National Gorgeous Grandma Day: 5 Grandmothers That Are Breaking Stereotypes

National Gorgeous Grandma Day is on July 23 every year and celebrates grandmothers and the role elder women play in society. While the name puts focus on grandmothers, it celebrates all women of a certain age, regardless of whether they have grandchildren or not.

Alice Solomon created the holiday after she graduated from Wellesley College when she was 50 years old. She realised that society ruled her and women her age as senior citizens and grandmothers. To change their conception that elder women are not relevant or useful, she came up with National Gorgeous Grandma Day.

Soloman decided to embrace the term grandma and added the term ‘gorgeous’ to get rid of the stereotypes around older women.

The purpose of National Gorgeous Grandma Day is to celebrate elderly women that were considered grandmothers after they reached a certain age. These grandmothers break stereotypes and found their passion and talents after they turned 50 years old and they did not let age serve as a barrier.

Grandmothers Breaking Stereotypes And Barriers

Florence Filion Meiler

Florence Filion Meiler has won more than 775 medals in sports in 25 years. Meiler ventured into the sport of track and field started at the age of 60 after her friend asked her to join the Vermont Senior Games track team. She took part in a long jump competition and has been participating in games for seniors since then. Five years later, she ventured into pole vaulting and is known as the pole-vaulting grandma.

The sales representative for 30 years explored track and field at the age of 60 and has set an example for anyone who thinks it is too late to pursue any activity. Meiler is now a Vermont Senior Games board member.

Pearl Malkin

Pearl Malkin, also known as Grandma Pearl started a small business named Happy Canes. She began the business when she was 89 years old. Annoyed by how ugly her cane was, she decorated it with artificial flowers. She then launched a Kickstarter campaign to create more Happy Canes and sell them for around 60 dollars per cane.

Displeasure regarding a cane’s aesthetics led the elderly woman to take matters into her own hands to spruce up the cane. She then decided her time and energy into creating aesthetically pleasing canes for others.

Anita Crook

As an organised person, Anita Crook spent hours searching stores for the perfect store with all of the right compartments. At 59 years of age, Crook began a new business Pouchee, which sells handbag organisers. She had received a purse from her son as a Christmas gift, but since it did not contain any pockets in it for organisation purposes, she rarely used it.

After Crook couldn’t find anything in stores that would help her organise the purse, she came up with a design herself. She created Pouchee to fit inside women’s handbags and makes them organised by providing several pockets.

She contacted a woman who could sew through her friend, and she created a prototype and found buyers for her product. Now, Crook is the owner of the start-up turned multimillion-dollar business.

Vivian Smallwood

Grandmothers and rap music do not usually go hand in hand, but Vivian Smallwood was an artist known by her stage name, Rappin’ Granny. In 1988, when she was 55 years old, the postal worker formed a group with her son named Rappin’ Granny and DJ Len. That same year, Smallwood won a Granny of the Year contest in Pasadena after she performed a rap version of the song The Little Old Lady from Pasadena.

She has featured in shows such as Everybody Hates Chris, Malcolm in the Middle, and How I Met Your Mother. She was a contestant in America’s Got Talent in the first season and was a finalist.

Trisha Marroquin

Trisha Marroquin is a dance teacher based in Texas who went viral after she joined TikTok. She has 3.9 million followers and is often featured dancing with her grandchildren. Her nephew kickstarted the journey when he showed her a dance move to the Roddy Ricch song The Box. He posted a video of her dancing on his TikTok and the video did well.

Marroquin downloaded the app later to keep herself occupied during the COVID-19 pandemic and took to showcasing her dancing skills on TikTok. A professional dancer by the age of 5, she learned a variety of dance forms and eventually became a dance instructor.

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