Jennie’s Story: More “Me” at Nearly 53

As Jennie says, she is currently “52 and eleven-twelfths.” Or very close to 53. Right now, she feels more like herself than she’s ever been.

Watch the video to hear her story.

Video Transcript:

My name is Jennie. I am 52, but almost 53.

52 and eleven-twelfths is so much better than being 22 and 30 and 40. It's better now. You know what? I am more me now than I ever was. Except maybe when I was a really little girl, and I didn't care about this or that, or the other thing or what people thought, I was just being me. And now, I'm getting back to that.

I think you gain this perspective when you get to my age, and beyond my age. And you start to have a lot more fun, and you like what's happening inside your head more, and you like the words that are coming out of your mouth more.

I am actually probably stronger and more fit now than I was in my 20s.

Then I wasn't exercising, I was sliding by, because I could, and now I workout and I run a little bit, and I can do pushups, and I could never do that before, about three years ago. I made a decision when I turned 50 that I had to start taking things seriously.

You can only slide by for so long, and then you really have to pay attention to you. And actually you get to that age where maybe your kids are bigger or maybe you're more settled in whatever your life is. And so you realize that you have time to do this for you and probably should have been doing it the whole time, but now for sure it's going to start.

I really like how I look now. I let my hair be its natural color. I don't have the insecurities about whether or not I'm sexy anymore. I don't worry so much about, well, my body's not this or my face is like that. I don't worry about any of that. And so, it's freeing.

When you feel freer and you are confident and you don't really care, you have a lot more room to feel and be sexy. I know what I look good in and I know how I like to feel and present myself. So yeah, I might be wearing jeans, but maybe I frayed the hem this season.

You know, I'm a New Yorker, I like black and charcoal and white. I tend not to dress in anything really vivid, really bright because I want people to be looking at me.

I feel vital and alive when I'm active, when I'm exercising, when I'm taking a walk in my neighborhood with my dog, when I'm meeting new neighbors, when I'm talking with somebody about politics, when I'm working on a campaign, when I'm figuring out from all the input, what I really think about a subject, and coming to whatever that decision is for me that's right.