Brooke Shields Wants To Help Women Over 40 Feel Optimistic About Aging

Jenny B. Fine

May 10, 2024 at 2:00 PM·6 min read

Brooke Shields defined beauty for a generation of women, but she has never let her beauty define her.

While many of us watched her grow up in front of the camera, as an adult, she’s pursued myriad interests without people’s preconceived notions slowing her down.

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Now, the actress, mother, model and author is adding another title to her resume — entrepreneur.

In June, Shields will launch Commence, a hair care line formulated for women 40-plus that was born out of the findings of Beginning Is Now, the community-centered content platform she launched during the pandemic.

Though she’s been in the public eye since the age of 11 months, for Shields, who will turn 59 this year, the move marks a whole new chapter.

While menopause has become a hot topic in the last few years, and the number of celebrity beauty brands has exploded, too, Commence is neither, said Shields. Instead, her goal is to give voice to women at a time in their lives when it seems like not very many people are listening. “When I hit this age, I had a sense of accomplishment, but also this excitement that there is more to look forward to,” she said. “I wanted this optimism to be something that we all shared with regards to how we age.”

She originally started Beginning Is Now because she wanted to understand how other women were experiencing the physical and emotional changes that come with middle age. The camaraderie that resulted surprised — and inspired — her. The platform, too, will be rebranded as Commence.

“Typically women are described as being petty and jealous and bitchy and backstabbing,” she said, “and this was the opposite. You saw these women reveling in each other’s uniqueness and strength and diversity.

“This period of life is a beginning. It’s a call to action,” continued Shields, during a wide-ranging conversation with Beauty Inc in early April. “This is about looking at your life in its entirety and saying, ‘How do I want to walk through this period?’

With Beginning Is Now, Shields built a community one-million strong of women, who were attracted not to her celebrity but to her candor. “People want to count us out. It’s not, ‘I am woman hear me roar.’ It’s, ‘I am woman, hear me more,’” Shields said.

Indeed, Shields is giving her fans a lot to hear, whether with a new Netflix rom-com, “Mother of the Bride,” which was released on May 9, or with Commence. Her timing couldn’t be better, said Madonna Badger, an advertising and brand consultant who has worked across myriad brands in beauty and beyond, and recently created the Futura Collective with former Grey New York CEO Debby Reiner.

“For those of us who came of age in the ’80s and ’90s, Brooke Shields was one of our major cultural icons. It was a time when everyone had to be perfect and skinny, and at first, that is what Brooke seemed to be,” said Badger. “Then, she opened up and we got to hear how her life was really.”

A 2023 documentary, “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” detailed the ups and downs of Shields’ life, including her mother’s alcoholism, the objectification of Shields as a sex symbol when she was barely a teen and a rocky first marriage to tennis star Andre Agassi. Through it all, Shields is even-keeled, analytical and highly endearing.

“We learned that her life was hard, and that she had gone on to own her own narrative at a moment when all of us as women are reclaiming our own,” Badger continued. “It’s very empowering. We see ourselves in that story.”

Shields hopes that that level of connection, combined with the insights gleaned from conversations and content on Beginning Is Now, will help Commence cut through a cluttered hair care landscape.

Shields called the product development process “a huge learning curve,” particularly when it came to proprietary formulas and ingredients. “We have to establish ourselves as experts,” she said. “Just because I’m Brooke Shields and I have hair doesn’t make me an expert. The efficacy of the products is what I’m painstakingly focused on. I can sell anything once,” she continued, “but I want the repeat business and to do that, we have to establish ourselves as experts in hair and beauty care.”

Shields is chief executive officer of Commence. She tapped Denise Landman, who led the Pink brand at Victoria’s Secret, to be president, and Karla De Bernardo as chief operating officer. The brand will launch direct-to-consumer on June 4, and is expected to expand to eight products by the end of the year. Hair will be core, but the team is also looking at logical adjacencies, including fragrance. “We’re pacing ourselves, accumulating knowledge and passionate customers,” said Landman. “Having a succinct message and communication strategy is so important for Commence. Through the website, we have the ability to understand the permutations of the brand, the level of consumer receptivity and a refined and specific narrative.”

Shields herself is deeply involved in — and engaged with — the community, which Landman said will help inform product development and also drive sales. “Brooke doesn’t put up barriers to access,” said Landman. “She is comfortable discussing topics she’s had a personal experience with. The legitimacy of her lived experience creates a level of trust and authenticity with consumers.”

In conversation, Shields is down-to-earth, funny and forthright. She’s upfront about the challenges of securing funding for Commence, noting that while investors were quick to take her call out of novelty or curiosity, she was equally as determined to show she means business. (“Some people were shocked when it was clear I knew what I was talking about,” she said, of meetings with potential investors. “People experienced me at a formative age in their youth — I was in their locker or whatever. They have this baggage with me they need to get over.”)

Like a lot of founders, Shields faced more than a few no’s as she made the rounds — one scenario where her background as a model and actress came in handy. “Every time you get a rejection as an actress it feels so personal, because you think, ‘If only I’d done it better, I could convince them,’” Shields said.

“But with Commence, I was able to be in these rooms and not feel personally affronted. It’s just business.”

Still, when it comes to the community, it’s all personal — now and forever. “What I love about it is they very quickly understood that I wasn’t saying be me, do what I do, this is how you need to look,” said Shields. “This is me learning who I am today and encouraging people to revel in their own individuality and diversity.

“I spent this weekend with my high school girlfriends. We’re so at ease with each other and we’ve all had such different lives and lived through difficult tragedies and rites of passage,” she continued. “It was so refreshing to be with them and said, ‘We’re here, we made it.’”

The beginning, it seems, is now. And there’s nothing more beautiful than that.