Liberty Road

Written by Team Liberty Road

You can tell when someone is creating something out of sheer passion. When they're not doing the thing in hopes it will take off or appease an audience, but rather because it's a seed inside them they must give light.

This truth encapsulates Mimi Ison, the beloved founder of the site Hey Middle Age and Instagram account of the same name. When she was 55, Mimi wanted "to figure things out for myself," as she says. She'd just lost her mom, her daughter graduated from high school, her body was changing, and she'd left her job. Change was everywhere in Mimi's life, prompting her to yearn for a roadmap or outlet—something she couldn't find. So, she started a blog about midlife and eventually began posting regular content on Instagram. It all took off. "Well, that was 100 percent not the plan at all," she says about the popularity of her message.

Following a heartfelt, more wabi-sabi approach is very Mimi. Now in her early sixties, she's one of the most profound, do-it-your-way pro-aging influencers for her irreverent and honest take on exercise, crushing ageist stereotypes, growing older, and finding yourself. She aims to “bust ages stereotypes about getting older,” as she says, through a lot of physical movement, fitness, dancing and things she loves.

When Nada recently spoke with Mimi, she asked the influencer what else had changed when she turned 55. "As a lifelong self-conscious perfectionist, overthinker, and people pleaser, what I really did after age 55 was become a better steward for myself.”

Mimi’s Take On…

Starting Her Blog

I was 55 when I was diving into what was out there, what the messaging was, what the information was, and I just didn't connect with any of it. I didn't see myself. I had come off of a very challenging and difficult year. My mom had passed away. My daughter graduated from high school, which is a great thing! I had left my job. I was just a time when I was trying to figure things out for myself and things were changing—my body was changing, the way I was feeling emotionally. So I was just diving in, but I didn't really see a lot of what I liked. At the same time, I came upon the subject of ageism, which I knew very little about. And so the combination of those things just made me decide to write a blog.

Taking Her Time

If you googled how to start a blog, you could get one off the ground in half a day or something. It took me two years because I was just so fearful, and it just seems silly. I thought, Who's going to read this? What am I doing? But I did it. And then it took me another year to even start posting regularly. At some point, I just thought, let's just see what happens. Let's just dive in. Social media is this opportunity of this time, and it doesn't cost anything and to not get my feet wet and at least step in and try to be a part of this evolution, I thought I'll regret this if I don't at least try. So I did.

Her Love of Fitness

As I started experimenting, I started to post things around fitness. Stuff that I did and I would combine it with information or I'd list a source. I'm not a trainer; I'm not a coach. I don't have credentials, so I'm really, really careful about what I say and write. Then I discovered remixes, where you take another person's reel or video and—if they allow you to—you record side by side. So I found a couple that were dancing, and I thought, Oh, I'll learn this, and I'll do this side by side with this person! So I started to do that in a few months and a couple of those went viral. I don't know why. I don't know how. I have no idea, but they did, and then it just sort of grew from there. If someone asked me, 'How do you do this?' I'd say I think it's an alchemy of the messaging, consistency, timing, and a lot of luck.

How Her Life "Loosened" When She Turned 55

As a lifelong self-conscious perfectionist, overthinker, and people pleaser, what I really did after age 55 was become a better steward for myself. This is very common for women, especially if you have a family, in that you put everyone ahead of yourself, and you don't make yourself the priority. I know that in some ways, it's a privilege to be able to do that. A lot of people have things coming at them from every angle, and they have a lot of responsibility. But I also feel that for a lot of midlife women, you get to an age where you are suddenly able to carve out more time for yourself. You can prioritize yourself. And honestly, for some, they don't know how, or it doesn't feel right. But I made it my priority. I was very intentional about taking care of myself. So that meant cooking at home, because I wasn't doing much of that, exercising, and moving. It also meant saying no to things; not always taking care of everyone else, and not always making sure someone had a jacket when they walked out the door. These are micro things, but if you sort of stop doing them, you realize, My gosh, I do that all the time. So, that's where the loosening comes. There's a lot of freedom there.