The Internet Finally Found Women Over 50. Don't Make It Weird.

Oct 4

3 min read

A woman in her late 50s in a leopard coat filming herself on a phone tripod on a cobblestone street, laughing.

On being "discovered" by an algorithm, like a continent that was there the whole time

My feed changed sometime this summer. One week it was 26-year-olds explaining how to make coffee in a hotel room. The next week it was a 58-year-old woman in Lisbon in a leopard coat, deadlifting, then eating an entire pastel de nata on camera without a single word of apology.

You watch it four times. Then you send it to six women. Then you follow her, which, for the record, is the closest most of us will come to joining a cult.

The hashtag #over50women is active on TikTok right now. The trend reports are calling it an "emerging" audience. Emerging. Like we just crawled out of the ocean and grew lungs.

We did not emerge. We were here. We were buying the clothes, booking the trips, running the companies, and paying for everyone's phone plan. The platforms just finally looked up from the 22-year-olds long enough to notice who was holding the credit card.

So yes, welcome. Glad you found us. Please do not make it weird.

Here is what weird looks like, in case anyone in a marketing meeting is reading this.

Weird is the word "still." She's still stylish. She's still dating. She's still lifting. "Still" is the word you use about a houseplant that somehow survived your vacation. We are not surviving. We are thriving, and some of us are doing it in better shoes than you.

Weird is the "brave" comment. A woman over 50 posts a photo in a swimsuit and the comments fill up with "so brave." She went to the beach, Linda. She did not storm Normandy.

Weird is the age as the whole personality. The video is a woman making a ceramic bowl, and the caption is "62 and making bowls." She is not 62 and making bowls. She is making bowls. The 62 is just how long it took her to get good at not caring who watched.

We did not emerge. We were here.

And weird is the sudden flood of products. The second an algorithm figures out you are 50, it decides you need a serum, a supplement, a walking pad, and a cruise. Every single day. As if visibility means "now we know where to send the bill."

Here is what the women actually doing this are showing us, if you look closely. They are not asking for permission. They are not explaining the age. They are not doing the "before I get started, I know I'm old" disclaimer. They post the outfit. They post the lift. They post the solo trip and the bad haircut and the new business and the divorce party. The age is in the frame. It is not the headline.

That is the whole lesson. Be in the frame. Stop narrating it.

So many of us crop ourselves out of photos. Not dramatically. Just a slight step to the left, a strategic arm, a "you take it, I'll hold the drinks." Somewhere around 45, you realize you have about fifteen years of vacations where you are mostly a hand holding a margarita.

So I stopped. Now I am in the picture. Sometimes I look great. Sometimes I look like a woman who has been awake since 5 a.m. Both are true. Both are going on the internet.

The algorithm found us. Fine. The algorithm is not the point. The point is that every woman over 50 posting her real face, her real life, and her real opinions is making it easier for the next woman to stop holding the margarita.

You do not need to go viral. You need to stop hiding.

What is the photo you finally let yourself be in? Tell us.