Ashton Applewhite

Ever the late bloomer, I didn't start writing till I was in my 40s. My first serious book, Cutting Loose: Why Women Who End Their Marriages Do So Well, was published by HarperCollins in 1997. Ms. magazine called it “rocket fuel for launching new lives.” It landed me on Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum enemies list and an invite to join the board of the nascent Council on Contemporary Families, a group of distinguished family scholars.
The catalyst for Cutting Loose was puzzlement: why was our notion of women’s lives after divorce (visualize depressed dame on barstool) so different from the happy and energized reality? A similar question gave rise to This Chair Rocks: “Why is our view of late life so unrelievedly grim when the lived reality is

Ever the late bloomer, I didn't start writing till I was in my 40s. My first serious book, Cutting Loose: Why Women Who End Their Marriages Do So Well, was published by HarperCollins in 1997. Ms. magazine called it “rocket fuel for launching new lives.” It landed me on Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum enemies list and an invite to join the board of the nascent Council on Contemporary Families, a group of distinguished family scholars.
The catalyst for Cutting Loose was puzzlement: why was our notion of women’s lives after divorce (visualize depressed dame on barstool) so different from the happy and energized reality? A similar question gave rise to This Chair Rocks: “Why is our view of late life so unrelievedly grim when the lived reality is so different? I began blogging about aging and ageism in 2007. Since that time, I have been recognized by the New York Times, National Public Radio, and the American Society on Aging as an expert on ageism.
Currently, I speak widely at venues that have included the TED Mainstage and the United Nations, blog at ThisChairRocks.com, and am the voice of Yo, Is This Ageist?. I’ve written for Harper’s, The Guardian, and the New York Times. I was a staff writer at the American Museum of Natural History for almost 20 years, quitting in 2017 to become a full-time writer and activist. I was honored to be included in Salt Magazine’s list of the world’s "100 most inspiring women"—along with Angelina Jolie, Elizabeth Warren, Amal Clooney, Aung San Suu Kyi, Naomi Klein, and other remarkable activists—committed to social change.