00:00I actually have all the control, which took me a while to get comfortable with, and even
00:05saying it.
00:06If you really think about how indicative that is of where we all are at this stage, I believe,
00:12as women, you know, I never had a say, right?
00:16I have grown into finding my own agency.
00:19That's what I teach my girls.
00:21Brooke Shields is no stranger to the scrutiny of the public eye.
00:26She has been in the spotlight for decades as an actor and model, famously as the face
00:30of controversial Calvin Klein ads in the 80s.
00:33Last year, she was featured in a documentary chronicling her sexualization at a young age.
00:38I'm amazed that I survived any of it.
00:41I spoke with Brooke at the Fortune Global Forum about what the recent election means
00:44for women, society's evolving beauty standards, and what advice she has for her Gen Z daughters
00:49and other young people.
00:51So Brooke, last year, you were the subject of a two-part Hulu documentary series, Pretty
00:55Baby, after the elections.
00:57How are you thinking about the role misogyny has played in politics, and what advice do
01:00you have for women going into the next few years?
01:03I think, listen, misogyny has been around forever.
01:07I think the importance is not trying to obliterate it, but really focus on how our response is.
01:16Where are we responding, and how are we responding as a community?
01:20You know, how are we being smarter?
01:23How are we responding in ways that will be good for our daughters, and in ways that don't
01:30have to come from a place of vitriol or anger, but from resolve and power?
01:36And I think that if we come together more as—even more as a community, that will help
01:43us, I believe, shift enough so that the narrative is something that we are owning.
01:49What advice are you telling your daughters about owning their womanhood going into this?
01:54It's a lot of conversation about everything, from their sexuality, to how they're spoken
01:59to, to how they also feel.
02:01They love talking about all of this.
02:03And I just try to maintain a certain level of integrity in how they talk about it, because
02:09I think there is anger, and I think there is this desire to be heard.
02:15And luckily now, the younger generations have a voice that is heard.
02:20I say, you know, be careful, because you don't want to just play by the same rules, and then
02:26it's angry, and there's vitriol, and there's no movement.
02:30So I say, be strong, be resolute in what you believe, but you don't have to lower your
02:38standards and succumb to a language that you don't want to be represented by.
02:46Earlier this year, you launched your hair care line, Commence.
02:49There's a lot of celebrity beauty brands out there these days.
02:53We have celebrity tequilas.
02:54We have celebrity skincare and beauty.
02:56What do you think separates Commence from all of the noise out there today?
02:59That was always our biggest, biggest discussion and dilemma.
03:06And I think that what I said was, this is not just another celebrity brand, but I am
03:12also a celebrity who has held up everybody's and their mother's bottle of something over
03:19the years, and it's given me an entire career and a life, right?
03:23So I can't be a hypocrite.
03:25But what I believe the approach that we have is that we began as a community.
03:31We are a community.
03:34The dialogue that informs everything we do comes from, through, and with the community.
03:41We maintain conversation with them.
03:43I do it personally.
03:45It's a full-time job.
03:46We don't want to grow so exponentially and so fast and thin ourselves out.
03:52We want to be absolutely focused.
03:55We want to maintain our mission, our vision.
03:59Then through that, if we go into product, which we never planned to, they will be very
04:05specifically formulated products that solve problems that women over 40 and in this community
04:12are experiencing.
04:13So that involves so many different steps, and you have to be able to start small, stay
04:21small, and grow, again, exponentially, but with our feet solidly on the ground at every
04:28stage.
04:29And we've had to pivot, and we don't want to lose the community in those pivots.
04:35And it's hard.
04:36We're very small.
04:37We're a startup.
04:39It's self-funded, and now we're going into a bridge around before a Series A.
04:45And we don't want to immediately become backed by the biggest ever because we don't want
04:50to lose the DNA or the community.
04:52I think one of the things I find most fascinating about you as a person is that for your whole
04:57life you've been the face of many different products, but without much input.
05:01Now you're finally getting to have a say in it.
05:03So how does that feel, and how much control do you have here?
05:07I actually have all the control, which took me a while to get comfortable with, and even
05:12saying it.
05:14I think that I've spent my life, but if you really think about how indicative that is
05:20of where we all are at this stage, I believe, as women, I never had a say, right?
05:28I have grown into finding my own agency.
