Brooke Shields saw double at the 2023 Women of the Year Awards when she was unexpectedly presented with a vintage Brooke Shields World’s Most Glamorous Teenager styling head. But first, the model, actor, and advocate graced the red carpet in a sequined backless gown that glittered in chevrons of jewel tones. She accessorized the shimmering puff-sleeve dress with a messy bun, hoop earrings, and a crystal-studded black clutch.
Brooke Shields Is in Her F*ck-It Era
Botox? She’d rather get wrinkles. Dieting? Life’s too short. Brooke Shields is done with chasing youth and doesn’t care what you think. She’s too busy remaking her future.
Shields was one of the honorees at this year’s ceremony and delivered an impassioned speech about the opportunities of middle age. She was introduced by two good friends: Mariska Hargitay, star of Law & Order: SVU, and Ali Wentworth, an author who coproduced Pretty Baby.
Just before the supermodel’s acceptance speech, the pair surprised her with an ’80s throwback: a vintage Brooke Shields World’s Most Glamorous Teenager styling head.
“My mother made them shave the body down,” Shields recalled, laughing. “Because they usually just put the head of the person on the body of the doll…. And they were putting my face on the Barbie doll, and my mother made them go back and remake the model, because I was flat-chested, and made them carve the boobs down. So I’m the only Barbie doll that has no boobs.”
Shields was clearly touched by the gesture, though, and accepted her award with tears in her eyes.
“It’s today that, finally, I feel sexier, I feel calmer, I feel wiser, I feel more beautifully vulnerable and more confident than I ever have,” Shields said. “Do I wish things were as high and perky as they used to be? Yes I do. But finally, I’ve really—it’s taken a while, but I’ve finally learned to like myself as I am. I’ve learned to value my individual worth. I’d never done that before. Nobody really ever taught me to or told me it was okay. My value just never seemed to go beyond looking a certain way, or of being a good girl. Truth is, I will never again be as young as I am right now. It has taken me a while and there’s been a lot of shit along the way, but slowly I began reclaiming all those pieces of me that I gave away over the years. And I’m gonna keep reclaiming them.”
“Hold tight to your female friends…,” the Woman of the Year concluded. “Just keep the good ones around you. Much of my growth is because of these brave women and other brave women in my life. And whenever I waver in support of myself, it’s these gals that hold up a mirror to me and force me to see myself the way they see me.”
