Charlotte’s Story: Feeling Incredible at 49

At 49, Charlotte is loving her life, and she’s excited to see what comes next.

This is her story of love, marriage, motherhood, struggles, and why she embraces the evidence of all these life experiences on her face.

Watch her video, and let us know: Do you feel the same way about your life?

Just being surrounded by nature and the gorgeous sunsets and just seeing the landscape of beauty in its natural form is really energizing to me.

So I do a lot of walking and thinking and processing and just spending time being present and enjoying my life and where I'm at, and the people that I'm with and such a beautiful place.

I've been married 28 years. I married when I was a wee young person. My husband, Ken: he's an Alaska native, Tlingit Indian, and he is a trombone player. And I was attracted to him originally with his musicianship. Something about a good musician I really found attractive. And so I met him and we went to college together and then got married.

Why would I hide my face when it is a mixture of all of my life experiences?

When I first saw the gray hairs coming in I was a little surprised, but you know I was getting around the middle of my life and I thought, "That's gonna happen." And it's starting a little bit more, but my mom has some really nice gray highlights, and I was noticing I kind of like that.

I'm not gonna try to change that. I'm gonna just work with it. And so it's come on more and more the last few years and I don't plan on changing anything of it. I think I'll just keep it like it is.

Oh, what do I think makes a woman beautiful? I think the women that I know who I think are truly beautiful—they are very caring, loving, confident women. They kind of shine from within. And they have a spirit of love and confidence as well, but they also are grounded in kind of a grounded beauty.

I think one of the most beautiful things—and I've been noticing this a lot lately—is that everyone is beautiful when they smile. No matter what age you are, a smile is gorgeous.

I feel that I've gotten stronger as I've gotten older.

I think that some things in life—you only get strong by going through tough times. There's just no other way about it, that some things are unless you've done it, unless you've been there you just cannot relate and you just don't know. It's just like a muscle that you use.

It's not gonna become strong unless it's torn down a little bit to build back up. And I think as we live and as we are facing challenges, we get stronger.