Fortyfied

Abena Oppong-Asare MP, 40 in February

When I was younger I was given the advice to always go for things and never think something is unachievable. Life is short so it’s better to try because what’s the worst that could happen? Rejection isn’t the end of the world. Love your mistakes, see them as a good thing and never pull the ladder up for other people.

Jessica Fostekew, 40 in July

I don't feel old enough to have my son's eyes rolled at me because I don't know how to change the time on the microwave or whatever. That hurts me in the Feminism too.

Ivan de Lucca, 40 in November

Forty has got me questioning: if I was young again, what would I want to achieve by this age? I’ve lived my life on the edge, I never fell off it, but if you don’t fall off the edge, at some point you start thinking about what you have and who you are now. Over the last five years I’ve settled down a lot, I’ve got into cooking and staying in and spending nights doing nothing, but before that I was very extreme and nihilistic. I came to London from Brazil and have travelled all over the world living a crazy life and putting myself in dangerous situations – even the last time I went back to Brazil I got shot at – so my greatest achievement is that I’m still alive now.

Cassie and Connie Powney, 40 in March

I didn’t like the sound of turning 40, but I actually find it quite a relief not having to strive for the same things any more. At 20 we thought we would be acting for the rest of our lives – Hollyoaks to Hollywood! But we secured secondary careers and got the plan Bs we wanted. Some people aren’t lucky enough to get their plan A or plan B. We do such different jobs now, which is quite nice because I think people assume we’re cardboard cut-outs of each other. We are very similar, but very different too.

Duncan Gillies, 40 in May

If you are thinking about changing your career you need to forget worrying about your age. The years will continue to pass whether you make a change or not, so you may as well be a happy 45-year-old starting out, rather than a 45-year-old stuck in a job that makes you miserable.

My 20-year-old self would absolutely blow their mind if they saw me now, getting up at the crack of dawn to bake bread every day – he’d wonder: what the hell happened to you? But I’m much happier now, and proud of myself for making the leap.

Leeanne Davies-Grassnick, 40 in November

It's such a privilege to be able to turn 40. Being confronted with death has really changed everything, every new day is amazing and being able to celebrate age is just wonderful.

Natalie Harris, 40 in December

I was in a motorbike accident, which completely changed the direction of my life, let alone my outgoing personality. I went from being out every weekend, working or partying, to rarely going out and questioning every move before leaving the house, all due to me becoming a below-knee amputee.
While everyone else was embracing their twenties I was trying to put myself together. It was only in my late twenties and thirties I found myself again.
I have not held a blue badge for over 15 years and I don’t classify myself as disabled. I can more or less do the same things as anyone else and will push myself further than most. When people ask me how I feel about turning 40, I don’t feel it and don’t look it. Age has no relevance – you will never hear me say I’m too old to do this or that. Just be yourself, that’s all you can be.

Brooke Kinsella MBE, 40 in July

I received my MBE for campaigning against knife crime aged just 26, a year after my brother Ben died. There was this ridiculous turning point in my life and I was thrown into a world I didn’t have any control over. It seems so young to have dealt with all that we did and my 40-year-old self looks back at my 20-year-old self with a lot of pride. It scares the life out of me now, I think I was much braver then.

Inna Rengach, 40 in December

You need to be brave to stay in Ukraine, but it also takes a lot of bravery to come to another country to live

Hollie McNish, 40 in February

I don’t want young women to spend years having shit sex before they know themselves or feel confident enough to ask for what they want out of it- I want them to be having 40 year old sex when they’re 20

Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, 40 in March

I’ve had some amazing times over the last 10 years but I’m looking forward to building on that and not to pigeonhole myself. I’d like to age disruptively – I want to spend my forties doing things that are more risky than anything I’ve done previously.

Michelle Bishop, 40 in November

There’s a line in Peter Pan which talks about how kids are always wanting to be older and adults always want to be younger. These days I can take work a bit too seriously and I think my 40-year-old self could definitely learn from the younger me, who was a really excited girl.

Sally Cram, 40 in October and Rachel Jones, 40 in August

At 40 you value friendships in a new way and realise how much you really need each other.

Helene Daouphars, 40 in June

As a woman you spend your youth trying not to get pregnant, when it’s the right time maybe you can’t find somebody to do it with, and then you have to deal with the menopause.

Laan Ponchamni, 40 in March

If you consider yourself young, you’ll stay younger in appearance too- age is nothing but a number.

Ami Amin, 40 in July

In my twenties and thirties it felt like a rush to progress up the career ladder. Now I’m entering another profession, which will take five years to qualify in, but I don’t mind, I don’t feel part of the race any more.

Naomi Arefaine, 40 in May

My partner and I regularly talk about kids and joke about how we’d make excellent parents. We’ve been together for about a year, which is not an ideal amount of time to be thinking about having a baby, but our connection is so much deeper than any of my previous relationships. In my gut I always wanted the privilege of going on that journey, but since turning 40 it’s interesting to notice that the urgent hormonal thrust to make this happen is fading and there’s a small lingering fear that the chance has already been taken away from us.

Joel Evans, 40 in September

Since the age of 36 it feels like I’ve been mentally preparing for turning 40 and, you know, it wasn’t as harrowing as I thought. Going up tower blocks in Bow and breaking into crack dens to play on pirate radio in the early 2000s was something I took for granted at the time. Looking back, the kind of sway that pirate radio had over every single person driving a car with it blaring out in the 90s and early 2000s was a cultural phenomenon within the UK like nothing else. It was a real moment in time and I feel like I was part of a scene that no longer exists and won’t ever really happen again.

Ben Formela-Osborne, 40 in May and Maggie Formela-Osborne, 40 in August

We can see our parents getting older so one day we may no longer have little children to look after, we might have to look after them instead.

Amy Whitelock Gibbs, 40 in October

Life is too short not to embrace your full self and when I finally came out aged 38, I felt a weight lift off me.