Charlize Theron has done some thinking.

The offensively beautiful actress is 39 right now, which means she’ll be 40 at her next birthday. This normal passage of time has forced Theron to think about what it means to be alive and what it means to be beautiful. To start with, she is both alive and very, very beautiful. So you know – EXPERT.

She said these things to a journalist who works for a magazine we’ve never heard of before in our lives, called Women’s Wear Daily:

“It’s ironic that we’ve built the beauty world around 20-year-olds, when they have no f****** concept about wisdom, what life is about, having a few relationships below [their] belt and feeling hardships, to grow into [their] skin and feel confident within [themselves] and to feel the value of who [they] are, not because of a man or because of something like that.”

Being nearly 40 has prompted the Snow White actress / Serious Girlfriend of Sean Penn to say some other sensible thoughts out loud. Here are some on the topics of kids, pride, and authenticity:

“As far as creativity, it really didn’t change me other than I want my son, of course, you want your son, your children, to be proud of you. There’s definitely an element of that. But I also know that that pride comes from a place of real acknowledgment that somebody’s actually living their life for themselves, and I want to be that example for my son. I want him to grow up with a mom that he could see and look at her life with all the mistakes and with all the failures and all the flaws and say, ‘My mom lived an authentic life. That was the life she wanted to live.’”

Good thinking, Theron. You did some solid thought-making.

Here she is, doing other things with her beautiful face.

Charlize's new look.

At the Golden Globes in 2012

At the Venice Film Festival in 2007

At the Emmys in 2005

At the 1998 Vanity Fair Oscars party

At the premiere of Hancock in 2008

At the 2008 Venice Film Festival

At the 2010 Vanity Fair Oscars party

At the Vanity Fair Oscars party in 2000

In December 2011

At the Golden Globes in 2004

At the Oscars in 2003

At the Paris premiere of Hancock

At the Legend of Bagger Vance premiere in 2000