Consider the wrinkle.

Formed when skin loses elasticity over time, wrinkles are one of the hallmarks of the aging process. Though everyone’s skin ages differently, almost all of us can expect to see at least a few creases as the years go by.

Despite (or perhaps because of) their universality, wrinkles remain one of the most stigmatized aspects of human appearance: there’s a nearly $200 billion industry devoted to smoothing them out, filling them in, and (supposedly) preventing them from cropping up in the first place.

“We live in a patriarchal, heterosexist, capitalist society where if wrinkles and signs of aging are held forth as a problem, we can be persuaded to buy shit,” Ashton Applewhite, author of the book This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, told Vox.

The stigma against wrinkles has been remarkably stubborn — for example, while a movement toward body positivity and size diversity has led to more brands highlighting models above a size 6 (though not always making larger clothes for actual customers), it’s still rare to see a wrinkled face in ads, even for brands aimed at older women.

But this might be starting to change, especially since the pandemic has Americans rethinking their relationship to their appearance in all kinds of ways. After letting their roots grow out in lockdown, some are embracing gray hair. Experts are offering advice for accepting changes to our bodies after a traumatic year, including weight gain and aging skin. Celebrities like Katie Couric and