Alyssa Milano, 48, posts ‘no filter’ birthday selfie: ‘Just my skin that I’ve become super comfortable in’
Alyssa Milano embraced her 48th birthday with a makeup-free selfie and a dose of gratitude.
“This is 48. No filter. No make up. Just my skin that I’ve become super comfortable in,” the Charmed actress wrote under a Saturday Instagram photo of herself lying in bed and wearing pajamas. “My body makes crackling sounds when I walk. My daughter asked me the other day why my butt is so [jiggly]. Sometimes I forget things. I’m tired all of the time.”
“But overall, I’m just grateful for this life. My life. If someone told me that for the next life I get to choose who I come back as—I’d choose me again. Even with the heartache I’ve endured. Like kintsugi—I’ve been broken open and mended and broken once more,” she continued, referencing the Japanese tradition of repairing pottery.
She wrote, “I marvel at our capacity to heal. You have that super power too. We are all resilient. This resilience is taken advantage of by too many—friends, bosses, kids, our own government even. ‘Buck up! Pull yourself up by your boot straps! You’re fine.; Maybe. But it’s ok not to be.”
Addressing people who protest wearing face masks in public that slow COVID-19 transmission, Milano wrote, “True freedom isn’t not wearing a mask and going to the bar. True freedom is one good paying job, with a livable wage, that affords you time with your family without worrying about putting food on the table. That’s my Birthday wish. That we will live in a country that understands that providing programs for people in times of need is their fiduciary duty.”
She continued, “And that there might be a day, that we are truly free. Free of worry. Free of stress. Free of fear of eviction. Free of the fear of how to feed our children. *That’s* real freedom. The flag waving and gun toting and refusing to wear a mask to keep others safe. That is not freedom—it is pageantry. So...my birthday wish... is true freedom. For you. And you. And you.”
Milano tested positive for the coronavirus in March and battled symptoms like heart palpitations, hair loss and shortness of breath for the subsequent six months. She recently published an essay for NBC News detailing “the hellscape that has been 2020,” particularly the illusion of safety.
“Optimism was buried in the graves of the almost 300,000 people in America and more than 1.4 million worldwide who have died from COVID-19. It is a ghost, haunting us,” she wrote. Since the Dec. 11 essay, those numbers have increased to more than 315,000 U.S. deaths and more than 1.6 million global deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
Related: Alyssa Milano talks about Covid-19 and lingering symptoms
For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC’s and WHO’s resource guides.
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