05:31That's what I teach my girls.
05:33But having that voice, standing in my full self, as kumbaya as that sounds, that is what
05:42is happening within the brand.
05:44So when my formulator calls me and asks me a question, and I have very clear, specific,
05:49I don't have to look over my shoulder and say, can I say this?
05:53Or that feeling that we as women ask for permission.
05:57There is this, I don't have to ask for permission to anybody.
06:01I ask for advice, I ask for information, I ask for their expertise, and I surround myself
06:07with experts in their field.
06:11Therefore, I can have my opinion, and then I can get more educated.
06:15And they'll say, oh, well, why don't we do this first?
06:18Because there's this, and it'll be, whatever the answer is, whether it regards the company
06:24as a whole, or any specific product that we go into.
06:29How has the definition of beauty and beauty standards changed over your lifetime?
06:34Well, I think it keeps changing, but I think youth and obsession with youth, and turning
06:41back the clock, I don't think that's really ever changed.
06:45And that's what we're trying to address as well, that it's important to have that not
06:50just be the goal.
06:52It's important to feel really good about yourself.
06:54I think there's more emphasis today on individuality.
06:59Not just diversity, but individuality within our own beauty.
07:05And I don't know if you ever saw the Dove campaign, but I mean, I literally, it brings
07:10tears to my eyes, and I watch it at least once a month.
07:14The way we see ourselves versus the way others see us, I think that's starting to become
07:19a really important part of the conversation.
07:23Because we self-deprecate, we take down, we strip, we point out the one teeny flaw,
07:30and it becomes our whole person.
07:32And I think that is changing as well.
07:33So I think there's an individual perception of beauty that we've grown into.
07:38And it's more acceptable, and advertisers and brands and companies are having to follow
07:45suit.
07:46Now, pivoting a little bit, earlier this year, you became the president of the Actors' Equity
07:50Association with all you have going on.
07:53What was I thinking?
07:56Why did you want to do it, and what did you want to change?
07:58The theater community across the country, regional theaters, little theaters, and little
08:03play, like, they were the only community and industry that welcomed me with open arms,
08:12zero judgment, appreciation, and trust in my talent.
08:19And from that, and this was at a time when if you were a celebrity in any way, and you
08:25were recognizable, you weren't considered a thespian or an actor.
08:30And they didn't make fun of me, they didn't put me down, there was this just unbelievable
08:34community that I relied on.
08:36I relied on the stage managers, I relied on the ensemble, I relied on the understudies
08:41and those who know better than I did.
08:44And I've, after 30-something years of being not just on Broadway, in six shows, starring
08:51in them, but all over the country, touring as well as straight theater, straight plays,
08:58not just musicals, I thought, you know what, they're being so mistreated, and they're getting
09:05the raw end of so much, with regards to arts funding, with regards to tax parity, like,
09:13there's so much that when you look at it and you break it down, and these are my people,
09:18my friends, my family, that had my back, you know, and pulled me up when I needed it most.
09:24And there's such talent and there's such integrity in all of our members.
09:30And I felt my visibility was what they needed.
09:36So when you're saying, you know, as a celebrity, you can pick up these phones and have these
09:39conversations with people in D.C., what is the top thing that you want to push for to
09:44see change?
09:45Listen, it's always funding.
09:46You know, it's always arts funding.
09:48It's always, there are so many little things that in 2017 got kind of dissolved for a regional
09:55theater in Bucks County or in wherever, and you see these people who, this is what they
10:02want to do with their life, and they have other jobs.
10:05And when you look at the economic value, it's something like average $39 per person
10:11per show that gets put back into the community.
10:13But you have to have these conversations on the Hill within terms of economics, because
10:20nobody's interested in the touchy-feely part of how the arts bring us together or how,
10:26you know, I can tell you when I was Miss USO and I was performing on aircraft carriers
10:30in Beirut, what that did to morale and the joy and the reprieve for a moment that these
10:37young people were so thankful for.
10:40Yes, I can do that, but that's one little conversation.
10:44We're talking about the economic importance of arts funding.
10:50So it's not just, oh, so we're paying for entertainment, is that it, or to follow a
10:54dream?
10:55No, it's about jobs, it's about the economics, and it's about joy and community and bringing
11:00people together.
11:02And that's what we need as a people and as a country.
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