I always like to start articles like this with a little discussion – basically a little disclaimer of sorts that I’m not some b-word out to make anyone feel bad, cut anyone down, or take away their confidence.
I also like to bring up the question of whether celebrities – because of the very nature of choosing to be a famous singer or actress or what have you – elect themselves to be put on display, criticized, praised, and generally obsessed over.
They’re the ones posting intimate pictures of themselves on Instagram for all the world to see. They’re out there appearing on talk shows, attending events, and generally making spectacles of themselves.
It’s what they have to do. It’s how they promote themselves. It’s how they make money. It’s how they help their stars shine ever brighter.
They’re followed closely and imitated by millions. It’s quite ridiculous, in fact, to the extent that there are teens out there who wish they had a gazillion followers nitpicking over how they wore their hair that day, or how much makeup they were or weren’t wearing.
Heck, some “ordinary” folks do make a living of having a constant social media audience by becoming heavily followed on blogs and Instagram accounts.
The point is, it’s usually a life that they choose.
With this in mind, and to highlight that aging is natural and happens to everyone, here are 15 of the worst pics that make these celeb moms look way older. They are just people, after all.
15 Drew Barrymore Does The Close-Up
Drew has a handful of selfies out there where she’s, like, in bed, on the beach, or out and about wearing no or very minimal makeup. She hasn’t been shy in years past about posting pics of herself in a more natural state – and maybe she’s even trying to make a point.
She’s a huge celebrity, and she has been since the age at which most of us are, like, mastering our ABCs. She’s been in this business a long time, and maybe she’s like, Ya know what? I’m a real person, too.
Here’s one little photo of the beautiful star that some decided wasn’t quite as attractive as some they’d seen – not quite as pretty and perfect as the Drew they’d been ogling in funny films and romantic comedies for the last 30 years.
Un-plucked eyebrows, a raised brow to exaggerate forehead lines, red eyes, sun-damaged skin, and hair that seems to have gone a while without color treatment are featured.
14 Olivia Wilde And The Wonders Of Makeup
In the image on the right, the quite stunning actress’s high cheek bones appear pretty, youthful, and attractive – maybe even interesting.
In the shot on the left, is there maybe something sickly or skeletal about what little fullness there is to the slender dame’s face?
The makeup on the right makes the star look stunning. I’m not always one for heavy makeup, and I don’t wear it myself – but I have to marvel here at what a transformational effect it can apparently have. The false (probably?) lashes and heavy mascara and liner make the skin look all the more glowing and the eyes look even clearer and brighter somehow. The brows are perfectly in place.
And then we turn to the image on the left, in which a pale complexion, dark circles under the eyes, and a somewhat sunken look are visible.
13 Khloé Kardashian Comin’ At Ya
While her older sister Kourtney is apparently only five feet tall, younger Kardashian Khloé, 33, is more like 5’10”.
While she may have appeared somewhat less polished and model-esque in some of the early seasons of reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, in recent posts and pictures, she’s very done up, has taken up a very serious workout routine reportedly, and has a sultry confidence about her in the minds of some of her followers and fans.
Maybe that’s why it’s so bizarre to flash to this image of her without all the “stuff.” There’s no careful hairdo. The abundant makeup on carefully pouted lips is absent here.
Form-fitting clothes are replaced here by a dark hoodie.
It might be said that the star looks somewhat, well, tired in her non-posed, real-life state.
12 Cray-Cray Coloring With Kim Kardashian
I know that, like, a LOT of women color their hair. What always sort of weirds me out about it, though, is that they then seem to need to take additional and somewhat extreme steps to make the coloring of their skin and eyebrows and what have you not look super weird next to their new and unnatural hair color. It’s a whole thing.
With a boldly light and reddish coloring applied to her long locks, and what appears to be bare skin with no makeup on, Kim K looks quite changed from how we are usually used to viewing her.
Her hair appears clean and flowing, but is there something almost sickly about the hue of the skin, lips, and even eyes in this shot? It definitely might make you pause.
