Shania Twain Is Embracing Menopause and Feeling Body Positive: ‘The Best Fashion Is Confidence’
Country superstar Shania Twain is experiencing a career renaissance as she preps to release her new studio album Queen of Me and take off on a headlining tour next year, and at the age of 57, she's feeling better than ever.
The singer opened up about going through menopause and having confidence in her body in a recent issue of People. Twain says she's feeling extremely confident these days, and her body positivity was most recently displayed in the artwork for her single "Waking Up Dreaming," in which she posed topless.
"This is me expressing my truth. I'm comfortable in my own skin, and this is the way I am sharing that confidence," Twain tells the publication. "I think the best fashion is confidence, and whatever you wear — if you're wearing it with that, it's fashionable."
"I am a woman in my late 50s, and I don't need to hide behind the clothes," she continues. "I can't even tell you how good it felt to do nude shooting. I was just so unashamed of my new body, you know, as a woman that is well into my menopause. I'm not even emotional about it; I just feel okay about it. It's really liberating."
While she has a healthy dose of confidence now, she didn't always feel this way. Twain says she was extremely self-conscious in her youth due to the abuse she received at the hands of her step-father. Then, when her early career calmed down and she got older, she had another drop in confidence. It was only when she began embracing who she is at this moment that she was able to feel freely confident about herself yet again.
"I hit this wall and was like, 'Whoa, my confidence is regressing. My courage is dulling. Why am I allowing this? Frig that. I am not regressing. I am embracing my body as it changes, as I should have from my childhood to my teens, as I should be from my taut, 20s and 30-year-old self, to my menopausal body. I'm not going to be shy about it. I want to be courageous about it, and I want to share that courage in the artwork that I am directing,'" she says.
Now, Twain wants to help other women and girls find their own self-confidence, no matter their age. And as she enters into a new season of her life and career, she can assuredly say, "I'm feeling more comfortable in my own skin than I've ever felt before."