Candace Leslie Cima is a 75-year-old fashion and lifestyle influencer working to change the attitudes regarding aging for both her generation and the ones following hers.
Candace's video, sharing a comment on her style that says "You're 60. You shouldn't wear that", got 7.4 million views on social media. She is answering comments about her sleeveless shirt style choices with "I am 75, actually." In her mind, there is no stigma attached to being aging.
"I remember being on the checkout line at a supermarket and looking at the headlines on those magazines. They would always have headlines like How to look your best at 20, 30, and 40. Never did they mention 50, 60, and 70," she recalls in a video. In addition to her videos, Candace also has a blog where she speaks at length about aging and fashion. Candace explains that she wears a lot of sleeveless tops, and there is always someone who writes to her that women over 60 should not bare their arms. She has a whole article on her blog devoted to this sleeveless shirt style element, which is called Woman's Right to Bare Arms.
"So... you have some loose skin on your arms or some veins on your legs or age spots on your hand... Why is that a bad thing?" She makes a point, saying that it is we who decide whether it is a bad thing and whether we are ashamed of our natural aging process and let others make us feel less than we are.
After all, everyone ages, so we all as a society should normalize these changes and learn to see them positively.
For her, age is not just a number. It's a badge of honor to wear proudly. "The only way to change that view is that we, as older women, show them that aging is a gift, something to be embraced, valued and shared," she writes.