It is not the vibrant look she often seems to be going for.
11 Brooklyn Decker Not All Decked Out
Brooklyn Decker is a 30-year-old American model apparently married to tennis champ Andy Roddick. I say “apparently” because I feel like I’ve seen a gazillion pictures of this lady pop up in my line of work and yet really did not understand who the heck she was or why she was so famous.
Well now that I know and that’s out of the way, how about checking out the contrast between how the mom to one boy looks with and without makeup?
A lot of people probably think it’s cool that she’s shared a shot of herself looking much more natural and like a real and honest person. Her hair looks to be of a more natural hue than in many other shots I’ve seen of her, as well – who knows, maybe a transition she made as a pregnant woman or breastfeeding mother.
10 Heidi Klum Cares Not
This 44-year-old German super model has been seen for decades looking perfect, posed, made up, done up, and as close to flawless as an entire crew of people could get her to look. Victoria’s Secret catalogs have a way of exposing quite a lot of the female form, up close, very clearly.
But here’s the thing: Models are humans, too, and sometimes they want to leave the house without looking completely glammed up, without spending so much time having professional makeup applied. You’ve gotta live your life, ya know?
From the slight static happening at the top of the hair to the pressed back angle of the face, accentuating the chin, to the somewhat washed-out and less toned looking skin of the face, the beauty looks a bit different caught on camera in the image on the left.
9 Gwyneth Paltrow Goes Bare
Some see a soulful beauty moving beyond some of the vanity and attempted perfection of youth.
Others see crow’s feet and tired, reddened eyes.
Either way, isn’t it maybe kind of cool to see such an honest and extreme close-up of a super-famous celebrity’s face?
I’ve always really liked Gwyneth. I think her beauty is so unique, and I and many others in my generation admired her in roles for interesting and artful movies such as Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.
She’s always appeared, to me, sort of ’70s chic, amazingly slender, somewhat graceful, and somewhat stilted in her movements – in a way that only makes her all the more loveable.
Who knows what statement (if any) she was trying to make in posting a selfie of her face completely bare in bright sunlight. Maybe she was just having fun.
8 Katherine Heigl Covers Up
With (suddenly quite obviously) bleached-blonde hair pulled back tightly away from the face in a bun and bundled up in a coat against the cold, beauty Katherine Heigl looks quite changed from what fans may be used to after seeing her for many years both in TV and on the big screen as a pretty and expressive young blonde.
She looks… very different.
Does anyone else feel like they’ve seen plenty of pics out there of this particular star lighting up (disgusting, cancer-causing) cigarettes? Things like that can’t exactly be great for enhancing the appearance of your skin and eyes. Inhaling toxic chemicals is probably not a great way to appear healthy and youthful. Just sayin’.
Or, as Cher from awesome ’90s movie Clueless would say, maybe she just “stumbled into some bad lighting”!
7 Adele Up Close And Personal
Adele looks quite different without heavy eye makeup and what appear to be long lash extensions on. Without the heavy rouge to the cheek, and sans peachy or glossy lip color, she’s just a woman, facing a camera, taking a selfie.
Her pupils look quite large as she stares straight forward, unsmiling. A very, very pale complexion contrasts with the darker coloring under the eyes, which appear a bit sunken away from the rest of the face.
She looks almost like… a normal person!
She even raises the brow slightly, bringing out deeper lines across the entirety of the forehead.
I think everyone does this. We take selfies to check out how we look at certain times, or maybe to capture how we’re feeling.
We just don’t always post them.
6 La Verdad Sofía Vergara
Sofía Vergara, a Colombian host / actress, is actually 45 years old. Some would say she appears to be quite youthful, fit, and attractive.
But then there are those who have to stop and marvel at the TV star with what appears to be no makeup on in a rather unflattering light.
When we’re used to seeing someone with false lashes, intense hues of red, pink, and more painted on their lips, cheeks, and lids, and carefully styled hair sprayed or otherwise held with product in place, it can be kind of like whoa to see them looking like more of a regular person.
