Naomi Watts wants women to take charge of menopause: ‘We’re half the population’
Naomi Watts, founder and chief creative officer of Stripes Beauty, speaks at the CNBC Changemakers Summit on April 16, 2026 in New York City.
CNBC
Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts was famous on screen well into her 50s, but she increasingly built her life story around overcoming deeply personal and often unspoken health and aging issues.
She has become increasingly open about topics that many public figures, and especially Hollywood actresses, avoid, using her platform to normalize conversations about fertility, aging and body changes, with the goal of helping women feel confident in their bodies, regardless of their age.
“I’m trying to convey that we can be okay with how we look,” Watts told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin at the CNBC Changemakers Summit in New York City on Thursday. “It’s OK to be 57 and look 57.”
Watts founded Stripes Beauty in 2022, a company focused on helping women overcome the challenges associated with perimenopause and menopause, addressing everything from skin to hair changes to overall wellness.
Menopause has been considered taboo in many cultures, largely due to the connection between age and fertility and generational gatekeeping. In many societies, a woman’s “worth” was tied to her youth and ability to bear children. Talking about menopause meant admitting that these phases were over. Many women in different generations have been taught to silence it and view it as a private burden and not share it.
At the Changemakers Summit, Watts looked for reasons that might explain why no one was talking about it, even using an anonymous Instagram to look for clues. “Why is there no information? Why is it so difficult? Why is it so taboo when we make up half the population?” she said. “It’s just biology.”
Watts, founder and chief creative officer of Stripes Beauty, was named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list.
Menopause typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 55 and is diagnosed after a woman has missed her period for 12 months. According to Midi Health, whose CEO Joanna Strober was also named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list, 6,000 women in the U.S. enter menopause every day, which equates to 1.3 million women per year, while four out of five middle-aged women experience menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes.
Watts experienced early menopause in his mid-30s. She faced the usual symptoms like nighttime flashes and hot flashes. Watts has said in the past that she felt like “I had no control over my own body.”
Stripes Beauty has expanded to major retailers like Ulta Beauty and Sephora, with the once-inconvenient niche category now becoming a mainstream part of women’s consumer health and beauty. The company was acquired in 2024 in a deal between Watts and private investment firm L Catterton, which is backed by Louis Vuitton parent company LVMH. The company created National Hot Flash Day, celebrated on September 9, to reinforce the message that the menopause journey is a completely natural and shared experience.
Watts says women should make “a bet on themselves,” regardless of what society tells them or doesn’t tell them.
“After turning 50, I felt a lot more comfortable knowing who I was, a lot more comfortable in my own skin,” she said. “Stay connected to women. Women are everything. I am nothing without the community of women I have around me.”
Watts said that when people approached her in the past, she often worried that requests to take photos would follow, and she couldn’t help but think about being pictured without makeup. But she says her menopause advocacy over the past few years has changed many of those public interactions. “Sometimes they come to me with tears in their eyes or just want to thank me for the permission or dialogue so that I can talk to my husband, my partner or my family members without feeling ashamed.
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