And so what if the celebrity looks great? That’s her job isn’t it, too look like the million bucks she gets paid for posing and acting? Not to mention that if your only idea of a beautiful woman comes from the world of celebrities then you seriously need to Trash Your TV.

Beauty radiates from health and happiness. Trying to look 30 when you’re 50 rarely results in health, happiness or beauty. The Great Lie means that 50-year-old women all over the country are miserable because they are fully aware that they neither look 30 nor feel 30. They have the stretch marks, scars, wrinkles, freckles and menopausal symptoms of a 50-year-old that point the truth out to them every single morning.

Here are some of my ideas for crushing The Great Lie:

1. Look to the women who inspire you and recognize that true beauty can never be defined by how someone looks
2. Embrace a healthy lifestyle
3. Practice being thankful
4. Enjoy being a woman, including the makeup, the hair and the clothes, you don’t have to be 30 or look 30 to look marvelous

Here’s a slide show of some women who inspire me and radiate beauty. Some you may recognize. Some are friends and family. All are beautiful.

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