If I’m completely honest – and what the heck does my opinion even matter anyway? – I think I much prefer the shot on the left. It doesn’t look like makeup and product has been caked on to craft an unnatural appearance.
5 Heavenly Hottie Katie Holmes
Oh, Katie Holmes. What a young sweet thing on Dawson’s Creek. What a perfect casting of the loveable girl next door.
I can’t even imagine being incredibly famous as a very, very young person, forever expected to appear like you are just on the cusp of adulthood, with the smooth and flawless skin, bright eyes, and naturally toned physique that come with it.
Her innocent beauty was pure joy for an entire generation to behold. She always rocked that natural (and for the hit show, even sort of a tom-boy, if I’m remembering correctly) look.
Well that show premiered almost exactly 20 years ago on the WB. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 7th Heaven were also, like, the shit for obsessed teenage fans at the time.
Is it a crime – two decades later, as a mom – to have a slightly fuller and less firm face and some darkness under slightly tired eyes?
4 Keeping Up With The REAL Kourtney Kardashian
Here’s a fun fact: This 38-year-old sister of the Kardashian clan is reportedly a mere five feet tall. Huh!
She’s also seen looking quite made up and carefully styled all the time, in her own social media posts and of course on reality TV. When your family is televised on and off for a decade, you probably get kind of used to having all sorts of images and videos of your life out there for everyone to see.
But even reality shows, of course, aren’t exactly reality. We see here how different the sister so famous for, well, being famous looks in daylight just out being a regular person.
The long hair, first of all, does not appear so healthy and smooth as viewers and fans might be accustomed to. But it’s the face that really appears quite changed.
What a trip it is to consider how different some of these women look without heavy foundation, eye makeup, and lash extensions!
3 A More Comfortable Kendra Wilkinson
I suspect that Kendra Wilkinson (perhaps best known for parading around the Playboy Mansion nearby to Hugh Hefner in reality series The Girls Next Door) may have quite a lot in common with many readers out there.
She’s not incredibly tall or incredibly short at 5’4”. She’s 32 years old, and she has two children. She’s from San Diego, California.
And reportedly, when she was at LAX ready to board a flight in Los Angeles, she chose, like, a comfy sweat suit and no or minimal makeup, with her hair pulled back. Sounds like a pretty normal and practical person to me.
But when you’re used to seeing someone wear a certain amount of makeup, it can just be sort of weird to see them out and about acting (and looking) all normal.
2 A Crazy-Different Version Of Mila Kunis
She’s someone we’re so used to seeing looking youthful, slender, and generally petite.
I mean, she got her huge breakout role on That ’70s Show when she like wasn’t even the legal age to be allowed to work yet.
The world is used to seeing her as a fresh-faced teeny-bopper beauty, with some spunk to her – due to her sassy and strong-willed character Jackie Burkhart.
What’s super fun is that one of the best plotlines of the show was concerning the heated (and full of cheating) romance between her character and the loveable (and hot) doofus played by Ashton Kutcher, who went on to be a teenage dream, host MTV’s Punked, and generally be incredibly famous. And then… they wound up together and had a family! In real life!
Unfortunately, the camera wasn’t always kind to Kunis in recent years, particularly during her pregnancy.
1 It’s Britney Spears, B!tch
Well, after the decade or so that this singing star has had, we may not exactly be shocked to see her looking quite changed from that teeny-bopper prancing around the high school halls a little too seductive for someone in a plaid skirt and pigtails.
We got really, really used to hearing her voice on the radio, particularly 1998’s (yes, you ready that right – it was 20 years ago) “[Hit Me] Baby One More Time.” That was when Britney Spears was just 16 years old. We got really, really used to seeing her wearing revealing clothes and wearing lots of makeup and performing and posing here and there and everywhere. Then we watched as she… changed.
She’s a mom now, and she shares stuff on social media just like so many of the rest of us, including this pic of her looking a little (or a lot) more real.
Sources: Pinterest.com, Google.com