On November 9, Brooke Shields joined Marie Claire Editor-in-Chief Sally Holmes at the 2021 "Power Trip" conference hosted by MC: Off the Grid" conference, where for 36 hours, some of the country's most powerful women business leaders and executives gathered to inspire, create, and collaborate.

Held at Miraval Berkshires Resort & Spa (open in new tab), the "Castles for Christmas" (open in new tab) actress spoke on panels ranging from her new wellbeing brand, "Beginning Is Now" (open in new tab), to making friends later in life, We discussed everything from age discrimination in Hollywood to.

"I get rejected more often than I get accepted. I've been told no more often than I've been told yes," Shields said, referring to a society that expects women to have everything "figured out" by a certain age. 'When I was younger, I looked too European or didn't have the right sample size. These things build up over the course of your life, and you are told all the time that there is a standard and you are not good enough for it. We need to start a (new) dialogue."

For more tidbits from Shields' inspiring conversation with Holmes, read below.

On moving herself forward during difficult times throughout her life:

"All my life, everyone has tried to cut me off at the knees, try to knock me down, or declare me as somehow not good enough because of X, Y, or Z. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. That way, these women don't worry about their husbands. She's a goofball, so she's not intimidated. That worked out a little better. It was the same in college, when people thought I was being bossy, I would point out my flaws, and it would take all the energy out of the room.

Then I realized that I was starting to believe my own self-deprecating words, 'Oh, I'm like this. I'm like this,' or 'I'm not like that.' And that was really harmful. Over the years, I decided, 'I'm not going to end up like this. I may fail miserably, I may fall, I may lose, I may make mistakes, but it's not because I didn't try or because I gave up. That doesn't mean you will succeed. Nor does it mean that we will succeed because we tried hard. Sometimes you work hard and you don't get it. But you worked hard. And you really did your best. To me, that's where good things always come from, and they do come from."

On the inspiration behind her new project "Beginning Is Now":

"'Beginning Is Now' (opens in new tab) is a 360-degree well-being brand... Right before COVID, I was very I was walking on the beach with a very close friend. I remember saying: 'I am stronger. I am stronger. I remember saying. I know who I want around me. I have raised children. I've had many careers. I've done all these things and now I'm saying, 'It's over. It's okay because my ovaries don't work anymore. The ovaries don't work anymore, so it's okay,' or, 'You've done all this, why don't you take a break and relax a little bit? I feel like I'm just getting started." [There is this world where women over a certain age are ostracized and overlooked. All of these women have pivoted so many times and have so much to offer. I am a pipeline. I am not a guru. I am a ring leader and a connector. And I am the face that gets people talking to each other. This is not about me; this is about us. The response has been extraordinary, and now we are expanding into many different categories. We're moving into Beauty and we're going to move into other categories as well."

On how her personal community has shaped who she is today:

"I would be nothing without the amazing women in my life. I try to be there for them and give myself to them as much as I can. My mother was a single mother. My parents divorced when I was five months old. My father remarried my stepmother and they had three daughters. But my mother was a thrifty, street-smart woman from Newark. She said, 'You don't need anyone. You came into this world alone.' But I had to teach her the importance of being vulnerable to friends and women close to her.

Shields continues. 'I remember growing up thinking that I needed the bond of sisterhood. I need friendship. I need laughter. I need honesty. I need to be told the truth. I need to be needed by my friends. These are not things I learned from my mother. Because my mother taught me survival. I had to learn it through my friendships. I think we are stronger together."

On making friends later in life:

"You have to seek out the person and be really honest with yourself about why you are attracted to that person. You have to give that person time to get to know you. But you have to let that person get to know you and let it grow. Everyone else has good friends, but I don't. We are not high school students anymore. If you want real friends, you have to be willing to show your true self. And that means being vulnerable. It means asking for help. And that means just being an honest friend, or sometimes just shutting up and listening.

It's a bit of an effort. Sometimes I say to my daughter. 'I've got friends over there, and I've got friends over here. You don't have to be in the same little clique. You can find different friends who nurture different parts of your personality. It's about waiting to be chosen. I don't want to wait anymore. My industry is based on that. I don't want to wait to be chosen anymore. I want to choose myself and see who comes to me."

On advice for reinventing yourself:

"Start by asking questions. Ask for help. Look around you. Whatever it is that you are anxious to learn, start by putting it out there to figure it out. Ask for advice. Don't be afraid to say you don't know something. Don't be afraid to fail. If you make a mistake, you think, oh, I'll never do that again. You are constantly shaping your growth, your future, and your pivot. Get started. Be a scrapper. Take the first step and see what happens. Don't wait for the ducks to appear to be in a row."

On "finding her way forward":

"Finding your way forward is really about putting all your energy and all your energy into this company (Beginning is Now). It's a belief that I want to be at the forefront of providing an environment for amazing women who don't know how to take the first step and want to pivot. It's about continuing the conversation and creating it.

I'm an actress first and foremost, and doing romantic comedies is my happy place, and I'm going to do another one for Netflix, and as long as Netflix needs me, I'll do those forever, but this is the next whole chapter." Creating a wellbeing brand. Not wellness. It's wellbeing. We look at wellbeing, we look at movement, we look at how important it is to move your body. And think about what self-care looks like.

I hope Beginning Is Now becomes a destination for people and that they learn from it. No more apologies, no more excuses. We are all incapable of many things. We have so many things. That's what makes it great."