“Children get older,” the great Stevie Nicks once plaintively sang. And you know what? Like pretty much everything else she’s ever said, Stevie Nicks was right about that. Children do get older, which is sometimes sad, sometimes scary, but of course an inevitable part of the great mystery of life. And sometimes it’s kind of, I don’t know, fun! Look, for example, at this latest Instagram of Reese Witherspoon, America’s Southern sweetheart, with her daughter, Ava Phillippe. It’s uncanny! They look very much alike, and Ava looks so grown-up all of a sudden. She’s 15 now, which means we are all a million. She’s got her dad’s eyes (her dad is Ryan Phillippe, so that’s a good thing), and some sea-green hair, like kids are doing these days. There she is, smiling with her mom. It’s a nice picture.

Us Weekly mentions that Ms. Phillippe posted the same picture on her own Instagram account, which, because we are nosy, leads us over to that Instagram account, which reveals a sorta artsy L.A. kid who likes taking pictures of butterflies and going to Coachella. She has a mug that says “It’s A Good Day!” (no doubt a Witherspoon purchase) and pictures with a young woman who would appear to be some sort of bestie. She even, good sister that she is, posted a picture of her baby brother Tennessee Toth for National Siblings Day, in which we also glimpse her other brother, Deacon Phillippe, who looks split down the middle between his mom and his dad. Nice lookin’ kids, these Witherspoon offspring.

The crazy thing is that, in just a few years, Ava Phillippe will be headed to college or wherever else, off to start her own life in the world as an independent person. How will that go?? Is there acting in her future? Or something completely unrelated? I’d guess something creative, whatever it is. And will she stay connected to the Hollywood world? The celebrity-scion scene? Will she pal around with Brooklyn Beckham, the two of them will-they/won’t-they-ing well into their 20s, eventually deciding that, nah, they won’t? (Because Brooklyn realizes he’s in love with Lily Mo Sheen and, really, always has been.) Or will she leave it all behind and move to London, studying architecture at UCL or something?

But, of course, she can’t leave it all behind, because there will be Rafferty Law, a couple years older, lounging around the London club scene, and she’ll think she can fix him, that he just needs someone who understands him. “He’s smart, Mom, he really is,” she’ll say on her weekly Sunday call home. And Reese will cluck her tongue and say, “I dunno, sweetie. Your momma went around that block a couple times when she was your age and, lemme tell you, you’re better off in a whole different neighborhood.” There will be a slight pause, a fuzz on the line, the sound of the ocean and continent between them, and Reese will sigh and say, “But, you’re a young woman now, and these are your choices to make. I know you’ll make the right one. Anyway baby, I gotta go now. I love you, and hey, call your brothers. They miss you.” And Ava will hang up and look at the text from Rafferty, “babe u up?,” and she’ll hold the phone to her chest and think.

Or! Or, Ava will go to work at the Lil’ Spoon Inn, helping her mom at the front desk and whatever else needs doing. She’ll hear a lot of “My lord, you’re the spittin’ image” and stuff like that. A nice, quiet, out-of-the-way kinda life for a few years while she figures herself out. Hanging out with Alison Krauss’s son, Sam Bergeson, a little bit, (Reese encouraging this relationship, “He’s a nice boy from a good home”), learning the family business. Not acting, but running the Lil’ Spoon Inn, a guide-book favorite, a boutique spot that’s worth the extra money. That’d be just fine, too.

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