You Go, Girl!Jennifer Lopez Talks Aging And Being Her Best Self At Nearly 50 Years Old

For the past few decades, Jennifer Lopez has been an inspiration to many. Not only because she juggles being an actress, performer, girlfriend to Alex Rodriguez, a mom of 10-year-old twins, and more, but because she always looks fabulous. The icon will turn 50 years old in July, but age is just a number to her at this point in life. In fact, she feels she’s her best self today.

“When I first started, it was always a matter of ‘Am I good? Am I good enough? Do I need to be better? What can I do to be better?’ Now I know I’m really good at this. So I just want to do it,” she told InStyle in a new interview of her the beginning of her now mega-successful career. Of course, now, she’s the best of the best.

And we’re not just talking about her career. During the sit-down with the magazine, J.Lo also commented on her extremely impressive figure (seriously, there’s no way she’s 49). “I’ve taken care of myself, and now it shows,” she confessed of her desirable curves while opening up about how everyone has envied her body for years. “I didn’t realize what I was doing — I was just being myself. In my family, curves were glorified and part of the culture. It was just like, ‘Jennifer has a big butt, and it’s good.'”

Aside from her looks, though, Jennifer always wanted to really be known for her talents as an entertainer (her acting career kicked off in 1997 with the release of Selena). When speaking with InStyle, she recalled a conversation she had with her cousin when she first started her big screen career. “He said that whenever he saw me on TV or in movies, he thought, ‘She’s scared, but she’s doing it anyway.’ And he was absolutely right — I was terrified. But I really wanted to try. I wanted to do it,” she said. 

And ever since, she’s been doing it, that’s for sure! Aside from her countless hits, films, and more, Jennifer also recently broke into the reality TV world with roles on American Idol and World of Dance — experiences she says have shaped her career for the better. When talking about Idol, she revealed, “That show was live — everything was in the moment, not edited. So finally people got to see that I was actually a person, someone with a heart. I got to speak for myself for the first time, and that changed everything.” We hope she never slows down!