There’s No Shortage of Advice on Defying Aging

There seem to be an onslaught of books and articles about the importance of appearing younger that are targeted to women in their 50s, which means ME!!! I
didn’t realize that I was in trouble until I read Jesse Kornbluth’s review of Charla Krupp’s, How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger on his blog, Head Butler. Kornbluth, who usually tackles more literary and intellectual content, felt compelled to call his readers’ attention to this book due to the social and economic fallout that happens to women when their beauty declines. Ouch!

I followed the link he provides to Amazon where, for an additional sum, you can also get a copy of Staging Your Comeback: A Complete Beauty Revival for Women Over 45. (Is 45 the new 50?)

If that’s not enough advice, you can read Redesigning 50: The No-Plastic-Surgery Guide to 21st-Century Age Defiance and learn how to dress better for your (thicker in the middle) mid-life body in Dressing Nifty After Fifty. For fans of reality TV, The Learning Channel has a program called “Ten Years Younger,” (not to be confused by TLC’s equally compelling “I Can Make You Thin” ) that judging by its website, is focused on women. They step into a sound-proofed booth and passers-by critique their looks and guess their age prior to a life-changing make-over. (Don’t we get enough of this without asking for it?)

If you’re still not feeling badly about your estrogen-starved body, read Lisa Johnson’s story in the WSJ. She’s a 49-year old woman who, after a year of unsuccessful job-hunting, rejuvenated her career by hiring a stylist to make her appear younger.

Apparently, declining bone mass, creeping blood pressure and poor sleep are not our biggest concerns as we age.