Twin sisters Leslie White and Cynthia Heyd (both Artsci’83) are having a senior moment.
For some, that might mean they have forgotten something important. But White and Heyd are fighting against negative stereotypes of older people, so they like to think a senior moment should be positive, like using wisdom and experience to achieve something great.
The sisters’ senior moment right now is Twin-Agers, a public campaign dedicated to celebrating people in their “magic hour,” which they define as anyone 55 years and older and still far away from being elderly. These people are not young, but they are not old. The sisters want to break the senior stereotype by highlighting stories that show older people don’t walk around with a cane and spend their days at the bingo hall.
“We (people 55 and older) don’t give ourselves credit for how much we know so our confidence and self-esteem start to erode when the opposite should be happening,” says White. “We have knowledge, and all our experiences deserve to be shared.”
Twin-Agers has a website and several social-media accounts dedicated to sharing people’s stories, such as a 62-year-old who wrote her first book, a 55-year-old who developed an app to create more empathetic communities, and a 62-year-old kickboxing official who is hoping to referee at the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Launching Twin-Agers has given White and Heyd a platform to do media interviews and spark conversations about the negative stigma on aging. Twin-Agers has more than 1,500 followers on Instagram, nearly 3,000 followers on TikTok, and the sisters have been frequently highlighted in the media, including being named to the list of the Top 50 Women Leaders of Toronto for 2023 by the organization Women We Admire.
The sisters both had successful careers but said they felt ageism has negatively impacted them both.
Heyd worked in advertising and production – an industry that is very youth-orientated – and she felt that others thought she couldn’t keep up to date with trends. By the time she reached her 50s, there was a glass ceiling, and her career was not advancing. The only way to break through was to launch her own company, which she has successfully run for the last eight years.
White felt ageism after she left her corporate job and was looking for work at the age of 55. She applied to a few positions and met with headhunters.
“I hit the predictable ageism wall — you’ll be so bored in this role (read old). You’re overqualified (read expensive),” White says.
In the future, White and Heyd hope to grow Twin-Agers into a larger brand that forms partnerships with companies and media influencers to allow them to spread the message that everyone can make a contribution to society – no matter what the age.
“We can make a difference if we can show all generations what an age-friendly world looks like,” Heyd says.
