Glam Slam: Over 40 Rules!

The industry paper The Hollywood Reporter’s front page story yesterday was how “Over-40 actresses dominate Sept. covers.” There’s 42-year-old Julia Roberts on ELLE… Jennifer Aniston (41) on Harper’s Bazaar and Halle Berry (43) landing Vogue… all for the September issues, which are the biggest and most coveted of the year.

The article goes on to talk about how older women like 40-year-old Gwen Stefani, Sarah Jessica Parker (45) and Demi Moore (47) have all been big magazine sellers, outselling many younger stars. SJP’s May Vogue cover sold 325,000 newsstand issues, beating out 22-year-old Blake Lively, whose June Vogue cover sold 248,000 in comparison.

“You don’t become an icon going to jail or getting arrested,” says Janice Min, Editorial Director of The Hollywood Reporter. “As a magazine buyer you might be interested in Snooki, you might think it’s funny when Snooki screws up or you might think it’s funny that Lindsay Lohan is in jail, that would be your entertainment, but in terms of wanting to be like them, probably not so much,” Janice says.

“When you look at some of these women in their ‘40s and how much they’ve accomplished and managed to persevere through different personal trials and career ups and downs, that’s what women really like,” Janice says. They like to see someone succeed against the odds and yes they have a lot of money and they’re gorgeous, but there’s still a relatability to them.”

“We’re not defining Julia by her age, we’re defining her by all the reasons women want to read about her, because they find her inspiring,” says ELLE Editor-in-Chief Robbie Myers, who put Roberts on the cover.

No matter what the reason is, I for one, (who hasn’t seen my ‘20s in years), am loving this trend! I agree that some of these younger stars haven’t been around enough to be considered real style influences for anyone outside of their teenybopper group of fans.

Women in their ‘30s are the ones who typically buy fashion magazines and Janice predicts we will continue to see this trend of Over-40 cover women.

“I think a classic is a classic, that these women at the top of the pack will remain at the top of the pack I don’t see a lot of contenders coming up you know coming up through the ranks. Aside from Kristen Stewart with ‘Twilight,’ there haven’t been a ton of break out 20-something and 30-something stars in the last few years. And I think any of these actresses in their ‘20s right now would kill to know that in 20 years they would still be working, getting great roles in the way that Julia Roberts is and the way that Jennifer Aniston is.”

Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read More

Halle Berry Recalls How Her Perimenopause Symptom Got Misdiagnosed As 'The Worst Case Of Herpes'