Stripes Magnificence Founder and Chief Inventive Officer Naomi Watts talking on the CNBC Changemakers Summit in New York Metropolis on April 16, 2026.
CNBC
Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts has continued to have fame on the display screen into her 50s, however she is constructing extra of her life story round navigating deeply private and sometimes unstated well being and getting older points.
She has change into more and more open about matters many public figures, and Hollywood actresses specifically, keep away from, utilizing her platform to normalize conversations relating to fertility, getting older, and bodily adjustments, with the objective of serving to girls really feel assured of their physique regardless of their age.
“I’m making an attempt to place ahead the messaging that we might be okay with how we glance,” Watts instructed CNBC’s Julia Boorstin on the CNBC Changemakers Summit in New York Metropolis on Thursday. “It is okay to be 57 and look 57.”
Watts launched Stripes Magnificence in 2022, an organization centered on serving to girls navigate the challenges related to perimenopause and menopause, whereas aiming to deal with all the pieces from pores and skin to hair adjustments to total wellness.
Menopause was thought-about very taboo to speak about in lots of cultures primarily due to the age-fertility hyperlink and generational gatekeeping. In lots of societies a lady’s “worth” was tied to her youth and talent to bear youngsters. Speaking about menopause meant admitting these levels have been over. Many ladies in numerous generations have been taught to silence it and examine it as a personal burden and never share it.
On the Changemakers Summit, Watts stated looked for causes to assist clarify why nobody talked about it, and even used an nameless Instagram to seek for clues. “Why is not there any info? Why is it so laborious? Why is it so taboo after we are half the inhabitants?” she stated. “It’s simply biology.”
Founder and chief artistic officer at Stripes Magnificence, Watts was featured on the 2025 CNBC Changemakers record.
Menopause usually happens round ages 45 to 55 and will get recognized after a lady doesn’t get her interval for 12 months. In accordance with info from Midi Well being, whose CEO Joanna Strober was additionally named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers record, 6,000 girls hit menopause day-after-day within the U.S., which equates to 1.3 million girls yearly, whereas 4 in 5 midlife girls expertise signs of menopause, corresponding to scorching flashes.
Watts skilled early menopause in her mid-30s. She confronted the frequent signs like evening flashes and scorching flashes. Watts has stated prior to now that she felt as if “I did not have management over my very own physique.”
Stripes Magnificence has expanded into main retailers like Ulta Magnificence and Sephora, with the as soon as area of interest, uncomfortable class now changing into a mainstream a part of girls’s client well being and wonder. The corporate was acquired in a deal between Watts and personal funding agency L Catterton, which is backed by Louis Vuitton dad or mum firm LVMH, in 2024. It launched “Nationwide Sizzling Flash Day,” celebrated Sept. 9, to bolster the message that the menopause journey is a very pure and shared expertise.
Watts says girls ought to make “a wager on themselves” it doesn’t matter what society is telling, or not telling, them.
“After 50, I’ve felt so significantly better about figuring out who I’m, a lot extra comfy in my pores and skin,” she stated. “Keep related to girls. Girls are all the pieces. I’m nothing with out the group of girls I’ve round me.”
Watts stated prior to now, when folks got here as much as her in public, she typically apprehensive that requests to take selfies would observe, and he or she could not assist however take into consideration being pictured with out make-up on. However she says her menopause advocacy in recent times has modified many of those public interactions. “They’re coming as much as me with tears of their eyes generally, or simply desirous to say thanks for giving me the permission, or the dialogue, so I may converse with my husband or companion or relations and never have disgrace about it. … that provides me nice pleasure. It is so heartening to know the chance I took had a significant impact on others.”
