If you had\/have a career while raising and enjoying your family, you will understand.<\/p>\n
That recognition doesn\u2019t usually happen when you\u2019re young. It comes later\u2014after you\u2019ve built a career, raised children, made compromises, taken risks, second-guessed yourself, and lived long enough to understand that success is rarely a straight line.<\/p>\n
Because her story isn\u2019t really about makeup or money or even entrepreneurship. It\u2019s about learning\u2014again and again\u2014to trust your instincts, even when the world suggests you should do otherwise.<\/p>\n Even the cover of Still Bobbi<\/em> echoes that idea\u2014Brown appears relaxed and knowing, wearing a sweater that reads \u201cIt Was All a Dream,\u201d as if to acknowledge that the path only makes sense in hindsight.<\/p>\n Some of us are lucky to have found and followed our passion throughout our lives. For some, it may still be on the horizon, waiting to be captured.<\/p>\n Brown describes finding hers at a pivotal moment in college when she was unsure she even belonged there. Her mother asked her a simple question: If today were your birthday and you could do one thing, what would it be?<\/em> Brown\u2019s answer came easily: go to Marshall Field\u2019s department store and play with makeup.<\/p>\n Her mother\u2019s reply? Then you should become a makeup artist.<\/em><\/p>\n That answer told her everything.<\/p>\n I smiled when I read that\u2014not because my path mirrored hers, but because I remember my own version of that moment. Perhaps you had one too.<\/p>\n For me, it was a professor who said, almost casually, \u201cYou\u2019re a good writer.\u201d Nothing dramatic. No long speech. Just a sentence that landed at exactly the right time. It hit the 21-year-old-me: That\u2019s what I want to be! A writer! Shortly after, I even had business cards printed. Name. Title: Writer.<\/p>\n Sometimes, that\u2019s how belief begins\u2014not with certainty, but with permission. And for me, decades later\u2014that clarity eventually led me to becoming a publisher.<\/p>\n Reading those chapters, I recognized something else familiar. I loved my work, too. Writing led to television production, and eventually to starting my own company\u2014at the same time I was raising infants. There was no sense that one had to replace the other. The work energized me. Motherhood grounded me. Together, they formed a life that felt whole.<\/p>\n Brown arrived in New York City in 1980 with talent, determination, and no safety net. She scoured want ads, took freelance jobs, and lived in Greenwich Village\u2014on West Fourth Street\u2014trying to make a living doing what she loved. She describes herself as \u201ca short Jewish girl in a world of tall Barbies,\u201d which made me laugh because it captures something so many women feel when they enter industries that seem to reward a very specific mold.<\/p>\n I was living in the Village around the same time\u2014on Jane and King Streets\u2014also chasing work, also convinced that if I kept showing up, something would eventually click. Those early years are easy to romanticize in hindsight, but at the time they\u2019re fueled mostly by stubbornness and faith.<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s faith was rooted in a clear idea: makeup should enhance, not disguise. It was an unfashionable notion in an era of bold colors and heavy looks. But she trusted it anyway.<\/p>\n Bobbi Brown on Forbes billboard and proud husband, and best friend, Steven Plofker. Photo courtesy of Bobbi Brown\u2019s Personal Archive.<\/p><\/div>\n Brown\u2019s instincts didn\u2019t just guide her career. They shaped her personal life, too. When she met Steven Plofker, she knew quickly that something important was unfolding. They were engaged within three months and married soon after.<\/p>\n That detail caught my attention\u2014not because it\u2019s unusual, but because it felt so familiar. I met my husband and followed almost the same timeline: engaged after three months, married within nine. When you know, you know. That kind of clarity tends to come not from impulsiveness, but from self-awareness\u2014understanding what you want, what you value, and what feels right.<\/p>\n Brown writes about Steven as a steady, grounding presence\u2014someone who shared her values and supported her ambitions. Thirty-seven years later, they\u2019re still side by side. In a world that often treats long partnerships as either fairy tales or afterthoughts, hers is a reminder that choosing well can be one of the most consequential decisions we make.<\/p>\n When Brown launched her line of ten natural-shade lipsticks in 1991, she expected modest sales. Instead, the response was immediate. The brand debuted at Bergdorf Goodman and quickly reshaped how women thought about makeup.<\/p>\n A few years later, Est\u00e9e Lauder acquired Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, including the use of her name. Brown was paid for the sale, signed a long-term non-compete agreement, and remained actively involved in shaping the brand for years afterward. This wasn\u2019t a clean exit. It was a long, complicated middle\u2014one many founders experience when their creation, and even their name, grows beyond them.<\/p>\n Over time, creative and cultural differences emerged. Some questioned her decision to live in New Jersey rather than Manhattan. Some didn\u2019t love that she was a \u201csoccer mom.\u201d Her response\u2014I am one\u2014felt deeply familiar to me.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve spent much of my career balancing ambition with family, deadlines with dinners, production schedules with real life. Like Brown, I learned early that \u201chaving it all\u201d usually means doing it all\u2014often at the same time, and often without applause.<\/p>\n Eventually, Brown was asked to step away from day-to-day involvement with the brand that bore her name. It wasn\u2019t a firing in the sensational sense, but it was an ending\u2014and endings matter. Especially when they arrive later in life, when you\u2019re told, subtly or not, that perhaps it\u2019s time to step aside.