Dear Christina Applegate, thank you for your face in 'Dead To Me'.

I, like pretty much everyone in my WhatsApp groups, spent the weekend binge-watching Dead To Me.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s the new Netflix show starring Christina Applegate. She plays a woman named Jen whose husband was killed in a hit-and-run. Don’t let the morbid theme put you off – it’s highly entertaining and Christina is equal parts funny and relatable.

Watch the trailer for Dead to Me. Post continues after video. 

Her character, Jen, is relatable in that her form of meditation to come with grief is listening to death metal music in the car and screaming at the top of her lungs. Relatable, in that Jen’s hair sometimes looks like she’s tried to go that one extra day before washing.

But the thing I noticed most while watching was that Christina herself is the most relatable… in that she looks 47.

She looks her actual age.

She’s a stunning women in her late 40s who has glowing skin, with laugh lines around her eyes. She has a visible scar above her left eye and a few creases around her mouth.

My first memories of Christina on my telly are from my dad watching Married With Children in the late 80s and early 90s when she was in her early 20s.

 

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A post shared by Phil Scherzer (@d21enterprises) on Apr 24, 2019 at 5:20am PDT

As a grown up, I’ve enjoyed her quirky humour in Friends (she played on of Jennifer Aniston’s sisters), in Anchorman (find me a person who doesn’t love that movie) and Hall Pass.

My point is, she’s been part of Hollywood in one form or another for close to 30 years. She’s been in the spotlight all of her adult life. And with that comes access to (and presumably pressure to take part in) wrinkle-erasing injections and scar-smoothing fillers and expensive creams and even more expensive treatments.

But she hasn’t.

Or at least if she has, she's done so so subtlety that she's retained all the hallmarks of a beautiful women who is nearing 50. She hasn't wiped away every line or filled in every flaw. And trust me, in Hollywood she definitely has access to professionals that can do all that in one appointment.

So, Christina (because I am sure you are reading this), thank you. For being a successful woman in your career and in life. For being a kick-arse person not only in what you do beyond making us laugh (she's a huge philanthropist, in case you didn't know), but also in how you choose to look.

It's likely unintentional, but by Christina looking after herself while still looking like herself has the ability to give other women the permission to look their damn age and feel good about it, which in 2019 actually means a lot.

Madness, I know.

Watching Dead To Me, it occurred to me that it's less common to see a 47-year-old woman look her age on screen than it is to see a 30-year-old play a character in that age bracket. And that realisation, I have to admit, made me question my own approach to beauty as I age.

I host a beauty podcast on which I have discussed, many times, my use of and love for anti-wrinkle injections and the like. I haven't had any 'stuff in my face' over the past few years due to trying to conceive and finally falling pregnant.

Thanks to Christina, I'm thinking maybe I won't rush back to having all the procedures I used to have pre-baby. I mean, maybe I will, but just being prompted to think about it makes me feel less pressured and more empowered around my choices.

So, Christina, thank you.