Jennifer Aniston was one of six women recognized Friday as honorees, at Variety’s Power of Women event. She was joined by Awkwafina, Mariah Carey, Chaka Khan, Brie Larson and Dana Walden.
Ellen DeGeneres introduced her friend Jennifer Aniston at the event where she told the audience about a life defining moment when she was 11-years-old that fuels her sense of “power” today.
The ‘Rumor Has It’ actress said, “I remember a parental figure saying to me around the critical age of about 11, after a dinner party, that I was excused from the table because I didn’t have anything interesting to add to the conversation.”
She proceeded, “Ouch. It stuck to me, it stuck to me like painfully worded sentences can and if I’m being honest — and I’m being honest because I’m 50 and that comes with the territory — I carried that sentence with me into adulthood.”
Aniston added: “I always felt incredibly comfortable giving a voice to the words of others, but put me in a table full of strangers and I’d go right back to being 11 years old.”
‘The Morning Show’ star added that she began coming into her own during her breakout run on ‘Friends,’ when she started seeing herself “in a different light.” She added, “I started meeting all of these people who expressed to me how much the show meant to them — how it lifted their spirits during a bad breakup or got them through an illness. I was just so incredibly moved by that.”
Aniston continued: “These last two years have really made me think a lot about the messages we send young kids — little girls especially,” Aniston continued, “How the things we say and do can either build them up — or tear them down. And make them feel like maybe their voices don’t matter.”
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