If you went to the cinema to watch Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, you wouldn’t be alone if the ageing process crossed your mind at some stage. During the 113-minute film, you may have pictured your childhood, your girlhood, your adolescence and beyond.

You probably thought about wrinkles, cellulite and the passing of time and pondered how life goes by so quickly. The film, although centred around a doll, was sprinkled with lessons about womanhood and what it means to be a female in a man’s world. It also spotlighted what it was like to constantly fight against the pressure to be perfect and youthful forever.

Even if you didn’t watch Barbie, if you are a woman, it’s almost impossible not to be acutely aware of getting older. It’s like a spine-chilling shadow that follows us everywhere, whispering “Is that a wrinkle?” in our ear every 10 minutes.

The pressure to remain young forever weighs heavily on the shoulders of women. As a journey, ageing has been treated negatively in society. It has forced women to live with stigma, instead of allowing them to be proud of their evolution. These fears now start in a woman’s youth, with preventative measures such as Botox pushed as a way to slow the process down. Even in your 20s, you begin to dread the future.

However, more and more women of an older generation are choosing to age ungracefully. They are taking control of their lives and embracing the natural movements of life. For them, ageing isn’t something to be afraid of – it’s something to celebrate. It’s one of life’s greatest gifts.

And so to salute this change in belief, we asked 12 women to share their wisdom on ageing and to show us how beautiful and brilliant getting older can be.

12 women share the biggest lessons they’ve learned about ageing