Amanda Seyfried has a new interview with The Cut where she’s promoting a Givenchy fragrance she represents. She talks a lot about what different scents mean to her, and I’m not going to excerpt any of that because I hate perfume. I’m sensitive to perfume, too much of it in a closed room can make me unable to stay there, and I think that it should be heavily regulated, but that’s a different story. Seyfried, 31, is pregnant with her first child and I get the sense that she’s in a really good place in her life because she’s been particularly open in recent interviews. There’s a kind of strength required in being vulnerable, if that doesn’t sound like too much of a contradiction. Anyway Seyfried talks about being open about her OCD, about Botox and the kind of sameness that takes over when women use it, and about her beauty routine. I like reading her interviews because you get the sense she’s sharing something personal and there very little that’s calculated about it. Here are highlights and you can read the entire interview here.

What do you think of when you think of the word anti-aging?
I just picture a vial of oil. I think of all the avenues people take to look younger, to look like they haven’t aged, not look their age, and to prevent fine lines and wrinkles and sagging skin. It seems like such an ugly thing and I don’t think it’s necessarily an ugly thing. Some of the most beautiful women have lines around their eyes.

There are extreme ways of anti-aging. Face-lifts and Botox are very different, one’s more extreme. I’m 30, going to be 31 in a couple of days, and I don’t want to knock that stuff — to each their own. But I also feel like there’s a look. When you start doing that, you start looking the same as everyone else. Because unfortunately, you’re conforming to something and your face doesn’t move. Everybody’s faces blending into each other and the more surgery you do, with the big lips, skinny nose and tight brow — why would you want to look like everybody else [in Hollywood]?

There are a lot of insecurities with anti-aging and a lot of stigmas. I’m terrified of feeling that. But, I think there’s enough products on the market to prevent that kind of stuff. There are behavioral things you can do, like not smoking or not drinking too much. I think it’s easier than people make it out to be. But also, that’s easy for me to say.

I feel like the phrase should be banned. Everyone is aging, by virtue of living another day. It’s impossible to prevent.
We are all dying. We’re all marching towards death.

What do you think the connection is between wellness and beauty?
It’s absolutely connected. Being healthy is beautiful. Being healthy in the inside, it emits through. Your skin is your f-ing biggest organ. You can see happiness through someone’s skin. You can see someone who is taking care of themselves through their skin. You can see a glow that radiates from within.

I always feel most beautiful when I’ve exercised, had a good meal, exfoliated, and washed my hair. I always feel most beautiful after I feel clean. I always feel beautiful after I’ve plucked my eyebrows.

You talked recently about mental health and medication very candidly in an Allure interview. It would have been very easy for you to brush over the question. Why was it important to you to speak so truthfully about it?
There’s a stigma and taboo and it’s not helping anybody. It didn’t help me when I was a kid. I certainly don’t want my kids to feel like they can’t talk to me.

I’ve suffered massively because I felt alone, crazy, and like I was stuck in this hole. I didn’t understand because I was too f-ing young. I took that on for my teenage years. And I had a pretty healthy childhood. I had a great relationship with my sister and my parents, good grades and friends. But I was haunted by my OCD and it would flare up and affect all aspects of my life.

It doesn’t have to be that way. If you have a physical illness or ailment — you go to the doctor. When you’re having crazy fears, obsessive thoughts, weird compulsions, and you don’t understand why and you think you’re broken, it just festers. It’s a horrible thing. It’s really important for young people to hear other people talk about their experiences in a way that sheds light on them. I do have a platform and sometimes things I say, people listen to.

That 14-year-old me couldn’t sleep for an entire summer. But it would have been nice to have someone that was a little older say to me, “What you’re going through is actually all right. You’re going to be okay. You just need to talk to somebody.” Or you need this or that. It breaks my heart. I’m very, very close to that child in me. I’m working on it every day. I’m very, very involved in working on it now, especially because I’m about to be a mother.

[From The Cut]

She’s not wrong about the homogenized look of overworked faces, Lainey calls the phenomenon “LA Face.” Botox and fillers are not popular where I live in the rural south or I probably would have had at least a little something done already. It only takes one friend telling you how awesome her dermatologist is for you to try it. (That’s how my mom got a face lift, although she did have a great surgeon.) Seyfried says she has this line on her forehead which she would do something about if she could still move the rest of her face afterwards. Now that she talked about it I see it in the photo above, it’s barely noticeable though. I also really agree with what she says about how you feel most beautiful when you’ve exercised and cleaned up afterwards. Seyfried is one of those people who strives to be open about what she’s going through and it doesn’t seem like a put-on to me. That, to me, is also beautiful – just being yourself and not trying to put on a front.

Finn with slippers!

A photo posted by Amanda Seyfried (@mingey) on Dec 8, 2016 at 9:12pm PST

photos credit: WENN, Fame, Getty and Instagram/Amanda Seyfried