They are usually meme meat. The one with the lady lifting her glasses and staring in disbelief at the computer screen or man over 70 playing the keyboard and looking at the camera with an awkward smile are great examples. Nevertheless, the third Age does not always look askance at the technology. In fact, there are many who have recently begun to succeed in networks with different profiles. So many that a term has been coined to define them: “grandfluencers”.
timeless style
The queen mother of this trend is likely to be Iris Apfel (@iris.apfel). More than 2 million followers on Instagram, the businesswoman and interior designer is above all a fashion icon thanks to her great personal style and her unmistakable XL glasses. At her 100th birthday, she shamelessly combines colours, textures and patterns, and the whole world applauds her in the form of comments and likes. In its feed the most daring and delicious looks are combined with their collaborations with various brands.
With fewer followers but similar self-confidence, Judith Boyd (@stylecrone) is another network star at 79 years old. She’s a former nurse, she joined a modeling agency a few years ago and got to be in New York Fashion Week. Her goal, she assures her, is to have fun with fashion and inspire other women to do the same, understanding that age is a number and not an opinion. Other cases of grandfluencers fashionable are Linda Rodin (@lindaandwinks), a model and businesswoman who often poses with her poodle on the streets of Manhattan; and Baddie Winkle (@baddiewinkle), who at 93 years old accumulates more than 3 million followers thanks to her colorful and carefree proposals.
Pioneer in this demand for the style of older adults, the designer, producer and fashion influencer Lulu Biaus postulated the hashtag #laterceraedadinspira years ago. Originally created to share portraits of her grandparents, over time it grew to become a label to also spread looks of strangers (but great and fashionistas) in the street or other places. “What attracts me the most is their way of dressing and combining, their valuing of materials, integrating their character and their way of being through what they are wearing,” she points out.
Asked why she thinks this generation is starting to gain ground on social networks, she points out that the understanding of the need for slow and sustainable fashion goes hand in hand with the way this age dresses. “Today we are rescuing the idea of keeping a garment for a long time and valuing its history, instead of discarding it for the following season. And that is precisely what the elderly do”, she maintains, applauding an intention to dress that goes far beyond aesthetics.
Other interests and networks
But not only in fashion and on Instagram do grandfluencers shine: TikTok is another interesting space of reign, and here the Old Gays (@oldgays) have been among the forerunners of the elderly. With 7.5 million followers, this group of friends began posting their dance and impersonation videos – and also great defenses of gay pride – in December 2020, and the explosion was immediate. Friends for half a century, the four men live together in a house and spend their days making new videos and enjoying life together. Their success is such that The New York Times portrayed them as faces of the rise of grandfluencers.
Also on the Chinese network, Erika Rischko (@erikarischko), 82, is a fitness icon that leaves many speechless. In addition to daily exercise routines, she shares dances with her husband and bodybuilding and training tips.
Among the Argentine milestones, meanwhile, Pacho O’Donnell (@pachoodonnell) stands out, who on Instagram captivates his more than 50,000 followers with extensive content, ranging from live stories on history and current affairs to life advice and routines gymnastics, one of the strongest points of transformation of his image.
For her part, Nancy Roqueta (@nancyroqueta) is an Argentine grandmother with 3.4 million followers on TikTok. She calls for her humor videos, her ease to play with her style (her colorful hair is her hallmark these days), her recipes and her always optimistic view of life .
A transgenerational boom
Expert in networks, the writer and philosopher Tomás Balmaceda together with Miriam De Paoli carried out in 2021 the largest research on longevity in the world, with 23,000 respondents. Among its results, data such as that 21% believe that they will live more than 100 years, 79% have already planned their maturity so as not to depend on anyone and 53% of those +65 have an intense weekly routine.
“There are many myths around the figure of the digital influencer. People usually think about the number of followers, the platform they use or how old they are. But there are three false vectors: there are niche influencers with followers that are not numbered in the tens of thousands but with a very deep impact; others that are in networks that are sometimes not taken into account, such as Facebook; and some who are not necessarily young”, points out the expert, for whom networks are absolutely transgenerational. As an example, in November he will publish a book together with De Paoli and Juan Marenco in which they systematize the characteristics of an influencer in a 4 C model, with four dimensions: content and curatorship, creativity and perseverance, community and trust, coherence and consistency. . “As you can see, there is neither the age nor the platform nor the number of followers. Influence is not measured in those terms.” The elderly, who found his own rhythm and style, seem to have understood him better than anyone.
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