feliceAs we head into the last week of 2022 and the last Healthy Monday Newsletter of Better After 50 this year, I am totally amazed at how our readership has changed. For the first time I can see how women are embracing and even celebrating their age. This is something I have not witnessed over the past 11 years of publishing Better After 50 which was launched in November of 2011.
When I launched Better After 50 I was told that no one would read it because women did not want to admit their age. That 50 was old. That not only would they never want to click on a link that admitted that they had reached the number 50 but they would definitely not want to be called Bad Ass 50’s or BA50s because they were embracing their aging. But that was then.
Now our readers are proud to be BA50s. They are proud to be Bad Ass women who are fearless and willing to walk the walk of the years. We see that with our every day and Hollywood celebrities who we write about and celebrate on our social media and in our posts on Fashion Friday. We see that in our every day lives and the writings of our awesome team of Better After 50 writers who continue to publish along with me every week on Healthy Mondays.
Launching an on-line magazine for women over 50 in 2011 is my personal story of survival after a devastating loss and a strong intention and commitment to live a life with purpose in my 50’s and beyond and to embrace life fully in my next chapter. I did not want to do this alone so I created a community through this digital platform which I had to learn from scratch having been in print publishing my whole career. It hasn’t been an easy ride and growth had been slow going until recently, but it has always been a time of incredible learning.
On BA50 there is an acknowledgment that we are wiser because of what we have lived and what we have learned. BA50 may have been among the first to talk about this but now there are other wonderful online media besides BA50 who are creating community through acknowledgement that we have needed help. We have needed help to navigate menopause and our changing bodies and skin and relationships with our adult children and aging parents and becoming grandparents and mother-in-laws and the gray divorce and dating again. BA50 has been there to take us on this journey into the decades after 50.
This on-line magazine has been a labor of love for me — it was my vision to create a community where women could celebrate this next phase of life and not bemoan getting older. I still stand by the original tag line — “We are Better After 50 Because We Choose To Be.”
Now as I embrace my 60’s I find that all this passion and writing and growth has been incredibly sustaining and has helped to keep me engaged in our changing world. Staying engaged in what’s new in the digital world can be exhausting but for those of us who do, we know it keeps us relevant because continued learning is our key to staying sharp and present.
As BA50 enters its 12th year of publishing there has been alot written and shared and commented on. It’s hard to believe that we published 104 newsletters again this year as Healthy Monday and Fashion Friday newsletters are published each week and over 400 articles were published this year alone and over 4500 articles have been published over the life of Better After 50.
I want to thank you for joining me on this life journey. I welcome all new readers who are turning 50 and all those who are continuing to read BA50 in their 70’s and beyond.
I continue to invite you to send your posts to me at felice@betterafter50.com for consideration, to join me in my writing workshops and to share your favorite posts with those you care about.
May we continue our work to live healthier and more loving lives and to share our wisdom with each other and the next generation. We are always learning and growing — let’s do that together.
With love and heart,
Felice Shapiro
Publisher/Founder Betterafter50.com