Shania Twain is focusing on loving herself and embracing her body amid menopause.
The “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” singer recently shared with the New York Post why she’s decided to embrace self-love, months after she posed nude on the cover of her sixth studio album, Queen of Me.
“Well, I’m the opposite from being an exhibitionist,” she told the outlet. “But I like to feel sexy, and I like to enjoy my body more now than ever. I used to hate my body. So when my body was young and, I guess, maybe one wouldn’t be afraid of exhibiting it, I was hiding it a lot.”
Twain went on to explain how she wants to be “brave” and “own” the way she looks, saying: “I think I needed to capture where I am right now, because it’s a moment that I want to remember. And I felt really good that I felt like: ‘Yeah, I’m OK with that.’”
“I need to be able to look at myself in the mirror every day. I’m perfectly the way I should be. This is the way I should be at my age. I’m fine with it. And I’m not afraid of it anymore. It’s all good,” she added.
The five-time Grammy winner also explained that menopause has led to this shift in perspective. “I think menopause was a very good thing for me because there were a lot more things changing in everything about me physically that I had to very quickly come to terms with,” Twain revealed.
“Menopause taught me to quickly say: ‘You know, it may only get worse. So just love yourself now. Just get over your insecurities - they’re standing in your way. And fear is standing in your way,” Twain added. “I always sing about being fearless and all of that. I go there when I write. But I’m not living it the way I’m writing it and I want to live the way I write. I’m more fierce than I ever was because I really demanded it about myself.”
In December 2022, the country superstar spoke with People about embracing her changing body, as she opened up about her decision to go topless for the cover of her latest single, “Waking Up Dreaming.”
“This is me expressing my truth. I’m comfortable in my own skin, and this is the way I am sharing that confidence,” Twain told the outlet. “I think the best fashion is confidence, and whatever you wear - if you’re wearing it with that, it’s fashionable. I am a woman in my late 50s, and I don’t need to hide behind the clothes. I can’t even tell you how good it felt to do nude shooting. I was just so unashamed of my new body, you know, as a woman that is well into my menopause. I’m not even emotional about it; I just feel okay about it. It’s really liberating.”
After admitting that she’d struggled with her body image since childhood, Twain said that she decided to ignore those negative, fearful thoughts telling her to cover up and opted to be bold.
“I hit this wall and was like: ‘Whoa, my confidence is regressing. My courage is dulling. Why am I allowing this? Frig that. I am not regressing.’ I am embracing my body as it changes, as I should have from my childhood to my teens, as I should be from my taut, 20s and 30-year-old self, to my menopausal body. I’m not going to be shy about it. I want to be courageous about it, and I want to share that courage in the artwork that I am directing,” Twain said at the time.
She shared how she hopes to inspire other women to feel “comfortable” in their own skin, much like she has learned to over the years. By being bold and fearless, Twain said she wants to help women of all ages feel more confident in their own bodies.
“I want other women that are aging, or any women… even if you’re 12 and you’re developing, you shouldn’t feel like you need to hide behind your fear or your self-conscious shield,” the singer said. “But you have to do it within your own sense of what is right and good and safe for you.”
