Mayim Bialik got her first hot flash on the 'Big Bang Theory' set. Now she's just trying to survive what's left of her 40s.
'I've lived a lot of life,' Mayim Bialik tells me of her unconventional career path from leading the '90s sitcom Blossom to getting a PhD in neuroscience to returning to TV in The Big Bang Theory. 'I was a child actor and then I went to grad school, and then I started acting again. I've had a lot of life, but there is a real childlike kind of wonder to me still.' It's a quality that the 49-year-old doesn't want to lose.
That curiosity has led the mom of two — her sons are 16 and 19 — to take on new projects because they spark her interest, not because they fit into any sort of linear plan. She's written books. She's hosted Jeopardy!. She's got her own podcast, Mayim Bialik's Breakdown.
'A sense of play is incredibly important no matter what age you are,' she says in an interview for Yahoo Life's Unapologetically series. 'I recently started taking ballet. It had been 35 years since I had been in a ballet class. … I got the pretty outfit, I got the little skirt. I want it to feel special and feel nice, and this feels like being a kid and trying something new.'
Well, not quite a kid. "Imagine how different one's body is at 14 versus 49. The last time I did ballet, I had not hit puberty yet. Like, it's like a very different body trying to jeté away."
Of course, it's hard not to feel your age when you're navigating menopause and what Bialik calls 'the next chapter' of work, parenting and dating post-divorce. Here's what she says about life lately — from saying no to cosmetic injections to why she has a hyperbaric chamber in her bedroom.
In many ways, I think there's been the most changes in my life in this last decade. I have completed menopause — congratulations to me — so I think that shift is enormous, not just in terms of hormonally, but in terms of conceptually, like what that means and what that new set of challenges is, and what it's like.
My 30s were about growing humans that I had decided to bring into the world and growing them past those early phases of their life. That's also when I got divorced and started a whole new phase of life. So my 40s have been kind of that next chapter of romance, the next chapter of career and a different level of parenting.
I have one [son] in college and one who's gonna have me remind him that he needs to start thinking about it. They can mostly feed themselves, dress themselves, things like that. But you're also ushering a whole new component of their lives while also experiencing a whole new component of yours.
I feel my age. But it's funny 'cause my kids and my partner joke that I sort of feel like a teenager that doesn't have an adult supervising. Like, if left to my own devices, I will eat pizza and potato chips and watch TV.
I had my first hot flash on the set of Big Bang Theory during a taping. I was in my early 40s. I'm an early bloomer and I've been one for years now. So I had a very, very interesting set of experiences that led me from doctor to doctor.
I'm a home birth person. I had my second son at home, so I've always used midwife care as my primary care, just because I'm sort of that hippie. And the midwife was like, 'Oh, yeah, this is just the next 10 years of your life.'
I only had day sweats, I never had night sweats, and I kept waiting, like that was going to be the thing that happens next. I was sort of muscling my way through it.
So for me, there was a certain level of managing symptoms, but I didn't go on hormone replacement therapy until much later because there was still a huge stigma around it, you know, 10 years ago. I remember the first time my doctor, you know, suggested it, I was like, Is he crazy? What do you mean, rubbing testosterone cream on the back of your legs? What's that nonsense? And he was kind of ahead of his time.
By the time I was put on hormone replacement therapy, I already was done [with menopause], as we say. So I didn't have the benefit of seeing if it would work for hot flashes and all the things that happened. But I did not murder anyone or myself. And I made it through, you know, as best as I could.
My weight kind of goes up and down for other reasons. So I didn't necessarily connect it with [menopause].
I have to rely on staying active and moving my body and, you know, kind of doing a basic assessment of nutrition needs.
You can constantly compare; it's endless.
I am a person who has not engaged in any facial treatments or injections or anything.
It's just a personal choice; I just haven't done it. But I think that when you are used to seeing a lot of women, especially my age, who have started plastic surgery and things like that from their 20s, it can be very startling to see a face that doesn't have filler.
I remember [Big Bang Theory co-star] Jim Parsons and I would watch our chins because I was the closest in age to Jim. We would watch as collagen started doing its little collapsing dance. That's kind of a thing that I've noticed. But it is really hard.
I remember when just filters on photos was something that we talked about, like, 'Oh, you can make yourself look so different.' … I don't really like to compete in those realms. I just try and avoid it.
That's also part of why I love doing this podcast … I kind of get to be myself. I get to present as myself and we get to talk to amazing experts who, in many cases, help people do all sorts of other things.
I mean, I got sort of a genetically lucky pile of dermis on my face, meaning I don't do much.
I do try and let my skin sort of breathe. I don't wear heavy makeup. I have a smattering of products that I've been given over the years. But I'm one of these people who takes forever to use my favorite face cream because I don't want to run out. So yeah, I have a pretty simple routine. I do use and have been using cruelty-free products and vegan products for years.
I wish I could say like, I drink 89 ounces of water a day and I exfoliate. But I don't get facials regularly. I get a facial maybe three times a year and usually after I've had to wear makeup for a period to help my skin clear it out. I'm really not a fancy person at all.
I have two different autoimmune conditions — and one of them I did get in my menopause years — so that's more for health stuff, it's not necessarily beauty. But it's supposed to be anti-inflammatory. It's literally in my bedroom, in the corner. So yeah, that's pretty out there.
I've been divorced for like 12 years and had a minute where I tried dating apps. But I've been in partnership with my podcast partner [Jonathan Cohen]. We've known each other for 13 years, and we've been dating for about five. It's kind of special that we were friends when we were married to other people; our kids were in the same kid circle. So it's kind of a sweet story that we came back together. But it is very different.
I had never lived with someone except my ex-husband and [Jonathan and I] still don't cohabitate. But I'm very set in my ways and I think that's something that a lot of people who enter the dating world after being married or [are] in their 30s or in their 40s [relate to]. I really like things a particular way. When I finally said that to my partner in front of our couples therapist, he was so relieved because I was like, 'No, I know I am not a flexible person. I really like the shoes lined up the way that I like it and I like the refrigerator organized and I don't like when things are past their expiration date.' … It's a lot of learning for sure.
Gosh, I'm just trying to survive the last of the 40s. I haven't really thought about what the 50s will look like.
I saw Eva Longoria's 50th birthday party and I was like, 'Wow, that looks amazing and not at all what I might think my 50th birthday party would look like.' Where I'm at, my 50th might be like watching Family Feud with some friends in my living room and ordering a gluten-free vegan pizza. So I think I have a ways to go and maybe I have something to learn from that more excited attitude [about 50]. So maybe some of that will rub off on me, but I still have a big chunk left of 49.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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