--- title: Ellen Pompeo Tells Her Daughters Women Get Better With Age description: Ellen Pompeo is celebrating the premiere of Grey’s Anatomy, but in real life, she’s teaching her daughters how to celebrate aging. canonical: https://time.com/4510481/ellen-pompeo-daughters-lesson-greys-anatomy/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-27T19:48:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:27.973Z og:title: Ellen Pompeo Wants Her Daughters to Know That Women 'Get Better With Age' og:description: 'We should empower each other and have compassion for each other' og:url: https://time.com/4510481/ellen-pompeo-daughters-lesson-greys-anatomy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd465080968514e22/6988a7ccfb4eac033b88f476/ellen-pompeo-aging-lesson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: People's Choice Awards 2016 - Press Room og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ellen Pompeo Wants Her Daughters to Know That Women 'Get Better With Age' twitter:description: 'We should empower each other and have compassion for each other' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd465080968514e22/6988a7ccfb4eac033b88f476/ellen-pompeo-aging-lesson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ellen Pompeo Wants Her Daughters to Know That Women 'Get Better With Age' by [Abby Stern / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Abby Stern / People Sep 27, 2016 7:48 PM UTC  LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 06: Actress Ellen Pompeo poses in the press room at the 2016 People's Choice Awards at Microsoft Theater on January 6, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic) LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 06: Actress Ellen Pompeo poses in the press room at the 2016 People's Choice Awards at Microsoft Theater on January 6, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic/Getty Images by [Abby Stern / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Abby Stern / People Sep 27, 2016 7:48 PM UTC [Ellen Pompeo](http://www.people.com/people/ellen%5Fpompeo/) is celebrating the premiere of the thirteenth season of [_Grey’s Anatomy_](http://www.people.com/people/tvwatch/category/0,,20418587,00.html), but in real life, she’s teaching her daughters how to celebrate aging. “We get better with age,” Pompeo told PEOPLE of her advice to daughters [Stella Luna](http://celebritybabies.people.com/2009/09/23/ellen-pompeo-welcomes-daughter-stella-luna/), 7, and [Sienna May](http://celebritybabies.people.com/2014/10/02/ellen-pompeo-welcomes-daughter-sienna-may/), 2, at Philosophy’s Age of Cool event in West Hollywood, California, on Thursday. “We should empower each other and have compassion for each other and help each other and feel good about ourselves.” For Pompeo, who shares her girls with husband [Chris Ivery](http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20160033,00.html), there is a lot of work needed to be done to achieve equality. “I think there’s a lot of glass ceilings and we have to keep busting all of them,” she says. “So this is one glass ceiling that definitely needs to be broken. The truth is, we do get better with age. It’s just society has told us forever that we don’t. And for some reason we believe that because men want us to believe that they get better with age, but really it’s us who get better with age.” Pompeo says she’s seen this change first-hand in her own experiences. “We need to start working on that — smashing that ceiling right now — because I know for myself, I’m 10 times the woman I was 10 years ago,” she says. This is not the first time Pompeo has spoken out for social equality, especially regarding representation on TV. In July, she spoke to PEOPLE about how important it is for her daughters to celebrate the success of African American women. “My daughters are black so it’s very important to me that they see a lot of images of beautiful, powerful, strong black women,” Pompeo [told PEOPLE](http://celebritybabies.people.com/2016/07/28/ellen-pompeo-daughters-strong-black-women/). “Every time there is a black woman on a magazine cover, whether it is [Kerry Washington](http://www.people.com/people/kerry%5Fwashington/) or whoever it is, I make sure that magazine is in my house and on my table. For me, that’s super important.” _This_ [_article_](http://celebritybabies.people.com/2016/09/27/ellen-pompeo-tells-daughters-women-better-with-age/) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://www.people.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4510481/ellen-pompeo-daughters-lesson-greys-anatomy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4510481/ellen-pompeo-daughters-lesson-greys-anatomy/"},"headline":"Ellen Pompeo Wants Her Daughters to Know That Women 'Get Better With Age'","datePublished":"2016-09-27T19:48:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:27.973Z","description":"'We should empower each other and have compassion for each other'","url":"https://time.com/4510481/ellen-pompeo-daughters-lesson-greys-anatomy/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd465080968514e22/6988a7ccfb4eac033b88f476/ellen-pompeo-aging-lesson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abby Stern / People"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd465080968514e22/6988a7ccfb4eac033b88f476/ellen-pompeo-aging-lesson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"People's Choice Awards 2016 - Press Room","caption":"People's Choice Awards 2016 - Press Room","creditText":"Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4510481/ellen-pompeo-daughters-lesson-greys-anatomy/","name":"Ellen Pompeo Wants Her Daughters to Know That Women 'Get Better With Age'"}}]}] ```