Women’s Media Center

It’s a special treat to be interviewed by a dear friend, long-time colleague, and inspiring visionary; it was also an honor to be invited to share my ideas with her on “WMC LIVE with Robin Morgan,” which regularly features fascinating and brave women from around the world. My favorite features, though, are those in which Robin takes on language. In this show she is particularly astute when she suggests we abandon the term “cougar” and replace it with “Colette” as in the older major French writer who regularly took young lovers, much to their delight as well as her own. — Suzanne Braun Levine

by Suzanne Braun Levine
Next/Avenue®

Years from now you’ll wish you looked this good, so show your body the respect it deserves…

One of the peculiarities of being an older mother is that your children see your younger self as a stranger. Any photograph in which I appear chic or sexy or simply young elicits the same stunned response from my 26-year-old daughter: “Is that you?” She can’t picture me actually wearing the hip ’60s clothing that I pull out to impress her, especially since I can’t even get any of it over my head now.

By Suzanne Braun Levine

I am making a new friend…. I think; you never know about such things until you are actually there, at intimacy. But this friendship is already taking a surprising turn.

I find myself going at it in a very different way from relationship-building in the past. I am still looking for trust, humor, empathy, curiosity — the same old things I’ve always looked for — but the stages I find myself going through to get there are new.

Suzanne Braun Levine &
Mary Eileen Williams
FeistySideofFifty.com

“One of the lovely things about writing a book about women in my stage of life is that I learn so much that makes my life richer. The message of How We Love Now is the same message that I have taken away from all the thoughtful women I interviewed – that we are in more nourishing relationships than we stop to appreciate and that those relationships are helping us grow more authentic and more “bodacious” – to use Eileen’s word -every day. And we should stop to celebrate that.

Jane Fonda recently celebrated her 75th Birthday and shared the good news about being that age on her blog: “I am happier than ever, more at peace, healthy – well there are times when my body hurts all because of osteoarthritis. But that doesn’t define me…” (Read more at “Jane’s Blog”). I remembered that she had blogged about reading HOW WE LOVE NOW and thought I would share it here. Enjoy!

by Richard Eisenberg
NextAvenue.org

“The new ‘Encore Career Handbook’ is a terrific guide that shows you how to make a difference while making a living. If anyone can figure out how to overcome obstacles at the start of your second act, I think it’s Marci Alboher,” says Richard Eisenberg from PBS’ Next Avenue.”

by Mary Eileen Williams
FeistySideofFifty.com

By the time we reach 50, we’ve gone through a lot. We’ve lost loved ones to death and through the breaking of relationship ties. We’ve endured injured pride, damaged self-esteem, and crushing disappointments. We have sustained significant blows to the ego through painful experiences of rejection. And we’ve seen our nest empty, watching our children build their own lives while our loved ones (and we) grow older. We need our friends now more than ever before!

by Karin Lippert
MotheringintheMiddle.com

Long before Ann Martin wrote her bestselling series The Baby-Sitters Club® I was a baby-sitter on Long Island at age 12. Looking back, I continue to be amazed that a family – a mother – would trust me to take care of three children [one an infant] at that age. It was the ‘50s and I was paid 50 cents an hour in a far more innocent time. I loved the family, enjoyed the kids. I also remember I tried one of the mom’s Lucky Strike cigarettes – cough, cough! Not good.

Huff/Post 50

You might say it’s the time of year for silver belles. Vogue’s Vicki Woods, a journalist who has written cover stories for the fashion mag on Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie and Sarah Jessica Parker, is the latest high-profile figure to go gray. She wrote about her decision in a recent post:

Encore.org, second acts
for the greater good

A news story about a 5-month-old boy living in foster care who’d been kidnapped right out of his crib – never to be found – shook Judy Cockerton. She thought about all the other kids in foster care, the ones no one hears about until something awful happens.

By Suzanne Braun Levine

One thing about being an older mother is that you are constantly reminded of the truism that age doesn’t really describe the shape of a person’s life. Nor does our place on the family tree, the generation we are assigned to at birth. When my daughter was born I was 44, old enough to be her grandmother. When she went to school, I was old enough to be her teachers’ (and her friends parents’) mother. At the same time my contemporaries had long since forgotten about coping with babies and young children – they were on to the joys of grandchildren. My most meaningful cohort was other women with children my children’s age, but not my age themselves.

By Mary Eileen Williams,
FeistySideofFifty.com

Most baby boomer women can recall that our early years were not exactly fair. In truth, when we were young, being a member of the “fairer sex” meant you were destined to living a life of limited opportunities.

By NextAvenue Staff

You know the stereotype: aging narcissists who’ve lost their creative edge, coasting downhill and taking up space at work as they wax nostalgic about Leave It to Beaver and Woodstock to stave off the inevitable midlife crisis. Or something like that.

by Karin Lippert
Huff/Post50

“To this day, it’s one of the ways I define myself: I worked at Ms. It’s my badge of pride,”
Hagar Scher

We came together to celebrate our collective pride and three generations of connections as a “family.” To remember the conversations we started with each other that became articles, sparked a dialogue with our readers – with women everywhere – and transformed our lives and theirs.

By Suzanne Braun Levine,
Mothering In The Middle

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite day of the year. The way I do it, it has all the advantages of a holiday with none of the oppressive side-effects. There are no presents, so there is no guilt or financial stress. The food is wonderful and comforting (with lots of leftovers). I can enjoy a jello mold or sweet potatoes with marshmallows without shame.