The cast of What To Expect When You’re Expecting cover Redbook Magazine June 2012. Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick and Elizabeth Banks cover in coordinating pastels for the Ruven Afanador photo shoot.
It’s an interesting series of interviews with each woman. The most quotable snippets are from Lopez, who talks about a brief period of depression that mercifully did not portend a longer postpartum depression. And Diaz, who concisely answers why she’s not obliged to breed to placate the “chauvinistic” societal expectations.
Cameron on feeling pressured to have kids: “I’m sure a lot of people would expect that I would have had a child by my age. But it’s not what I’ve wanted out of my life thus far. We still live in a largely chauvinistic world. There’s a box people put themselves in, and when you [live] outside of it, that makes them uncomfortable; they have to look at themselves and question their own choices.”
Cameron on thinking she’d be a mother by age 21: “I thought I was going to be married and have two children,” Diaz confesses to the magazine. “I think I felt I had to model my life after my mother’s. But then my career was starting to take off [landing a role in The Mask] and there were still so many things I wanted to do. So that dream [of motherhood] for me was shattered early on. After that I never put another time line on anything in my life.”
Jennifer on making it work, day to day: “My sanctuary is my bathtub. That’s really the only time I get to myself. It’s usually around 15 or 20 minutes, but for me, those minutes are like heaven on earth. Sometimes I even say a little prayer while I’m in there. I’m like, ‘Lord, help me get through this day!’”
Jennifer on a period of depression: “I remember after the babies were born, about seven to 10 days in, I was like, What is going on with me? I felt sad and depressed and thought the babies didn’t love me,” she says. “I actually remember picking up the book [What to Expect When You're Expecting] to try to see what was happening to me, and it said how you have this huge hormonal drop about seven to 10 days after you give birth. It’s called the baby blues. But I just thought they didn’t like me!”
Elizabeth on whether there’s a right time to get pregnant: “I definitely don’t think [you have to wait for] a right time. I mean why wait? The Chinese believe that if you have a baby, what you want comes together even better. You just do it, and make it work.”
Elizabeth on having son Felix via a gestational carrier last year: “I think the thing you always hear, but can’t really feel or believe, is how this little baby really does change your life,” she tells the magazine. “When you have children, it’s the entire focus of your life, but my capacity for joy has been opened up in a way I never thought possible.” – via Redbook Magazine.
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