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Happiness

Formerly Hot, Finally Content

Who cares if it’s been ages since you were carded—much less hit on!—at a bar. Gaining a few years has its own benefits.

By Stephanie Dolgoff
From the August 2010 Issue

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There were signs that something momentous was taking place, but initially, I failed to see the pattern. First, beginning a few years ago, salespeople in trendy boutiques no longer bothered with me. Evidently, they saw me as someone who wouldn’t—or shouldn’t—buy their skinny jeans or strappy camis that are ideally worn braless. Then I began to require makeup, especially a tinted moisturizer, to get that lovely no-makeup glow. And finally one morning, as I rocked out to the Blondie song “One Way or Another,” I realized it was the soundtrack of a Swiffer commercial blaring from the TV. This anthem from my high school days was now being used to market cleaning supplies! Even worse, I owned a Swiffer and felt strongly enough about it to have recommended it to friends.

I began to feel vaguely uneasy, but the reason hadn’t yet gelled. My life had unfolded more or less as I’d hoped it would: I’d enjoyed my lunatic 20s, then calmed down in my 30s and gotten married. My husband and I had twin little girls; now, at 40, I had a good job and great friends, and we were healthy, solvent and, most of all, happy. And yet I didn’t feel like me. READ THE WHOLE EXCERPT AT SELF.COM