<\/p>\n Bobbi in home office. Photo courtesy of: Bobbi Brown\u2019s Personal Archive.<\/p><\/div>\n One of the most telling decisions Brown made had nothing to do with cosmetics. When she and Steven chose to leave Manhattan for Montclair, New Jersey, it surprised people.<\/p>\n \u201cI chose normalcy over fabulosity,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n That line resonated deeply. So many of us reach moments where we\u2019re expected to choose visibility over sanity, prestige over peace. Brown chose a life that could hold both work and family without constant negotiation.<\/p>\n By her early 30s, she was juggling motherhood and a rapidly growing business. She turned down magazine shoots to make it home for dinner. She brought babies to work when necessary. That detail mattered to me. I did the same\u2014bringing my first baby to editing rooms more than once\u2014because sometimes the only way forward is to make space for the whole of your life, not just the polished parts.<\/p>\n By her late 50s, Brown found herself in a position many people assume is the finish line: financial security, grown children, time. She could have retired comfortably.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t want to.<\/p>\n Her explanation is simple and profound: creative work isn\u2019t something she does\u2014it\u2019s who she is. Without it, she felt unmoored.<\/p>\n That idea hits close to home. I\u2019ve never believed that purpose expires at a certain age. If anything, it sharpens. We become less interested in proving ourselves and more interested in doing what feels meaningful.<\/p>\n Brown traces this instinct back to her grandfather, Papa Sam, who was pushed into retirement in his 80s and promptly grew depressed\u2014until he returned to work. That story feels like a cautionary tale for our time, when experience is often undervalued and \u201cslowing down\u201d is treated as a requirement rather than a choice.<\/p>\n When Brown\u2019s non-compete agreement finally expired, she didn\u2019t look backward. She built something new. In 2020, she launched Jones Road, a clean beauty line designed for real skin, real lives, and women who no longer want to be \u201cfixed.\u201d<\/p>\n The brand succeeded quickly, but that\u2019s not the point. What matters is that Jones Road feels like an extension of who Brown is now\u2014confident, direct, uninterested in chasing trends.<\/p>\n Around the same time, she expanded into wellness, editorial work, and hospitality, including a boutique hotel in Montclair.<\/p>\n In 2025, Brown launched I Am Me<\/em>,<\/a> a YouTube interview series focused on beauty and aging through a healthier, more honest lens. The interviews are very much like what we like to cover through our\u00a0 Healthy Aging\u00ae\u00a0platform … “Each episode sparks a dialogue that inspires us to live boldly and bravely.”<\/p>\n Coincidentally, one of her guests was Brooke Shields, herself a recent Healthy Aging\u00ae cover subject.<\/a> Both women have lived publicly, evolved visibly, and refused to apologize for aging in place rather than disappearing.<\/p>\n Brown has spent her career pushing back against narrow definitions of beauty. Now, she\u2019s doing the same with aging\u2014framing it not as loss, but as alignment.<\/p>\n Seen again through that lens, the book\u2019s cover feels less like styling and more like perspective. Brown\u2019s relaxed pose\u2014one hand lifted in a subtle \u201cwho knew?\u201d\u2014paired with the words \u201cIt Was All a Dream,\u201d captures the spirit of a life built by following instincts rather than a master plan. It\u2019s knowing, self-aware, and quietly confident\u2014much like the story she tells inside.<\/p>\n What struck me most about Still Bobbi<\/em> wasn\u2019t the scale of Brown\u2019s success, but her consistency. She didn\u2019t chase reinvention for its own sake. She didn\u2019t cling to versions of herself that no longer fit. She adjusted, recalibrated, and kept going.<\/p>\n Aging, in her story, isn\u2019t about becoming someone new. It\u2019s about becoming more fully who you already are.<\/p>\n For those of us who have built careers, chosen partners, raised families, and made our share of hard decisions, that message lands with quiet force. Stay curious. Stay engaged. Stay honest\u2014with yourself first.<\/p>\n Sometimes, that\u2019s not just enough. It\u2019s the whole point.<\/p>\n In that way, Still Bobbi<\/em> feels less like a memoir and more like a conversation\u2014one you\u2019ll recognize if you\u2019ve lived long enough to make hard choices, trust your instincts, and keep going. It\u2019s thoughtful, engaging, and deeply relatable, and well worth spending time with.<\/p>\n For women balancing work, family, and personal purpose<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[211,212],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2026","category-winter-2026-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16965"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17119,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16965\/revisions\/17119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Still-Bobbi-Cover-650.jpg\")
<\/a>Reading Bobbi Brown: Still Bobbi<\/a>,<\/em> the new memoir by Bobbi Brown, a professional make-up artist, founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and now Jones Road, I wasn\u2019t so much impressed by her achievements as by how familiar her choices seemed to me and probably would be to other women.<\/p>\nFinding Our Passion: When Someone Names What You Already Know<\/h3>\n
New York Years: The Scramble and the Belief<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Love, Timing, and Knowing When You Know<\/h3>\n
Success\u2014and the Compromises That Come With It<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Choosing a Life That Fits<\/h3>\n
The Question of Retirement<\/h3>\n
Starting Again\u2014Because You Want To<\/h3>\n
Redefining Beauty as We Age<\/h3>\n
Why This Story Matters<\/h3>\n
Quotes excerpted from STILL BOBBI<\/a>.<\/em> Copyright @ 2025 by Bobbi Brown. Reproduced by permission of Marysue Rucci Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"