Joan MacDonald’s health was in ruins at the age of 71. He was overweight and took numerous medications for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and kidney problems.
Her daughter, a physical trainer, warned that she would end up disabled if she did not change things. He did, went to the gym for the first time and learned to balance his diet with the help of a new tool, an iPhone.
Now 75 years old, MacDonald is an exaggerated beast for health with a bodybuilder physique and 1.4 million loyal followers on Instagramm.
She is among a growing number of “Grandfluencers”, people aged 70 and over who have accumulated a large number of followers on social media with the help of decades younger fans.
“It’s very rare to find someone her age who can do all these things,” said one of her admirers, 18-year-old Marianne Zapata of Larchmont, New York. “It’s such a positive thing to even think about.”
Big influencers, both aspirational and inspiring, are turning their digital platforms into gold.
MacDonald has partnered with the Women’s Best sportswear and supplements brand, and the sensate anti-stress device. And she just launched her own health and fitness app not many years after learning how to use digital technology herself.
On TikTok, four friends who call themselves @oldgays (the youngest is 65) have 2.2 million followers, including Rihanna. They have a sponsorship deal with Grindr, as they delight fans with their clueless answers to pop culture questions.
Others focus on beauty and style, setting up Amazon wardrobes with their favorite looks and putting on live makeup tutorials. Lagetta Wayne, 78, has teenagers who ask her to be her grandmother while she takes care of her vegetables and cooks them in Suisun City, California, like @msgrandmasgarden on TikTok.
Wayne, with 130,500 followers since joining in June 2020, owes her success on social media to a teenage granddaughter. His first video, a tour of the garden, recorded 37,600 likes.
“One day my garden was so beautiful and I got really excited and asked if I could take some pictures of myself,” Wayne recalled. “She said she was going to put me on TikTok and I said, well, what is TikTok? I had never heard of it.”
Most people over the age of 50 use technology to stay connected with friends and family, According to a 2019 AARP survey. But less than half use social media daily for this purpose, trusting Facebook above other platforms.
Only 37% of people aged 70 and over used social media daily in 2019, the research showed. Since it hit the coronavirus, big creators have expanded their horizons beyond the Facebook pillar and become more voracious, often driven ?? by the growing number of feeds from people his own age, said Alison Bryant, senior vice president of AARP.
In the desert city of Cathedral City, Jessay Martin is the second youngest of the Old Gays at 68 years old.
“I thought I’d spend the rest of my life relaxing pretty much, and I do, but that’s getting better for us. I had a very structured week where on Monday I worked at the center food bank for seniors. , on Tuesdays and Fridays I did yoga for an hour and a half, on Wednesdays I was at the reception center for the elderly.I was just floating, without being social, without exposing myself to the gay community.And hey, the Old Gays they’ve changed that, ”Martin said.
Like MacDonald, they destroy many myths about what is possible in the sixth, seventh, and eighth decades of life.
“They’re proving that anyone can do these things, that one shouldn’t be afraid to grow old. Twenty and thirty don’t usually think about it,” Bryant said. “The authenticity we’re seeing in some of these great influencers is really refreshing. That’s part of the complexity of their narratives. They’re bringing other parts of their lives. They’re grandparents and great-grandparents and husbands. They feel more comfortable with their own skin “.
Sandra Sallin, blogger and artist, has gradually gained 25,300 followers on Instagram. Her reach was recently extended to British Olympic gold medalist diver Tom Daley, who praised her mother’s cheesecake recipe after her coach saw her online and prepared her. for its athletes and staff. Sallin, a lipstick lover who focuses on cooking and beauty, also shares photos of her past and other adventures, such as her turn last year in a vintage Spitfire at the top of the cliffs. of Dover.
“I wanted to expand my world. I felt like it was bigger, that my world was shrinking. People were moving, people were sick,” Sallin said. “So I started my blog because I wanted to get there. After that, I heard about this thing called Instagram. It was very hard to learn. I really stumbled on my way. I’m surprised because most people who they follow me they are 30 and 40 years younger. But there are people who are older, who have given up and say, ‘You know, I’m going to start using lipsticks.’ “
Toby Bloomberg, 69, in Atlanta is a supporter of Sallin. He discovered Sallin after Sallin competed in the Food Network’s short-lived program “Clash of the Grandmas.”
“He talks a lot about aging. This is a pretty unusual phenomenon on social media, which is obviously dominated by people much younger than us,” Bloomberg said.
MacDonald said at first she was surprised that people cared what she had to say.
“Why would people want to follow an old woman?” He laughed from home in Ontario, Canada. “My daughter, Michelle, clarified that. She said it’s what you’re representing, that people can do what they think they couldn’t do or that they were told they couldn’t do it.”
Grace Maier, 32, is home full-time with her two children, ages 6 months and 2 years. Follow Barbara Costello, a 72-year-old Connecticut grandmother who uses the @brunchwithbabs ID.
“She makes these posts, ‘Did your mother ever tell you?’ and I immediately followed her on Instagram, ”Maier said. “Her content brings me joy! She has all these tricks and tips that remind me of the things my grandmother shared with me before she died. She doesn’t take herself too seriously either and seems like the kind of person you I would welcome you home. “
Mae Karwowski, founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency Obviously has more than 100 influencers on her network between the ages of 60 and 80. With more than a billion users on Instagram alone, she notes the successes in this 93-year-old Helen Ruth Elam platform (baddiewinkle), 67-year-old Lyn Slater (iconaccidental) and 100-year-old style legend Iris Apfel.
There is another aspect within the reach of the elderly: grandparents and grandchildren who have come together to share their adventures together, from traveling the world to the battles of Nerf.
“The mainstream media, I would say, has a very narrow view of this age group. The best thing about social media is that you can follow a really cool 75-year-old woman who’s doing her thing in Florida and that’s fun. That’s different. And it’s fun, “Karwowski said. “The 21-year-old fashion model influencer belongs. She has a team. She has designers who fall in love with themselves to give her everything. She has professional photographers. Many of these more than 70 influencers are doing it all.”
Candace Cim, 74, taught herself how to record and edit videos for Instagram by watching YouTube tutorials. She took to the platform in February 2019 as a fresh voice about fashion and style, while encouraging her audience not to be afraid of aging. Her husband sometimes helps with photos by @ styleinyour70s.withleslieb (Leslie is her middle name).
“I’m still in that learning curve, I have to be honest. Two and a half years ago, I didn’t even know what an influencer was,” Cima said in Ithaca, New York. “I’ve always had a lot of ideas about aging. I don’t understand why aging has such a negative connotation.”
With 37,900 followers, some of his younger fans have told him why they care: “They don’t want to grow old the way they saw their relatives grow old,” Cim said. “They feel they can learn something.”