The social media influencer stereotype is a scantily clad 20-something giving fitness tips, hunky wellness gurus or yummy mommy yoga instructors.
But a new wave of stars are hitting Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and sharing their wisdom — senior citizens, some of them in their 80s.
Known as ‘grandfluencers’, they have gained millions of followers by sharing posts about baking pies and life advice.
The most successful among them make as much as $150,000 per post, through sponsorships with brands and selling merchandise.
Lynn Yamada Davis,79, earns a cozy six-figure salary from her ‘Cooking With Lynja’ channels, which shows her making food in unconventional ways – 17 million people watched one video of her building a 10-foot-long hotdog and making popcorn with a hair straightener.
Most people would assume followers of these grandfluencers are older adults, but most of their fans are the younger generation who have welcomed them with open arms into the digital world.
Lynn Yamada Davis,79, earns a cozy six-figure salary from her ‘Cooking With Lynja’ channels, which shows her making food in unconventional ways
Offering up some elderly wisdom
There’s plenty of room for grandfluencers — especially to make money — as the influencer market is worth over $21 billion.
You don’t need to be a lifelong entertainer to go viral on social media.
The wacky chef Davis is a retired MIT engineer. You wouldn’t have guessed that from how naturally entertaining she is in the kitchen.
She slices and dices like a Michelin-star chef but adds a quirky twist to each recipe.
If you want to know how to unstick a zipper with petroleum jelly, find yourself an internet mom/grandma like a ‘Babs.’
If you want to know how to unstick a zipper with petroleum jelly, find yourself an internet mom/grandma like a ‘Babs’
BrunchwithBabs proclaims herself as ‘everyone’s grandmother,’ offering tips and tricks to her more than four million followers.
She has a sweet bob hairstyle, stylish glasses and wears soft pink colored lipstick in every video.
The clips include making the perfect breakfast sandwiches, packing a cooler, cleaning tips and advice on mothering a new mother.
She’s not alone. There are dozens of these accounts where elders offer their wisdom. Many of these elderly creators are like warm, motherly and fatherly figures you can learn from.
The internet’s grandpa
And there would be a complete pair without the internet’s grandpa.
Stephen Austin, 85, goes by ‘Old Man Steve’ on TikTok where he has over 1.7 million followers.
Stephen Austin, 85, goes by ‘Old Man Steve.’ The smiling grandpa wears a hat in every video while sporting a white beard and glasses
The smiling grandpa wears a hat in every video while sporting a white beard and glasses.
He posts short clips of drinking coffee, eating cookies and talking to his fans from his assisted living kitchen in Dallas, Texas.
While he’s not a grandpa himself, he gets a lot of messages from young fans asking him to be theirs.
And Austin does a video every day.
He reminds his fans to be kind to themselves and others.
‘Making fun videos gets me up in the morning because I look forward to interacting with my fans and getting suggestions from them for what I can do,’ he said.
Grandparents of comedy
Just because you are getting older doesn’t mean you can’t have a laugh – and it seems a group of six actors over the age of 70 are living by those words on their channel called Retirementhouse.
More than five million people follow them as they spend their golden years in one home together.
Just because you are getting older doesn’t mean you can’t have a laugh – and it seems a group of six actors over the age of 70 are living by those words on their channel called Retirementhouse
It’s basically ‘Jersey Shore’ — if the cast had back pain and grandchildren to look after.
The group doesn’t scoff at social media trends but instead joins in on the fun — from doing popular TikTok dances to eating Oreos covered in ranch dressing as a challenge.
They also provide some hysterical relationship advice.
Seeing and sharing the sights
At 76, Lindy Moore defies the typical image of retirement.
Moore converted her 2013 Chevy Van into a home, allowing her and her dog Marley to explore the U.S. while sharing tips and tales with 36,000 YouTube subscribers on ‘Lindy’s Awesome Van Adventure.’
‘I strictly started because I wanted to tell my story. It’s a very different life,’ said Moore. ‘I had polio when I was seven or eight.
Lindy Moore converted her 2013 Chevy Van into a home, allowing her and her dog Marley to explore the U.S. while sharing tips and tales with 36,000 YouTube subscribers on ‘Lindy’s Awesome Van Adventure’
‘My mother saved me from the lung machine. Through her strength, I learned how to walk again.’
As she got older, Moore realized she had a choice to make: Sit around and watch TV or live every day to the fullest.
She makes around $600 in a typical month through her posts, but if a video gets crazy views, that number is much higher.
‘Let’s say you have a video that gets 400,000 views,’ Moore said. ‘You could possibly get $10,000.’
She encourages other seniors to make their own channels.
‘Seniors have so much knowledge, and it’s a source of knowledge being lost. All you need is a phone — that’s it,’ said Moore.
‘Even if you’re making $300 a month, that could be a huge help. That could be life-changing
