Brooke Shields Talks Body Image at 43

(April 20) - Brooke Shields, 43-year-old woman and 43-year veteran of show business, has remained in the public eye since modeling for Ivory Snow as a baby. In the May issue of More magazine, Shields describes growing up in the spotlight with an alcoholic mother and a prematurely sexy public image.

On her relationship with her mom: "I always felt loved, but it?s never enough. You're like a hamster on a wheel."

"She came from Newark, New Jersey, from the opposite side of the tracks. My dad came from the upper-crusty side of the tracks. The tracks weren?t even in his neighborhood. And my mother was always adamant about being perceived as having class, not having been born into it. It plagued her, and I think she didn?t want me to know the insecurity of being rejected. She didn?t want me to grow up as the daughter of someone from Newark. The flip side, though, is that she would constantly throw it out at me. She wanted me to not forget where I came from, and how she was a streetfighter."

On being "kept so naive" about her sexy image: "My mom was probably so afraid it would change me. My brain was doing one thing, my body another, and I really became paralyzed by it. It was awkward, sexually, because I felt cut off from the neck down."

On improving her outlook through pregnancy: "It was life, and my body had this purpose so far beyond just being there to look at, or tan or shave. Suddenly I realized how good it had been to me over the years, and what it had sustained. And I was in my thirties at the time."

On being 43 in show business: "I'm proud of my longevity more than anything else. There's a lot to be said for endurance. I'm trying to find the beauty in the whole picture rather than the crow's feet. Sure, I wish I had the face I had a decade ago, but I don't. People say, 'I love my wrinkles.' I don't love my wrinkles ? come on! But when you see certain women that we knew when we were younger, like Angelica Huston and Isabella Rossellini, and they've grown older in the public eye, what you're responding to is their whole life imprinted on them."

"For years, I've been the youngest person on the set, and it occurred to me recently that I wasn't 26! I'd read a script and say, 'Oh, that's a great character, that's something I'd love to do.' And they'd say, '?Um, no, we're thinking of you for the mother.' And then I'd say, ?Oh, of course! Of course! I knew that.'"