Youth is a lucrative business.  Our appearance obsessed culture drives this industry fed by media with glorified images of youth.  Women are led to believe that beautiful equals smooth skin sans wrinkles, tanned skin, a thin body, and perfect features.  We spend endless energy and countless dollars on products that attempt to harness a youthful look and prevent the aging process.  From Botox and plastic surgery, to anti-wrinkle creams and lotions, nothing is too expensive, and no effort too great.

And it’s not just middle-aged women that are afraid to grow older.  Younger generations of women and girls are also influenced by the media’s implication that youth is more beautiful. I distinctly remember my friend, at the age of 18, telling me of her plan to retreat to an island when she turned 30 for an extended vacation, during which she’d have a face lift, liposuction, and any other plastic surgery that she felt was necessary.  At 18!  This was a beautiful young girl, already afraid of aging.

The television network, TLC, has a new primetime show that feeds into our fears of growing old.  The show, “10 Years Younger,” features guests that feel older than they really are.  Complete strangers critique the women and guess their age.   Next, a “glam squad,” consisting of a fashion artist, makeup artist, and hairdresser, are given ten days to take a decade off the woman’s looks.  So essentially, these women are publicly berated for “letting themselves go,” and then “rescued” from the perils of aging, all by a complete group of strangers.  It’s no surprise that my friend, the one planning on plastic surgery at the age of 30, was a huge fan of TLC.

I find our obsession with youth as the only symbol of beauty to be particularly sad.  Why must we fight a natural process that should be celebrated, or at the very least embraced?  Is it really advantageous to appear younger than we are?  Are wrinkles really so terrible? Is it necessary to inject a form of pig botulism, otherwise known as Botox, into our face in an effort to paralyze facial muscles that create expression?  Why exactly are we so terrified of the aging process?  These are important questions to ask ourselves.

I believe that wrinkles show character, the kind that comes with age and experience.  And I would much prefer the value that comes with appearing to be my own age, 31, instead of the misconception that I’m in my early twenties.  I certainly don’t want men to treat me as though I’m younger, nor would I want to appear younger for a job interview, for example.

There’s no denying that youth is beautiful.  However, it’s not the only acceptable form of beauty.  Maybe if popular media stopped ripping apart women for every little wrinkle or other sign of aging, we’d begin to feel better about growing older.  Men can become distinguished with age, so why can’t women?  I’m over 30, and still young in most respects, or at least in my own mind.  But I’m not immune to the fear of growing old.  However, for now, I can say that my life hasn’t ended.  And I certainly haven’t taken a plastic surgery vacation, nor do I plan to anytime soon.