Dear LPG,

I think that, at the age of 72, I have earned the right to introduce myself as a lady of a certain age. 

I count myself as lucky because when I was a young woman I did not notice the older women around me highlighting trying to stay looking young as a priority.  Over the years all these anti-ageing creams and preparations have been developed and they are the subject of a frightening proportion of the adverts that appear between the programs we love to watch in the evenings.  I, like so many young girls of the 1960s,   regarded being an older person as someone I would never be, but I have no doubt that the female proportion of the readers of this post felt exactly the same regardless of which decade their formative years occurred in.

I know that each generation lives longer these days and I believe that this is why today’s young people start to worry about what they can do to stay looking younger when they see their first wrinkle or grey hair, and those advertisements, rightly or wrongly, would have us believe that the creams and other preparations can help.  The big question has to be, is that help going to be short term and what will be the long-term implications?

I have to say that I fear for the young people who use them because they don’t really know how years of doing so will eventually affect their looks. 

People may ask the question, “What has this issue really got to do with me?”  Why should I worry about this having already mentioned that I have learned to be happy in my own skin?

The answer is that I have daughters, granddaughters and sons who are already cashing in on this industry because of the claims that are advertised and, even though I am highly unlikely to see, I worry that the younger members of my family (ladies and men) will look older when they arrive at my age because of the use of all these cosmetics.

I remember finding the thought of being older an issue that never crossed my mind before I was in my 40s, so I think that perhaps it is important for us older people to pass on what we feel on the subject to the youngsters now.  We need to remind them that they need to be happy in their own skins and not spoil them for the future.  I still enjoy applying my make up and make a point of not leaving home without it, but I am working with the skin I was born with and not an anti-aged version of it. 

So it is my conjecture that  we need to remind the young ones that, while it is good to look good at all stages of your life,  a healthy personality is much more important than an overly young look.

JH, Lee

LPG would like to add that the picture we have added to this post is not that of JH.  LPG hopes that the information we have found shows some aspects of just how young the young are when they start to join the culture of those trying to prepare to stay young when they are old.  

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