Justine Bateman Doesn’t Pay Attention to People Criticizing Her Decision to Age Naturally | “Don’t Give a S***”

Justine Bateman doesn't have time for people who are criticizing her appearance as she ages naturally. The 57-year-old filmmaker and author best known as Mallory Keaton from the ’80s sitcom Family Ties told 60 Minutes Australia per PEOPLE that she has heard people criticize her natural appearance. "I just don't give a s***. I think I look rad. I think my face represents who I am. I like it," she said.

While she has considered a few cosmetic procedures like botox and fillers in the past, the author of Fame: The Hijacking of Reality prefers her face the way it is. "I feel like I would erase, not only all my authority that I have now, but also, I like feeling that I am a different person now than I was when I was 20," she said, adding "I like looking in the mirror and seeing that evidence." In fact, she feels bad for people who are obsessed with trying to reverse the natural process of aging. "I feel sad for them, I feel sad that they are not just enjoying life. I feel sad that they are distracted from the things that they are meant to do in life … with this consuming idea that they've got to fix their face before anything else can happen," she added.

In her 40s when she googled herself she was surprised that she found the autocomplete: "looks old." Justine Bateman looks old, it read. The director-author-actress then looked at the photos presented as "evidence."

"I thought my face looked fine," told PEOPLE in 2021 before the release of her book Face: One Square Foot of Skin. "Because of some of the fears I had, unrelated to my face, I decided to make them right and me wrong... I became really ashamed of my face, ridiculously so." She said that while she was fine with her appearance the online criticism felt suddenly jarring. "I looked the same the day before, as I did the day after, and yet I felt totally different about my face...The only difference was that I had read the criticism."

But she soon realized what kind of relationship she was going to have with aging and that was to be natural about it. She also described plastic surgery as a tool for "people pleasing."

She continued, "You don't want people to criticize you anymore so you appease them. The more you do that, the further away you get away from your true self. It doesn't work for me. If somebody said to me now we could do some surgery, wouldn't I be signaling that I'm super insecure? To me, it would." She's also curious and looking forward to seeing what she looks like in the future. "I always knew I wanted to live a really free life," she said. "I want to live every day as free from insecurity as I can." Bateman added, "I want to find out what I'm going to look like."

References:

https://people.com/style/justine-bateman-on-why-she-will-not-get-plastic-surgery/

https://9now.nine.com.au/60-minutes/out-with-the-new-in-with-the-old-why-ageing-naturally-is-a-beautiful-thing/815fe40d-9a71-4c70-96e1-1f41034e86d0

https://people.com/health/justine-bateman-my-face-represents-who-i-am-i-like-it/

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | (L) Photo by Brad Barket (R) Photo by Jeremy Chan