LIFE & CULTURE

20 Celebrities Reveal Why Their 20s Were The Worst Years

Afraid of ageing? Fear not

Olivia Wilde

learning from those mistakes. Now you get to live with that knowledge under your belt … I’m hitting a major milestone: 30, or as I like to call it, the Cut the Bullshit and Go Be Awesome stage,” Olivia told Glamour.“Your 20s were for ‘ducking up,’ as my auto-correct would say, and

Lena Dunham

“Positive, healthy, loving relationships in your 20s…I don’t know if anyone would disagree with it: I think they’re the exception, not the norm. People are either playing house really aggressively because they’re scared of what an uncertain time it is, or they’re avoiding commitment altogether,” she told GQ.

Katy Perry

I’m so much more grounded. And I’ve learned a lot of lessons — patience, the art of saying no, that everything doesn’t have to end in marriage. That your education can start now,” Katy told Vogue.“I wouldn’t give anything to go back to my 20s;

Cindy Crawford

“I’m actually happier with my body now…because the body I have now is the body I’ve worked for. I have a better relationship with it. From a purely aesthetic point of view, my body was better when I was 22, 23. But I didn’t enjoy it. I was too busy comparing it to everyone else’s,” Cindy told AskMen.

Gwyneth Paltrow

but I feel beautiful because I feel myself. I think the 40s are such a gift, and I feel more beautiful now than I did 10 years ago or 20 years ago,” Gwyneth told People.“I don’t look like I looked when I was 25, nor would I want to,

Reese Witherspoon

“I thought I knew everything about love and relationships in my 20s. The ignorance of youth is bliss. As you get older, you start to realise that you don’t really know anything and life is a great travelling journey. Life is unexpected…you just never know what’s going to happen,” Reese said.

Naomi Watts

“I feel so much better as a person now than I did in my 20s, but most of the time I feel like I’m still a kid. There are days you feel like you are on top of it and you are okay and at peace with it; then there are the days you still feel 28 inside — until you catch that reflection or see a photograph and realise you aren’t anymore,” Naomi told People.

Drew Barrymore

when I was in my 20s, I was like, ‘I want to be a kid finally.’ Now, it’s the first time in my life that my age has met up with where my life is, and it’s perfect. I love being 40. I always felt not my age and now I feel my age and I love it. It feels comfortable,” Drew said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.“When I was a kid, I felt like I should be older because I was working and not really being a kid. Then

Amy Poehler

In your 20s, you’re all about who you don’t want to be. In your 30s, you’re asking yourself who do you want to be. And in your 40s, you realise you just are who you are,” Amy said.

Mandy Moore

there’s no substitute for it. By the time you’re in your 30s, you’ll be the most comfortable in your skin than you’ve ever been. You’ll know who you are, you’ll know what you want. You’ll go through lulls in your career and your personal life and it will all build your character,” the actress said to People.“Believe me, the clarity and the wisdom that comes with age and time,

Kristen Bell

“Every woman in her late 20s goes through a period where she just doesn’t believe love is out there anymore, but it is. And I think the minute you stop looking for it is when it comes for you,”  Kristen told Cosmo.

Oprah Winfrey

“When I was in my 20s, I was a lost soul. Your 20s are about finding your soul,” Oprah says in one of her online diary entries.

Anna Faris
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Anna Faris

to prove to myself and to whomever that I could be known as a dramatic actress and I think once I hit 30, or somewhere in there, I started to feel like, ‘Oh my God. What am I trying to prove to myself or to this town,'” Anna said.“In my 20s all I wanted was

Kiera Knightley

my early 20s were not much fun. Then after 25, things just got better and better. Maybe you stop caring as much about where you should be going and what other people think — which is all the shit that makes you very unhappy early on,” Kiera told Glamour.“Honestly,

Kristen Wiig

But 20s are kind of hard. Thirties are the best,” Kristen told Access Hollywood.“You kind of think like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m 30. My 20s were the best!’

Lisa Kudrow

“The 20s? My title for that period of my life would be, ‘It was the Worst of Times, It Was the Worst of Times … ‘ Did I mention it was the hardest time of my life?” Lisa told TV Guide.

Amy Adams

“When I look at my 20s, or when I look at any period in my life, I think about how much time I’ve wasted trying to find the right man. It’s like, if I could go back and do it again, I would have taken guitar lessons or something. I would have put my energy into something that paid off in the end, instead of trying to improve myself for men. Oh, the time and the energy, trying to impress somebody who was actually a big jerk,” Amy told People.

Candace Bushnell

“There are worse things than being 35, single, and female in New York. Like: Being 25, single, and female in New York. It’s a rite of passage few women would want to repeat. It’s about sleeping with the wrong men, wearing the wrong clothes, having the wrong roommate, saying the wrong thing, being ignored, getting fired, not being taken seriously, and generally being treated like shit. But it’s necessary,” the Sex and the City author wrote.

Arianna Huffington

Marie Claire.“How we talk to ourselves matters. Even our worst enemies don’t talk about us the way we talk to ourselves. I call this voice the obnoxious roommate living in our head. It feeds on putting us down and exploiting and magnifying our insecurities and doubts. I wish someone would invent a tape recorder that we could attach to our brains to record everything we tell ourselves. It would shock us to hear it played back,” she told

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