EDITOR’S LETTER
Welcome to our wellbeing issue. I’m sitting here typing away furiously on deadline with a coffee in hand. It’s a decaf oat cappuccino. Yes, I’m that person. That fussy, annoying, picky person whose coffee is as far from a standard flat white as you can get. Because that’s the world we live in now. We’re into all kinds of new milks. We eat and drink all kinds of strange things, from crickets to kombucha. We jump in ice baths because it makes us feel alive. We go on silent retreats where we don’t mutter a single word for 10 days to connect with ourselves in a world that is getting louder by the minute (you can read all about these extreme wellness experiences on page 150).
Wellness isn’t just about what milk you take, or your consumption of celery juice (which, by the way, Miranda Kerr drinks daily, as you’ll discover on page 135). Wellness is your mental health. Your relationships. Your sex life. And yes, thankfully, it’s also spa treatments (read our bumper spa guide on page 142).
On page 56, cover star Naomi Watts talks marriage, mothering teens and becoming the poster woman for menopause. As you’ll discover, Watts is deeply passionate about women’s health.
She also talks about her new role as Babe Paley in season two of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.
I love Naomi. I always have. She’s effortlessly cool and seems to get even cooler as she gets older. I love that she was recently married for the first time, to actor Billy Crudup (she describes him as her “soulmate”). I love that she’s talking openly about the real experience of menopause. And I love that she talks about giving “less fucks” as she ages.
On page 70, Amy Molloy also asks why so many women are breaking up with their vibrators. She writes that experts are blaming sex toys for making us sexually lazy and disconnected from our own bodies. I’d argue that as women, we’re free to do whatever makes us feel good, battery operated or not.
One of the icons of my generation (I’m an ’80s baby) turns 50 this month. Kate Moss was one of the original supers – you can read her life story on page 166. Her version of wellness is one I can subscribe to: she might have founded a skincare and wellness brand, Cosmoss by Kate Moss, but she doesn’t hide that she still smokes. No-one is perfect. Even Gwyneth Paltrow loves a greasy hamburger.
Before I sign off, a note on bodies, because as three women write on page 52 for our feature “When your Body is your Brand”, women tend to be rather hard on their bodies. I don’t have the answers for how to solve our global body-image dilemma. I do know that diets don’t work. Deprivation sucks. Perfection doesn’t exist. I also know that for all the hurdles
I went through around body image when I was younger, I found freedom when I realised it was holding me back from living a full life. Letting go of all the pressure we put on our bodies is life changing.
Enjoy the issue.