In an interview in You magazine late last year actress Angelina Jolie, considered one of the world's most beautiful women, claimed that motherhood has changed the way she looks.
It's not just the obvious changes that Angelina, a mother of six (yes, six!), referred to; how mums look a little more tired, and perhaps a little more curvy and a little less wealthy than they did before children arrived.
Angelina, who claims that breastfeeding and running around after six kids got her back into shape after her last pregnancy with twins, says in the interview:
"I first became happy with the way I look when I became a mother. There's this idea that beauty is when someone does your hair and puts a lot of make-up on you and sticks your face on the cover of a magazine. Is that beauty?...Something else comes out of you when you become a parent and, as you get older, you start to see more character in your face.
"Now, when I look at myself, I just see somebody at peace, and I see a mom, and I see my own relatives in my face – and that's a kind of beauty that exists for everybody and doesn't disappear."
Celebrities often look different in their mum shots, but that's because, more often than not, we see them in Hello or OK! in soft focus lying blissed out on a white sofa, wearing all white, gazing lovingly at a calm, white-baby-gro'd, newborn baby, being stroked by a hunk of a husband in a white V-neck, because there is no such thing as vomit and poo and dirt in celebrity baby land.
These mums might have been permanent tabloid fixtures only months before, falling out of ChinaWhite night after night, but somehow motherhood transports them to a land of serenity and wholesomeness where under-eyebags don't exist. Right?
In real life, it seems to me that motherhood does change the way women look. Motherhood is absolutely a very beautiful thing, but the day-to-day effects, according to mums that I know, is a bit grubbier. Saggy breasts and unwashed hair for a fifth day anyone?
How has motherhood changed the way you look? Has it changed your looks for the better? Do you feel a bit below par and wish you had more time to do something about the way you look? Find the whole topic a bit shallow? Let us know!