Gwyneth Paltrow wants to change the messaging around menopause.
"It's not a dirty secret," Paltrow tells TODAY.com in a phone interview. "It's an absolutely beautiful rite of passage."
That said, the phase doesn't come without its fair share of challenges. At 51, the actor has been vocal about her experience with the biological transition, posting in all-caps in an Instagram Q&A earlier this year, "I can’t deal someone help me and all us ladies good lord."
The good news, she says, is that menopause is increasingly becoming a topic of public conversation, something that hasn't always been the case.
"In our western culture, historically (menopause has been) a phase where women feel invisible and they feel relegated. In other cultures women aren't treated this way — and don't treat themselves this way."
The Goop founder is launching a new line of skin, body, hair and wellness products, called "good.clean.goop," and the collection will be available at Target and Amazon beginning Oct. 22.
Paltrow says she's excited about the new, lower-priced, line of products and its broad accessibility. "I think we have been able to really over deliver in terms of the quality of these beautiful products," she says.
"We’ve created something that’s so high quality, that has such beautiful textures and smells and that is so sharply priced, I think just opens a big door for anybody who is curious about clean and about having a head-to-toe beauty wellness line."
Good.clean.goop dovetails with Paltrow's passion that women feel good about themselves, especially during menopause, when the negative messaging surrounding the life phase can lead women to feel shamed over the very normal changes to their bodies.
"At Goop, this is a subject that we're talking about all the time," says the actor.
"I don't want women to feel marginalized or embarrassed about a very beautiful biological chapter," the "Shakespeare in Love" actor explains.
While perceptions around menopause are beginning to shift, there's still a long way to go and Paltrow says that women are partly responsible for changing the narrative.
"We have to agree to participate in that," she says, explaining that if women respond to negative cues by agreeing that, indeed, they're "over the hill," or don't matter, judging themselves in the process, they're helping perpetuate the cycle.
"But if we're getting those cues and we're like, 'F--- this. I know so much. I'm so much more interesting now than I was 20 years ago. I'm layered. I'm experienced. I'm full of so much more love. I've learned so much more.' If we energetically answer that with our full strength and power, I think we change the game," Paltrow says.
According to the Oscar-winning actor, there are more and more women are doing just that, including Naomi Watts, who's been a vocal advocate for increased awareness and education around menopause along with other notable celebrities.
"I love when you see Andie MacDowell, in all her power, walking down the runway with this gorgeous shock of gray curls. I love seeing women like Jane Fonda, who are still at the peak of their careers," she says.
“We need to see more examples of women who are past their childbearing years, really out changing the world, moving the world, making bold statements,” Paltrow says.
Of course, aging doesn't come without its challenges and Paltrow says that for her, at least, one of them is finding a way to feel as "strong as possible" as she "navigates these new chapters."
"I have arthritis in my knee, so I have this one knee that feels very different to the rest of my body and I'm like, 'Oh, man, is this what's coming down the pike?'"
Paltrow says her goal is to find a way to feel "physically well and strong as possible" as she grows older.
"I'm very happy to age. I just want to do it with as much strength in my body as possible. And do the research and consult with the right people enough so that I can do that and define what it's going to look like for me to be 80."
In the meantime, she's excited and proud of her latest Goop launch, saying that the process has been very rewarding
"It's a kind of agency that you don't have when you're an actor and you're waiting to be cast in a part and you're waiting for the movie to come out and you haven't written the script," Paltrow says.
That said, the actor recently told Bustle that one day she might be ready to move on from her role at Goop and "ride off into the sunset." But, for now, she's "not ready to sell yet" and says that she needs "a few more years."
When the time does come, Paltrow said to Bustle that she wouldn't mind making a dramatic exit and going underground.
"I will literally disappear from public life. No one will ever see me again," she says.
