Embracing Your Age

What's the secret to feeling vibrant? Appreciating the stage of life you're in. We asked some of our favorite role models of various ages to share their insights and wisdom about finding that inner peace and confidence.

ALICIA YOON, 41

"I'm loving my life, I feel so young, so vibrant, and I just feel like it's my best decade yet," says beauty entrepreneur and CEO of Peach & Lily Alicia Yoon. But for her, this decade isn't the pinnacle it's one stop on an upward trajectory: "It's an awesome thing to be able to get older."

And that means focusing on health. "At every phase of our life," Alicia says, "we have to think, What are we doing to preserve our health-mental, physical, spiritual? It comes down to little daily choices to take care of ourselves. It's like clothing; if you f them, a good pair really take care of them, a good pair of jeans can hold up for decades." Alicia cites her mother and mother-in-law as role models in aging well. She says: "My 70-year-old mother-in-law is an inspiration to me. She doesn't do anything drastic no crash diets or boot camps. She's consistent-she leans into her fitness with swimming and running and is strong, flexible, and fit. She brings such physical energy to each day, and the quality of her life is really high.

"My own mom is in her 70s and hasn't felt the need to do Botox or fillers. Her goal is to preserve her natural skin health. She embraces the fact that her skin at its healthiest at 70 will look different from her skin at its healthiest when she was 20.

"I feel empowered when I make choices to preserve my own health. Youth is a mindset not a number. What's so great about my 40s is that I can still keep that mindset by being curious about the world and bringing a vitality to my everyday life."

MALLY RONCAL, 51