For the first 15 years of my career, I was obsessed with youth. If it was new, cool, and created by someone just out of college, I felt driven to write about it. I wrote thousands of posts on my blog, Design*Sponge, about whatever was “new” and “now” in the creative community. But over the years, my preoccupation with newness faded and I became far more interested in the people and stories behind new designs than with the work itself. That slow shift away from youth solidified this year, when I turned 40. Finding myself in an entirely new chapter of life changed the way I viewed the world— and my place in it— completely. In 2020, I embarked on my dream project: to interview 100 women between the ages of 50 and 106 about the life lessons they have learned. I wanted to compile these inspiring stories into a book that would attempt to right the imbalance in how we value and celebrate women’s stories. My goal was to highlight the wisdom, advice, and perspective these women had to share. Their stories are too often overlooked because society often devalues women, age, and knowledge that is spoken rather than written. After conducting over 100 interviews via Zoom during a global pandemic, that book, chock-full of meaningful life lessons and stories of resilience, is now in the world. Collective Wisdom: Lessons, Inspiration, and Advice from Women Over 50 contain the deeply personal stories, and hard-fought life lessons, of over 100 women from across the country. From reservations on the west coast to rural communities in the south to metropolitan cities in the northwest, the stories these women share are as diverse as the women themselves. And while each of their paths is unique, the thread that connects all of these stories is a commitment to community and appreciating the bond we have with elders in our lives. Collective Wisdom also highlights meaningful stories of intergenerational friendship, between women in families, sorority sisters, work mentors and mentees and friends who met and connected despite decades of age difference. These stories were inspired by a friendship I had with a woman I met volunteering, Georgine. Despite over 50 years between us, our friendship found common ground in a mutual love of caring for the people, plants, and animals in our lives. I learned so much from Georgine and even years after her passing, I carry the wisdom and connection I found in our friendship with me to this day. There is so much love, support, and community to be found when we resist our culture’s urge to silo us based on age. Instead, I hope these stories will inspire everyone reading to not only pursue intergenerational friendships, but to appreciate and be more curious about the relationships we already have with elders in our lives. I’m honored to share 10 of the lessons I’ve learned from working on Collective Wisdom. From dispelling myths about ageism and friendship to the importance of embracing imperfection, these women and their stories have given me the greatest gift: a living, breathing sense of community. I hope that community is something we can all share with each other and continue to add to with our own voices. And if you’d like to hear any of these women’s voices and share them with someone special in your life, I hope you’ll consider giving a copy of Collective Wisdom this holiday season as a reminder of the power of sharing our lives and stories with each other.
Life Lessons from Women Over 50
Next, Americans Say 50 Is the Ideal Age: Do You Agree? Grace Bonney is also the author of the bestselling books In the Company of Women and DesignSponge at Home. She is passionate about equity, inclusivity, and supporting all members of the creative community: she founded DesignSponge, a daily website dedicated to the creative community, which reached nearly 2 million readers per day for 15 years and is now officially archived in the Library of Congress; Good Company, a print magazine and podcast about creative entrepreneurs; and After the Jump, a podcast about creatives that has reached over 500,000 listeners per episode. Bonney lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her wife and their pets. She is currently working toward a graduate degree in marriage and family therapy at Syracuse University. Her latest book, Collective Wisdom, is in bookstores now. Find her on Instagram and Twitter at @designsponge.
