I’ve still got eight more years until I’m old enough to join the AARP, but knowing I’m becoming a grandmother this year has already started to impact my view of myself and caused me to think about ways I can ease into that new role gracefully, but without losing my vibrancy or attractiveness as a woman.

Jamie Lee Curtis will turn 50 this year, and is featured in AARP magazine in anticipation of that milestone (which makes her eligible for membership):

Curtis says growing older means paring down to an essential version of yourself.

“I’ve let my hair go gray. I wear only black and white. Every year I buy three or four black dresses that I just keep in rotation. I own one pair of blue jeans. I’ve given away all my jewelry, because I don’t wear it,” she says. (CNN.com/Entertainment)

So, now I have something to think about: what are the elements that define the essential version of me? And can I embrace these without winding up feeling that “fewer essentials” means “less attractiveness”?