Cristiana Oliveira responds to criticism about age: 'Life has not frozen'

"You know that sometimes I read comments saying: 'Wow, how she has aged. It must be so sad to remember when she was so beautiful'. I find it curious that we live in a society in which getting old, precisely the greatest privilege of those who are still alive, is treated almost like a failure," he said.

She said that she likes to take care of herself and preserve her self-esteem, but emphasized that this care does not represent an attempt to stop the passage of time. "I was lucky enough to live long enough to see my hair change, my face change, my eyes mature. Not everyone had this opportunity, unfortunately."

Cristiana continued to criticize ageism: "Of course, I like to take care of myself, I like to feel beautiful. I do everything I can to grow old with health, self-esteem and joy. But there is a huge difference between taking care of your appearance and trying to stop time from passing, and no one wins this battle", she declared.

Known for her characters on television, Cristiana Oliveira stated that part of the public's strangeness occurs because many still associate her image with the young woman who appeared in the soap operas.

"They kept in their memory the young woman from the soap operas, the characters that were recorded on television as if that image could remain intact forever. Television froze the character, and life did not. It [life] never froze the woman", he said.

The actress also questioned why famous women seem to face greater demands for aging publicly. "Why do we, actresses, seem to have to ask for permission to grow old? Why do so many people naturally accept that a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, any other woman matures, but are surprised when an actress does the same? Could it be that, deep down, we still confuse women with characters?", he asked.

Cristiana stated that she is happy with her age and that she does not want to recover from previous phases of life. "Today I am not a 25, 30, 40, 50 year old woman. I am a 62 year old woman and I don't even want to be any other age. Today I have a strength that that girl didn't yet have, a serenity that she didn't yet know and a story that only time could give me."

At the end of her outburst, the actress stated that the problem is not aging, but society's difficulty in valuing mature women.

"What really saddens me is not getting older. It's realizing that there is still so much difficulty in seeing beauty in maturity, especially when it belongs to a woman.

We already live in a world that demands youth all the time and perhaps it's time to start admiring those who had the courage and privilege to grow old. Because youth passes to everyone, but getting older continues to be a privilege that not everyone receives", he reinforced.

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