Jennifer Love Hewitt Went Makeup-Free in Vulnerable 46th Birthday Post

Jennifer Love Hewitt is the latest celebrity pushing back on societal pressure around aging by publicly ditching her makeup. In a raw post shared on February 21, the I Know What You Did Last Summer alum gave fans a look at her natural beauty as she reflected on how “cruel” the world can be towards women who are aging. Along with several makeup-free selfies, Hewitt opened up about her inner turmoil as she welcomed her 46th birthday, as well as the “strange calm and letting go” she’s experienced with getting older.

“46 years old. No make up and no filter,” she captioned her Instagram carousel, which showed the Ghost Whisperer star barefaced and wearing a light gray sweatshirt as she took a series of selfies. Hewitt’s highlighted brown hair, which she wore in soft, side-parted waves, partly obscured her face as she flashed a subtle nose piercing and a gold horseshoe pendant necklace, and in the last photo, Hewitt playfully stuck her tongue out at the camera.

The Can’t Hardly Wait actress then launched into a vulnerable message about struggling to accept getting older and feeling “lost” while also trying to find peace with aging. “It’s been a hard start to the year,” she admitted. “I don’t quite feel myself. But yet I feel like maybe this is all to bring me closer to who I am meant to be. In this feeling of loss and being lost I have found a strange calm and letting go that doesn’t usually come easy to me.”

That being said, Hewitt shared that she was at a place in her life where she felt truly grateful for everything she had and the supportive community of friends and family around her.

“I know that I have the greatest kids and husband ever,” she continued. “My brother’s hugs heal me. I feel my mom with me everyday. My friends make me want to be a better human daily. I have all the things I really need and long truly for nothing other than joyful moments, continuing in the career I love, more time with friends, delicious food and to feel a shift to this year that brings clarity and hopefully the return of a little magic.”

Hewitt said she’d “experienced and seen how the world can be cruel to women as they age,” but in reality, the women she knew and admired appeared to “become happier, sexier, and more powerful with every added number.”

“I am so deeply grateful for this life,” she concluded. “I love all who choose to do it by my side and I am ready to give love today to the younger me and the older me because they are my ride or die’s. Sending love to all and cheers to 46! ❤️”

The former Disney star has previously talked about her struggles with sexualized commentary about her body when she was in her teens. During a January 28 episode of Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown podcast, the 9-1-1 star talked about the “gross” comments and jokes she would get from older men when was underage.

“There were grown men talking to me at 16 about my breasts openly on a talk show, and people were laughing about it. It was a culture that was fully accepted, but when you sit, and you look at where we are now versus then, it is really mind-blowing,” she told Bialik, admitting that she “always wore big clothes” to cover up her physique.

When her movie I Know What You Did Last Summer came out, Hewitt said it was “heartbreaking” that her body, not her acting, became the primary topic of conversation

“I had worked so hard trying to be good in a horror movie, and I really wanted people to walk away from the movie going, ‘That’s a really good actress,’” she explained. “And instead, every headline—and I’m not even joking—for 10 or 12 years after that … it was always about my breasts, always first. … That was heartbreaking for me.”