Women are coming out of the woodwork, opening up about the pressure they’re under to get married by a certain age, be at a certain level in their careers by a certain age and have children by a certain age.
Tyra Banks and Chrissy Teigen poured their hearts out about all of that recently. You’re climbing the career ladder one moment in your life, and then the next thing you know, you’ve put off having kids or realize it’s harder to do once you’re past a certain age.
Comedian Aisha Tyler, 45, one of the co-hosts on The Talk, hopped into the conversation from a different angle. She described feeling no regrets about having prioritized her career over having children. She wasn’t crying and she spoke matter-of-factly.
“I was with someone at 19 and I was married at 23, and I didn’t want kids when I was in my 20s,” said Tyler. “I wasn’t mentally prepared to take care of them; I was focused on my career.”
Tyler said she’s not able to have kids now, but it doesn’t bother her because she isn’t ashamed of the sacrifice she made to get her career to where she wanted it to be.
“And then when I got to be in my 40s and I thought about having kids, I wasn’t able to have kids naturally. I don’t regret it,” Tyler said.
“These were my choices and I don’t regret them,” she said. “I won’t apologize for choosing my career over kids.”
It’s definitely a fresh and much-needed perspective in this discussion. Once they’re over that bridge, some women don’t necessarily feel ashamed or regretful about their decisions.
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
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