The world of beauty and the proclivities of young girls can go hand in hand — or toe to toe. The relationship is just that fraught. At one end of the tightrope, makeup is fun and empowering! And at the other end, true beauty comes from within. It’s a tension of opposites that young women and their mothers have long had to navigate.
“[Yesterday Harper said,] ‘I’ve got a gap in my teeth, Mommy. And I’ve got that little mole right here.’ I’m like, ‘That’s your lucky gap.’ And Cindy Crawford is a family friend, so I said, ‘Cindy was told to remove her mole, and that mole is what makes Cindy Cindy Crawford.’”
A few years ago, Beckham publicly acknowledged having her breast implants removed. I ask whether Harper knows about that. “If I’m honest, I wish I’d never [gotten implants]. It was a moment in time, and I think I can share my experiences with her,” she says, pausing. “But we’re not there just yet.”
It’s evening now. In a different universe, we’re just two women of the same age, with daughters roughly the same age, reflecting on life. What has she found on the doorstep of 50?
“It is what it is,” she says, and I hear the slow, familiar creak of a door closing in my face.
“I feel very accomplished, personally, professionally,” Beckham continues. “This is the start of a new chapter. I’ve spent years creating the foundation. Now I can start building the house.”
Sticking with this metaphor, I pry open the door.
“Is aging hard? Or do you ever look in the mirror and think, Damn, I look great?”
“I’ve never done that. I didn’t do it when I was 20. I didn’t do it when I was 30. I didn’t do it at 40.” Slam.
And then the Burgundy makes me say, “I don’t believe you.”
She raises her eyebrows at me.
Oh, yes. We’re doing this. “You have never looked in the mirror and thought that you look great?”
“I look back at pictures from when I was in the Spice Girls and think, Didn’t like your makeup there, didn’t like your outfit there. As women, I think a lot of us do that. I never thought I looked terrible. But I don’t look back and go, ‘Oh, God, I wish I was that again.’ It’s not as if I’m getting older and I’m like, ‘Oh, Christ!’” she says, rolling her eyes in mock agony. “[The aging process] has always been more than that.”
