No doubt, there’s a general feeling that the 40 of today sure as hell need not feel or look like the 40 of previous generations, when the hair was uniformly chopped primly above the chin, the skin showing signs of all of those years, the cigarettes, the lack of sunscreen, the dearth of Sephora. I actually think that a sliver of the whole "30 is the new 20, 40 is the new 30..." idea is supposed to make people feel better, in fact. And it's not like people are any more excited to turn 30, either — what with all the "happy 27-again birthday to me!" jokes I see amongst people heading into their 30s. It’s a way to whisk away any incipient decay, to make it perfectly fine to be whatever age you are — since who the heck actually looks whatever age they are? Plus, as women age today, they continue to have a strong presence and voice, certainly compared with previous generations where they faded into the background, says Josie Howard, MD, a psychiatrist and psycho-dermatologist in San Francisco.