Old age was growing inside me.

It kept catching my eye from the depths of the mirror.

I was paralyzed sometimes.

Nothing inside me was ready for it.

This is Simone de Beauvoir, writing in 1970

in a book called The Coming of Age.

What she captures is the stealth of the aging process,

the way it seems to creep up a line or gray hair at a time.

And the fear, paralysis, she calls it,

standing in front of the mirror, who am I?

These days, the world seems full of well-intentioned cat

poster sentiment designed to cheer us up

about the passage of time, you're only as young as you feel,

and 70 is definitely the new 40.

The powerful baby boomer generation

has begun to chip away at the stigma of old age,

but for older women in particular,

advancing age can be a sense of invisibility.

De Beauvoir's feelings of fear and dread

can't be magicked or even Botoxed away.

So tonight, on late night women's hour,

we're going to provide you with a toolkit,

...