'As men slow down, we are ready to take over!' - Naomi Watts on the power of midlife

Naomi Watts is a huge advocate for accessing the best possible information when you're a woman going through menopause - she also shares her insights into the superpowers women have in middle age.

Naomi Watts has become a powerful advocate for the rollercoaster ride of menopause and perimenopause, after struggling with this often challenging time of life herself. The actress joins a number of high profile celebrities on a mission to normalise conversations around menopause symptoms and positive ageing, in a bid to change ingrained attitudes towards women of a certain age.

In an excerpt from her new book, Dare I Say It, the star reflects on the brave risks she took in her younger years - moving to America as an unknown actress with hardly any money to her name being one of the biggest. She wants to regain that bravery now she's older.

"I was brave back then," she writes in the excerpt, shared by The Guardian, adding, "So I can be brave now when it comes to taking risks in life. We took chances when we were younger, and didn’t we know so much less back then? Midlife is a good time to bet on ourselves again."

Equally, Naomi wants women in midlife to know they can still take career risks, and nothing has to remain 'safe' just because they're of a certain age. "When I’ve spoken to women about what it’s like to be working as a menopausal woman, I’ve heard responses all over the map," she says.

"Some are thriving. They’ve been in the business long enough to know their value and their power while still being young enough to have the energy to keep charging ahead," she explains.

It's fair to say, if you're not looking forward to middle age, Naomi has gathered her own insights and those of her friends on just how powerful women of this age can be. Spoiler alert: getting to this stage of life can give women superpowers.

One of the best takes comes from Mariella Frostrup, who told Naomi, "In midlife, men buy motorcycles or fast cars and women get PhDs." Naomi adds, “A lot of men seem to slightly slow down at this age and they’re looking toward retirement and taking up golf.

"And women just seem to become so much more driven and ambitious and focused as our oxytocin goes down, and we lose that love for toddlers, and our children leave home." Listen up and say it louder for those at the back, as Naomi asserts, "And that’s an opportunity. As men slow down and head to the golf course, here we are ready to take over!”

Menopause can also come when different women are at different life stages - some might be still in the thick of caring for young children while others can be heading into empty nesting. Naomi does reveal that on top of whichever family stress menopausal women are experiencing, approximately 75 per cent of women ages 45 to 55 are working.

"The pressure on women to be all things to all people can be overwhelming," the actress said in response to the numbers of midlife women undertaking a monumental juggle, adding, "and menopause can add an extra layer of stress."

Rightly, she points out, "Women who took time out of the workplace to raise their kids may feel like it’s a cruel joke that right when they’re raring to get back to work, they’re going through menopause, having to deal with symptoms exactly when they need to rally their most confident selves."

Ultimately, Naomi wants women experiencing this to own their vulnerabilities and take the risks they absolutely have the lived experience to take. For some excellent advice to take away with you, Naomi concludes: "Many of the leading midlife experts say that it’s key at this point in life to find what it is we love to do and to cultivate it, and then share it. So I remind myself, and my friends when they struggle, of what my mum said: You are enough. There’s only one you."