In new memoir, Brooke Shields talks aging, beauty and an unwanted medical procedure

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Brooke Shields started in Hollywood at just 11-years-old, starring in films like Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon. From that young age, the actress and model was sexualized on and off screen – and decades later, she's out with a memoir that reflects on that public scrutiny. In Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old, Shields – now 59 – writes about her experience with age-related bias in the industry. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Leila Fadel about her refusal to feel invisible as she ages, how sweetness can be a liability, and a medical procedure that was performed without her consent.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The actor Brooke Shields is on the pod today. She's got a new memoir out called Brooke Shields is not allowed to get old, thoughts on aging as a woman. It's about her life now, coming into her own as a grown woman. But it's fascinating to look down at her IMDB, at those early roles, which were textually about being sexualized as a woman. But it's fascinating to look down at her IMDB, at those early roles, which
0:21.9	were textually about being sexualized at a young age. In Pretty Baby, she plays the child
0:28.2	of a sex worker. The tagline is literally the image of an adult through a child's eyes.
0:34.2	In the Blue Lagoon, she plays a young girl who gets stranded on an island with her male
0:38.6	cousin and they get older and discover sex together. And there are more like this. And for a lot of
0:45.4	people, this is the Brooks Shields they know. But as she puts it in this interview, that's only a
0:51.0	part of the full painting. Her interview with EmpPR's Laila Fottle is up ahead.
0:56.3	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:01.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.
1:07.6	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:15.2	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:20.3	Maybe you remember Brook Shields as the face of Calvin Klein jeans, the sexually exploited child in Pretty Baby, or the funny lead in the sitcom Suddenly Susan.
1:31.1	People want you to be the way they remembered you when you mattered to them in a different way, whether they saw your movie or they liked your television show or they had your picture up or something that's very personal to them.
1:45.7	But today, Brooke Shields is a grown woman and at 59, she's out with a book on this new era in her life.
1:53.2	It's called Brooke Shields is not allowed to get old.
1:55.9	And it was inspired by a slight at a party when she revealed her age to the man hosting the evening.
2:01.6	The person's demeanor changed instantly.
2:04.4	In what way?
2:05.2	You know, they said, oh, I wish you didn't say that.
2:08.0	I was just like, you wish I didn't say what?
2:10.9	Like, told you my age?
2:12.6	She says she's not going to let the world make her feel invisible
	...

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