At the Fortune Global Forum, Brooke Shields discussed the 2024 election's impact on women, Donald Trump's influence on women's rights, and evolving beauty standards with Fortune Magazine's Editorial Director Kristin Stoller. The veteran actress, known for confronting her early sexualization, shared insights and advice for her Gen Z daughters.
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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.