Gwyneth Paltrow's Abs Star on the Cover of Self

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Gwyneth Paltrow has recently published her fourth cookbook (It's All Easy), launched a new beauty line (Goop by Juice Beauty), and successfully pulled off an adult onesie (highly difficult). Now she, along with her abs, are starring on the cover of Self magazine.

Aside from the previous topics, Gwyneth also discusses the power of being in her 40's. "It's a fantastic age," she says. "You can still find yourself at a party at 3 a.m., but you also know enough about who you are and how that informs the choices you make. It's like, I'm good! I'm not going to strive to be anyone else or please anybody else," echoing Kerry Washington's recent comments to Oprah.

She also gets unusually frank around the topic of sex, saying:

We have this idea that you can't be a mother and a businesswoman and like to have sex! How is an intelligent woman a sexual being? It's really hard to integrate those things. Like, ‘Gwyneth has sex? Really?' It doesn't seem to go together. But I think it's important, as mothers and as women contributing to society in whatever way we each are, that our true sexuality doesn't get lost or put aside.

Amen. Below, the full cover.

Photo: Self Magazine