As researchers studying boomers and beyond who are defying the stereotypes of aging, we are witnesses to an entire generation of women who are reaching milestone birthdays feeling more vital, smarter and stronger than we had ever anticipated. The women of our generation are no less than revolutionaries, overthrowing stereotypes of aging to live vital, energetic lives at every age and stage of our lives. What makes this defiance even more remarkable is that everyday, we are faced with warnings that run counter to our own intuitive sense of well-being and agelessness. Newspaper headlines warn us daily about the rising cost of living and threats to our benefits. Advertisers raise concerns about an alphabet soup of medical and financial issues. The message we receive is that aging is a problem, and our concerns about what’s to come are justified.

The message is compelling—but misleading. For these messages are not “the truth”, and more and more of us are simply not that interested in what the prevailing ethos frames as “the problems of aging.” Rather, we continue to have many of the same concerns that have always captured our generation’s attention: how to find meaning, be productive, establish healthy relationships, reduce stress, make a contribution to society and relish the fully-lived life. Defying stereotypes of aging, the women we meet are becoming free in ways that we did not anticipate, taking an active role in determining our own experience of life and, along the way, replacing the problems of aging with the joy of agelessness.

This is not the first time our generation has overturned the status quo. We are, after all, the generation who rose up against the mythology that defined the perfect woman of the 1950s and, out of our convictions and enthusiasm, we birthed the women’s liberation movement. As young adults, we took on a wide array of traditional institutions, including politics and religion. Establishing our careers, we defied the experts by showing that it was possible, while challenging, to balance work and parenting to invent our own version of having it all. More recently, we transformed hot flashes into power surges. Now, as we are turning the next page on our journey to life mastery, we are refusing to compromise our genuine experience of our lives for stereotypes imposed by the past. Clearly, we are redefining aging into a meaningful and creative experience of life, at once both practical and visionary. Is it any wonder that we are bringing this same level of creativity, vitality and resourcefulness to issues related to our unprecedented longevity?

This is particularly meaningful for our generation of women, given that we are living longer and healthier than any gender or generation in history. Consider that in 1900, not long before many of our own mothers were born, the average American woman lived to be only 47.3 years of age. Even in the early 1940s, at the time Social Security became law, men and women were fortunate to live into their mid-60s. No wonder our parents' generation bought into the notion of a world in which a depressing decline was inevitable. Theirs was a generation where people were old at 50. They looked old. They acted old. But longevity (or lack thereof) wasn’t the only factor that conspired to give aging a bad name. Historians teach us that our parents’ notion of old age also finds its roots in the years immediately following World War II. Women and older people who had been playing a vital role in keeping the country running were prevailed upon to patriotically step aside at war’s end to make room for the returning heroes. Those who failed to cooperate were labeled as cranky, eccentric or even senile.

Even now, it takes great perspective and wisdom to remember that the experiences of aging your parents are going through are not your destiny. Nobody has ever been your age before at this moment in history—let alone in the decades to come. This notion of agelessness is entirely new terrain for you—and for us all.

Exemplifying this spirit of agelessness is Sylvia who, at 59, is still the top salesperson in her company. Recently, she commented: “At the same age my mother was thinking about taking an occasional class at the Emeritus College, my friends and I are talking about going back to school to finish our degrees or get new advanced training in something we can see ourselves doing for the next 20-plus years.” That this second burst of creativity is coming for us in just the nick of time, making up for the savings we’d thought we’d have had in the bag by now, is one of those ironies that perhaps, in retrospect, we will come to appreciate as having been something of a lucky break dressed in wolf’s clothing.

In fact, for the majority of women in our research study, an increase in chronological years is bringing along with it an increase in personal power, regardless of the circumstances with which we are faced. In the midst of our rich and full lives, we are growing wise, honed by many seasons of experience. One by one, time is coming around to delivering on its precious promise to us, a promise made long ago but requiring more of us than we ever suspected we’d have to give. We discover an unshakable inner core, forged out of everything that has happened to us, our triumphs as well as our tragedies.

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