Is 40 the new 20?

Used to be when a person turned 40 years old, they would no longer brag, body parts would sag and the rest would lag. Not anymore. If there's a fountain of youth then it must start behind the cosmetics counter. Several women of color seem to be turning back the clock nowadays and it's not just a passing fad.
There's a crop of people that look not only good past the 40 year mark, they look great.



To say that she started her major movie career as a crackhead in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever," Halle Berry just keeps getting better and better. In addition to breaking the decades-long African-American losing streak for best actress Oscar, Berry has been a poster child for battered women, James Bond and now recently baby mamas. To put it in perspective, she was alive when Martin Luther King was. And she's knocked down a few racial doors of her own.


Before Michelle Obama's very defined shoulder blades and arms we had Angela Bassett's. The girl is the closest thing to black sculpture that we can think of, and the kids have not slowed her down one bit. What's love got to do with it? A whole lot.



Vivica A. Fox has always been one. A fox. She's had to be as sly and cunning as one too with scandals ranging from DUI, a sex tape and a badly-played dating charade with rapper 50 Cent. But Viv has proven to be like fine wine through it all. She's the consummate TV actress, movie girl and now, reality TV show queen as host of the new "Glam God" series on cable TV.


Little Penny has sure come a long way, even when you consider the cute, chubby young woman she was when she dropped the "Control" album in the late 1980s. But she's quite possibly the hardest working woman in show business, when you consider how long she's been at it, and her body of work. Speaking of body, are you serious?


Salli Richardson, 42, has been everybody's girlfriend in Hollywood, being linked to Tupac Shakur, Marlon and Shawn Wayans and a plethora of other brothers. But it was actor Dondre Whitfield that kept her heart. The couple welcomed their second child into the world earlier this week. And the age-defying mother and child are doing fine.


There's a certain glow about her, a vibe if you well. Kinda when you know that a person is "living right." Gospel singer Yolanda Adams, unageable as she is, is obviously living right. She can easily pass for 37 without hesitation.