magazines for 50-somethings

I love my magazines. After years staying home raising kids, and reading all I could, but in short snippets, I am addicted. I have begun to eschew such magazines as People, Hollywood, with their bizarre notions of beauty, gives me way too much pressure to be someone I am not. I am a creature with hormonal imbalances, stress and menopausal issues that have reshaped my body. I am surprised that some, like The Enquirer, still exist. If people need to read short stories, there are many Canadian story writers who create beautiful, poignant works.

Oprah, one woman with whom I identified until she shrunk, died her (age 50+) hair, grew it long like the young folks, and faked 40, has left me cold. She will do a marvelous item on Spirituality, and finding your inner self, then feature ads to help you slice, dice and erase your outer reflections of inner beauty. The experiences that have shaped you have given you character, depth and breadth, unseen in those with size 2 bodies and brains. They have sculpted my features and given me an outer reflection of the things I have learned in 52 years.

This is my late mother, in her 50s. She worked from age 15 to 66, because she had to.
I want a realistic role model. Not one that looks 20 years younger than her age, and has worked harder on her body than her mind. More magazine featured such on their front cover. Did it ever offend me! I am not renewing my subscription. Oprah's ads for wrinkle creams, Botox and other makeover tools, really bother me. Every time I pick up a magazine I find pressure to slim down, shape up, eat bettter, eat less meat, avoid red meat, work out more, run a marathon, colour my hair, improve my skin, have more (and better) sex, buy a cookbook to be a better cook, or eat out more. Too much pressure for me. I accept myself as I am. I do that for those around me, I expect the same in return.

I think what I like best about Zoomer magazine is that they are unafraid of showing people with gray hair and wrinkles! There are real stories about people who look like me: natural! They look their best, but are not photoshopped into an unrealistic images of themselves. I loved that Dove commercial. If only we knew! I want to campaign for real beauty. It is all we have left.