Demi Moores Golden Globes Speech Made Me Realize Something Unexpected

Demi Moore holds up her Golden Globe award after winning for her performance in "The Substance."Gilbert Flores/GG2025 via Getty ImagesWhen Demi Moore, 62, took the stage at the Golden Globes ceremony to accept her first major acting award in her 40-year career for the movie “The Substance,” her speech resonated with me.Moore said she used to measure her worth based on other people’s expectations and that a producer had referred to her as a “popcorn actress.”Advertisement “And I bought in, and I believed that,” she said, implying she thought the producer was right and that she would never amount to anything meaningful as an actor because someone else had told her so.But, toward the end of her speech, these words stuck with me:“When we don’t think we’re smart enough, or skinny enough, or successful enough, or basically just enough, just know: You will never be enough,” she said.

“But you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.” At that moment, and I’m sure many women felt this way, it was as though she was talking directly to me.For decades, I’d also defaulted to seeking outward approval and acceptance to meet others’ expectations of what it meant to be enough — instead of focusing on my own feelings and thoughts.

Advertisement That is, until I reached my 40s.Like Moore, I struggled to be “enough” for everything and everyone at an early age.At 13, I became obsessed with trying to make my breasts — a dismal A cup — appear larger.

Every morning before school, I’d grab a wad of tissues and stuff them inside my training bra in an attempt to fill it out.I stood in the mirror before zipping up my coat, admiring the artificial curves I’d created.

For a moment, I thought, maybe I could be pretty like the other girls in class and in the movies.But that sensation of relief in my gut didn’t last.This was around the 1990s and early 2000s when there was a lot of speculation in the med...