Social media’s ‘grandfluencers’ debunking aging myths – ABC News

Joan MacDonald’s health was in a shambles at the age of 71. She was on numerous medications for high cholesterol, increased blood pressure and kidney trouble.

Her daughter, a fitness coach, warned that she’d wind up an invalid if she didn’t turn things around.

She did, hitting the gym for the first time and learning to balance her diet with the help of a brand new tool — an iPhone.

Now 75, Ms MacDonald is a hype beast for health, with a bodybuilder’s physique and 1.4 million followers on Instagram.

She’s among a growing number of “grandfluencers” — folks 70 and up who have amassed substantial followings on social media with the help of fans who are decades younger.

Ms MacDonald said she was surprised at the beginning that people cared what she had to say.

“Why would people want to follow an old broad?” she asked.

“My daughter, Michelle, cleared that up. She said it’s what you’re representing, that people can do what they think they’ve not been able to do, or were told that they couldn’t do.”

Turning their digital platforms into gold

Ms MacDonald has sponsorship deals and has just launched her own health and fitness app, not so many years after first learning how to use digital technology herself.

On TikTok, four friends who go by @oldgays have 2.2 million followers who revel in their clueless answers to pop culture questions.

Others focus on beauty and style, setting up Amazon closets with their go-to looks and putting on makeup tutorials live.

Lagetta Wayne, at 78, has teens ask her to be their grandmother as she tends to her vegetables and cooks them up on her TikTok account as @msgrandmasgarden. 

Ms Wayne owes her social media success of 130,500 followers since joining Tiktok in 2020 to her teenage granddaughter.

Her very first video, a garden tour, had 37,600 likes.

“One day my garden was very pretty and I got all excited about that and I asked her if she would take some pictures of me,” Wayne recalled.

Most people aged 50 and up use technology to stay connected to friends and family, according to a 2019 survey by AARP, a US group which advocates for those over 50.

But less than half use social media daily for that purpose, relying on Facebook above other platforms.

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Just 37 per cent of those aged 70 or more used social media daily in 2019, the research showed.

Since the pandemic began, older creators have expanded their horizons beyond Facebook and become more voracious, often driven by the growing number of feeds by people their own age, AARP’s senior vice president Alison Bryant said. 

The second youngest member of the Old Gays, Jessay Martin, aged 68, said social media had changed his life. 

“I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life relaxing pretty much, and I do, but this is picking up more for us,” he said. 

“I had a very structured week, where Monday I worked the food bank at the senior centre, Tuesday and Friday I did yoga for an hour and a half, Wednesday I was on the front desk at the senior centre.

“I was just sort of floating by, not being social, not putting myself out there in the gay community. And boy, has the Old Gays changed that.”

Busting myths about aging 

Ms Bryant said influencers like Ms MacDonald and the the Old Gays were busting myths about what is possible at ages 60, 70 and 80. 

“The authenticity that we’re seeing in some of these older influencers is really refreshing.

“That’s part of the complexity of their narratives. They’re bringing other parts of their lives to it.

“They’re grandparents and great-grandparents and spouses. They’re more comfortable in their own skins.”

Sandra Sallin, a blogger and artist, has slowly built her following to 25,300 on Instagram.

Her reach recently extended to the British Olympic gold-medal diver Tom Daley, who raved about her mother’s cheesecake recipe after his coach spotted it online and made it for her athletes and staff.

Ms Sallin, a lover of lipstick who focuses on cooking and beauty, also shares photos from her past and other adventures, like her turn last year in a vintage Spitfire high above the cliffs of Dover.

“I wanted to expand my world. I felt that I was older, that my world was shrinking. People were moving, people were ill,” she said.

“So I started my blog because I wanted to reach out. After that, I heard about this thing called Instagram.

“I’m shocked because most people who follow me are 30 and 40 years younger. But there are people who are older, who have kind of given up and say, ‘You know, I’m going to start wearing lipstick.'” 

Inspiring the next generation online 

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Grace Maier, 32, is home full-time with her two young kids. She followed Barbara Costello, a 72-year-old Connecticut grandmother, after seeing her life hacks on Instagram under @brunchwithbabs. 

“She does these posts, ‘Did your mom ever tell you?’ and I followed her immediately on Instagram,” she said. 

“Her content brings me joy! She’s got all of these life hacks and tips that remind me of things my grandma shared with me before she passed.

“She also doesn’t take herself too seriously and just seems like the kind of person who would welcome you into her home.

Candace Cima, 74, taught herself to shoot and edit videos for Instagram by watching YouTube tutorials.

Ms Cima joined the platform in February 2019 as a fresh voice on fashion and style while encouraging her audience not to be afraid of aging.

“I’m still in that learning curve, I have to be honest,” she said. 

“I’ve always had a lot of ideas about aging. I don’t understand why aging has such a negative connotation.”

ABC/AP 

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