5 Thought-Provoking Quotes to Ease the Peer Pressure to Have Kids

Not all childfree women are barren. Some women may have lost children early in their lives and never had more. Whatever the situation, some celebrities managed to have refreshingly honest conversations about a very personal subject to empower women. Remember it could always be a decision to opt out of parenting and the pressure to have children. Childfree women are far from incomplete and we have some celebrity quotes to help you see that womanhood is not always synonymous with motherhood.

  • "I try not to listen to the shoulds or coulds, and try to get beyond expectations, peer pressure, or trying to please—and just listen. I believe all the answers are ultimately within us. When I answered those questions regarding having children, I realized that so much of the pressure I was feeling was from outside sources, and I knew I wasn't ready to take that step into motherhood." ​​—Kim Cattrall, O Magazine, 2003

  • “I’m happy, but the fact that I'm not married and don't have kids — it's taken me a long time to get to a place where I actually am OK with that, where I actually don't feel like I'm some sort of loser."—Rashida Jones, The Guardian, 2014

  • "I've thought about this a lot lately. I never thought I'd be this age and not have kids. But my life has also gone in a million ways I never anticipated. I kept feeling like I'd wake up with absolute clarity, and I haven't. And we have a pretty great life together. The chance that we'll regret it doesn't seem like a compelling enough reason to do it. I may wake up tomorrow with that lightning bolt, and I'll have to scramble to make it happen."—Jennifer Westfeldt, New York Times, 2012

  • "Of course I wonder what that would be like but, your destiny is your destiny and I can't imagine, if by some miracle I got pregnant…at this point in my life, I wonder, could I even manage that? It would be a lie to say there's not a bit of sadness there, but I don't get caught up in it."—Kylie Minogue, The Sunday Times, 2018

  • “So here I am sorting out what MY LIFE looks like when it’s fully mine, it takes a certain bravery to do that. It means risking being misunderstood, perceived as alone and broken, having no one to focus on, fall into or hide behind, having to be my own support and having to stretch and find family love and connection outside of the traditional places. But, I want to do it. I want to be the Brave Me, the real me, the one whose life is my own.”—Tracee Ellis Ross, Ebony Magazine, 2017