Brooke Shields Opened Up About the "Freedom" That Comes With Being an Empty Nester

Brooke Shields is looking at the positive side of being an empty nester.

In an excerpt from her new book Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old published by The Daily Mail on Sunday, January 12, the model opened up about how she found a new sense of freedom and self-discovery after sending her two daughters—Rowan, 21, and Grier, 18, whom she shares with her husband, Chris Henchy—off to college. 

After discussing her own college experience at Princeton University in the 1980s, Shields revealed how her daughters being away at school has helped her focus on herself for the first time in decades. "Sending them both off to college has been the beginning of a whole new phase of life. One that comes with the same fear and uncertainty my daughters are grappling with, but also the same exhilaration and freedom," she wrote.

"Because suddenly I can do anything. No longer do I need to worry about picking them up, or about taking a job that will force me to travel. I also don't have to worry about accidentally contradicting myself or opening the apps on my phone too slowly or inadvertently making a hypocritical decision or simply breathing wrong."

Shields continued, "My daughters watched me like a hawk, and there's some comfort in being able to move around the house without the unforgiving eyes of teenagers in every room. To revel in a lazy Sunday or say, 'Yes, I think I will enjoy another cocktail, thank you.'"

Aside from the obvious freedom of time, Shields says there's also a freedom of self-discovery during this period. "With all that time I once spent catering to my girls, I can now cater to myself," she added, revealing that she recently started a haircare brand and began taking dance classes for the first time in a long time. 

This past fall, Shields' youngest daughter, Grier, started her first semester at Wake Forest University in North Carolina where her older sister, Rowan, is already a student. Back then, the actress was singing a different tune about being an empty nester in a heartbreaking video posted to Instagram.

“I sat here a year ago and I watched my big girl leave, and I’m back on this porch and I am now officially an empty nester and my little girl...” she said while tearing up behind her tinted sunglasses. "It’s not easy for the moms. I mean, it’s just so weird. So weird that she’s not here."

Read the original article on InStyle