Jane Evans, an advertising executive and entrepreneur in her 60s, has been campaigning for years to bring visibility back to middle-aged women, frustrated by her own experience of trying to get a job after a hiatus. βI went to see a creative director and he was like βJane, Iβd give you a job, but you would end up at the back of the department doing the shit that nobody else wants.β The ageism was to my face,β Evans said on the Power of Women podcast. (Lately, Evans and Cindy Gallop, an advertising veteran and outspoken advocate for gender equality in business, have taken on the LinkedIn algorithm, urging females to change their profile gender to male, after they noticed that men consistently received greater engagement with fewer followers.)
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Evans also co-authored a book β Invisible to Invaluable: Unleashing the Power of Midlife Women β that describes the stages of a womanβs life as little girl; troubled teenager; sex object; career woman; mother; old woman waiting to die. βWe are taught to fear the passage of time, not celebrate it,β the authors wrote.
The latest crop of influencers are doing just that, despite the online hate and misogyny they experience. Supermodel Paulina Porizkova, 60, who has become an outspoken advocate for ageing authentically, has been open about the abuse she has received. Some just become disenchanted when social media commodifies them. Lyn Slater, who became widely known as the Accidental Icon, went viral about 10 years ago in her 60s, when βthe word βinfluencerβ wasnβt usedβ. After the pandemic, the former professor of social welfare reassessed her life, stopped doing sponsored posts on Instagram (@iconaccidental) and now has a Substack documenting her reinvention.
Like youth, trends are fleeting and never more so than in the digital age. Some you are glad when they are over β and yes, this one might also fade away. But for now, itβs worth basking in its moment as we roll into a new year, and another, and another.