Four years ago today we launched the Womens Room with this video – we love it today as much as we loved it then.
We started writing the blog in a time when older women were not front of anyone’s mind and we were frustrated by the lack of content, online and offline for women our age. We had grand plans to create a website (and still have) focusing on all the things we love and need to know. Put off by the amount it would cost, we decided to start a blog.
Blogging was relatively new then and not many people really understood what a blog was. Is it a website, we would get asked, and how do you make money? Everyone now has a list of their favourite blogs and in many ways they have replaced magazines for our ‘go to’ monthly, weekly or daily dose of inspiration and information. How we make money is still a very good question, and one we often ask ourselves when we are particularly busy with our paid jobs.
The Womens Room is our passion and the satisfaction we get when we receive brilliant (often very long) comments and feedback from our like-minded, clever and very funny readers, makes us carry on.
We set out to create a place for women like us, to share everything that’s great about getting older. We don’t want to look younger or wrinkle free and certainly don’t long to be 20 again (well maybe sometimes in the Top Shop changing room!). We refuse to roll over and turn into beige boring old ladies who have given up on life. We are opinionated and independant, we want to be stylish, read books and blogs, make stuff and be out and about doing interesting things – getting older makes us want to pack as much into our daily lives as we possibly can.
We often get asked how we come up with all our posts and ideas, which quite honestly is the least of our problems. We are full of ideas and just don’t have the time, energy or expertise to write about them all. We would like to feature honest, well researched information about women’s health (particularly the menopause), aging parents, becoming grandparents, changing family relationships, raising teenagers and managing our finances as we get older. We would also like to feature interviews with female politicians, educationalists, writers/authors and social commentators – the kind of stuff we like to read in the weekend supplements, but targeted at our community.
We would also love to make that Womens Room fantasy shop happen. Retailers and fashion brands have started thinking about our age group, which is great, but there is still a long way to go, the potential is huge, our demographic is growing and we have money to spend – watch this space.
Over the last four years our readers have grown from 20 of our best mates, to thousands and thousands of our new best mates, reading every day. The opportunities we’ve had and the people we’ve met have been inspiring and challenging and made us feel very lucky to be part of a growing movement of women who challenge the perception of growing old and turn it into something that’s aspirational and exciting.
Remember – Old is the new young. Here’s to the next 4 years!
Some of the amazing women we have posted about and met
Happy Birthday! Thank you for your dedication to daily posts – I read every day, even if I don’t comment. I love your blog, especially your fashion ideas and advice. Cheers ladies. xx
Congratulations on four years of daily posting, Amanda & Jane! Thank you so much for the interesting, funny and varied subjects you come up with. Here’s to many more – hopefully with a bit if moollah thrown in!
Happy Birthday! A fantastic achievement to be able to think of so many funny, interesting, informative and bang on trend things to say every single day as well having families and jobs!! I read you every day often nodding in agreement, laughing my head off or googling for further info on the subject of the day! Well done and looking forward to many more years!
happy birthday! I love reading your blog too
Thanks for your commitment, you are as necessary as a cup of early morning tea.
Are we a cult yet?
Happy Birthday! I love this blog, it’s one of the first places I click every morning. keep up the great work Amanda and Jane x
Happy birthday! I love this blog – a real one off – properly inspiring. X
Agree with everyone’s comments here – Happy Birthday, Jane and Amanda!
Like Sarah, you’re my essential reading with my first cup of tea … and like Anna, I don’t always comment, but I always enjoy and appreciate your energy, wit and style. Thank you for all your hard work – you truly are an inspiration.
Am welling up here…..thanks for all the nice comments ladies, we really have the nicest readers in the world. A cult! I’ve always wanted to be in a cuilt…..A
Congratulations! Your’s is definitely my favourite blog by far. There’s always so much to discover and no way of knowing what the next post will be.Fantastic.(I am crossing my fingers and hoping for some Frieze pictures, though…)
Ah thanks everyone Jx
Happy birthday from a regular reader in Edinburgh – I always enjoy all the variety of your posts and the lovely photos too. I value your judgement on the places I should see whenever I’m visiting London – but well done for being much less London-centric than many other “style” blogs!
Happy Birthday. Keep up the good work!
Happy Birthday from Seattle!
Thanks so much for the time, energy and passion you put into this every day. The Women’s Room is one of my great daily pleasures. My life would be poorer without it.
Seattle! Waving at you Dorothy! Ax
Thank you both – the blog is funny, thought provoking and thoroughly to the point for women our age.
Read every day and (selfishly) wish you many, many more posts.
Happy Birthday Amanda and Jane. The Women’s Room has become a ritual which always inspires, informs and makes me laugh. Your posts are are once confident and comforting…does that make sense. I am sure there will be many more birthdays to come. Love the Irene Williams video!
Happy birthday from Perth, Western Australia xo
Thanks for the daily dose of wearable fashion, art, humour and ideas. Your blog is the first I check out in my first free minutes of every day. I love the frieze posts and I´m looking forward to the shoe post on Friday before heading off to buy some new boots on the weekend. Keep up the inspiring work from Mary in Munich
Happy birthday! I love your blog and have made some great shop/designer discoveries thanks to your posts.
thanks SO much for the lovely comments everyone J X