'Mar-a-Lago face'? I'd prefer to Make Aging Normal Again. | Opinion

Aging is hard. I get it. 

When you’re young, it’s almost impossible to imagine that what you see happening to your parents and grandparents will one day happen to you, too.

Now that I am closer to 50 than 40, when I look in the mirror, I sometimes wonder who is staring back at me. 

Where’d the time go? On my face, apparently. 

With Botox and fillers everywhere (not to mention plastic surgery) – and celebrities and politicians clearly taking part – I am sympathetic to the impulse to join in. Those pesky lines around your eyes and on your forehead? They can disappear! 

Yet, so far, I have resisted getting anything like that done. And I think there’s a good case to Make Aging Normal Again. 

The Trump administration and the 'Mar-a-Lago face'

Given the legacy media’s contempt for everything President Donald Trump touches, I initially rolled my eyes when I saw headlines about “Mar-a-Lago face,” a certain aesthetic adopted by numerous people in his orbit.

A dermatologist explained the look to USA TODAY as one “characterized by full lips, high, prominent cheekbones, bright white teeth, a strong jaw line and minimal facial movement with well-defined eyebrows.” 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is often highlighted as the poster child for the look. Some plastic surgeons are reportedly getting requests for a similar makeover. 

Now, it’s extremely disingenuous to pretend that this look is something only the MAGA faithful aspire to. Hollywood leftists are changing their appearances constantly. More on that in a bit. And I have no doubt that Democrats hit up the Botox just as much as Republicans. 

While the media scrutiny on Trump's affiliates is very one-sided, I couldn’t help but agree with some of the criticism. 

Take Noem, for instance. At 54, she is still a very attractive woman. But she’s clearly had a lot of work done to change her appearance. 

I think she looked prettier as governor of South Dakota, before she morphed into border-control Barbie. 

Outside of the White House, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' new wife, Lauren Sánchez, 56, has undergone an even more startling transformation. Unfortunately, there are some things money can't buy.

Celebrities like Claire Danes and Kate Winslet embrace aging

Back to Hollywood. 

We’re so used to seeing our favorite actors and actresses with work done that it’s become “shocking” to see real, aging faces. 

The internet got talking last fall about Claire Danes and her excellent performance in Netflix’s “The Beast In Me.” 

A lot of the conversation, however, wasn’t focused on her acting ability. 

It was on her face. 

Danes, who, like me, is 46, has an extremely expressive face and the lines that come along with four-plus decades on this earth. 

That appalled some viewers, apparently.

To Danes’ credit, she’s embraced aging the old-fashioned way. The same is true for Kate Winslet, who at 50 has spoken out about the pressures women in Hollywood have faced to keep up appearances and turn back the clock. 

“Looking like a normal person, having a face that moves, having all the wrinkles that my 50 years hopefully show … that matters a great deal because I want to lead by example,” Winslet recently told Evie Magazine. “I want young women to look at my body, my face and go, ‘Oh, that’s a normal one.’ ”

Now, both Danes and Winslet are beautiful women. They’re movie stars. And I’m sure they work hard to keep themselves fit and have a strict skin-care routine.

I try, too. But as deflating as the lines on my face can be, they also are a map of my life – my joys and sorrows. I worked hard for them. 

Aging is normal, and no one can defy time. Let’s stop pretending we can.

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques