Joan MacDonald, 79, shares encouragement and her workout routines with more than two million Instagram followers.Supplied
Joan MacDonald never set out to become a social-media influencer.
The 79-year-old resident of Cobourg, Ont., spent much of her adult life raising three children and working full-time. As she got older and a few aches and pains set in, Ms. MacDonald grew tired of taking endless medications for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. So, she began strength training in her 70s, largely due to the encouragement of her daughter Michelle, a yogi and competitive powerlifter. Ms. Macdonald says she decided to share her progress on Instagram as a form of accountability.
“I didn’t come to social media with any thought of influencing people,” says Ms. MacDonald, whose Instagram handle is @trainwithjoan. “[But] there are so many of us older people showing the world that we can be strong, independent and still relevant. What I love most is that I am able to have a positive effect on others, young and old. When you get older, there is a tendency to be relegated to the fringes of society. We have a choice; we can choose to stay engaged and keep growing.”
“What I love most is that I am able to have a positive effect on others, young and old,” says Joan MacDonald.Supplied
Ms. MacDonald’s fitness content is massively popular. She currently boasts more than two million followers on Instagram and in 2023, she landed the cover of Women’s Health. She says that for her, strength training is less about building muscle and more about building independence, confidence and staying mentally engaged. And while she says creating content has pushed her far outside her comfort zone, it’s also helped reshape how she understands retirement itself.
“I wake up with a reason to take care of myself and stay true to who I say I am,” she says. “My life has meaning and purpose beyond ‘retirement.’ I’m only getting started.”
A platform for radical encouragement
For generations, retirement has been framed as a narrowing of life – a gradual slowing down, a quiet retreat from ambition and risk. But a growing cohort of older adults is pushing back on that narrative in a very public way.
Through content creation, seniors on social media are redefining what strength looks like in later life, offering a vision of retirement grounded not just in financial security, but in physical vitality, emotional resilience and a renewed sense of purpose. They’re fitness experts, they’re travelling, they’re eating their way around the world.
Linda Malys Yore, 73, is a solo traveller and marathoner based in Tampa Bay, Fla. Her travel blog was made and launched as a Christmas gift by her daughter, and she now has more than 66,000 followers on Instagram (@lindaontherunofficial). She takes her audience on trips around the world with her, with joy and a signature red lip.
Linda Malys Yore, 73, shares her travels on her blog and Instagram, such as this trip to Paris.Supplied
For Ms. Yore, social media has become a platform for radical encouragement. Whether she’s travelling solo through Asia or flying across the world to attend K-pop concerts, she is determined to show her followers they can do it, too. “It is never too late to chase after our dreams,” she says. “I want to be that example, that age is just a number, to the senior generation.”
That public accountability works both ways. “Not only did my voice influence my readers, it helped me as well to not be complacent,” she explains, adding that her work has introduced her to an online and offline global community she never expected to find in retirement.
Both Ms. Yore and Ms. MacDonald have also reaped the financial benefits of being an influencer through brand partnerships. Ms. Yore receives travel-centric freebies and special accommodations with organizations such as Viking River Cruises and the Waldorf Astoria. She even travelled to South Korea through a partnership with food company Bibigo to promote Netflix’s Squid Game.
Ms. MacDonald’s collaborations tend to be fitness-centric. She’s worked with Lululemon on a campaign that required her to memorize a script and do a little acting. She also partnered with eye drops company TheraTears to highlight how aging can worsen problems with dry eyes.
‘Train smarter, not more’
Mark Lidster (@marklidsterfitnessgeezer), 63, is a former systems analyst and current YouTube creator from North Harrow, London. He describes himself as being in “pre-tirement.” While he still works part-time as a hypnotherapist, he says physical fitness is central to his sense of identity and purpose. “Almost anyone I meet understand that fitness is incredibly important to me. It is such an intrinsic part of our DNA.”
Because his content isn’t driven by revenue, Mr. Lidster says it allows him to create more intentionally.
“It’s like I’m creating a tribe of like-minded individuals aligned in removing age stereotypes and improving their longevity and quality of life outcomes.” He says the feedback he receives from his 22,000-plus subscribers has, in turn, reinforced his own positive outlook on aging.
Mark Lidster, 63, says he wants to remove age stereotypes with his YouTube fitness content.Supplied
Still, Mr. Lidster is candid about the need to adapt expectations with age. “Train smarter, not more,” he says, noting that while he is stronger in some ways than ever before, recovery takes longer than it once did. Strength, for him, now includes restraint, self-awareness and long-term sustainability, an approach that he says supports both physical and mental well-being.
Although social media has a reputation for being Gen Z’s platform of choice, these creators are proving it has a far wider reach. Ms. MacDonald, Mr. Lidster and Ms. Yore all expressed their passion for challenging the idea that retirement is something to be endured rather than relished.
As Ms. MacDonald says, “Aging may require adjusting how you do things, but that shouldn’t mean avoiding challenges. Learning, curiosity and growth don’t have expiration dates.”