As I hit my mid 30s I started to notice a worrying trend: I was disappearing.
I’ve always been someone who is quite proactive when it comes to searching for opportunities and then I started to notice that the older I get the more I’m seemingly excluded from them?
So for context I’ll be 38 in four months and am actually looking the big 40 – I have friends that make it look incredibly sexy. So I’ve been looking forward to it as I heard it was about unbridled confidence, you suddenly develop a ‘devil may care’ attitude, you know who you are. But nobody mentioned a slippery slope to invisibility?
I now miss the bar for 35 under 35 lists (40 under 40 lists came and went quickly). Any training and development opportunities are for 16-24 year olds. And don’t get me wrong, this is hardly unfamiliar territory for Black women and I had grown accustomed to uncomfortability of being excluded or ‘othered’ as they say but no one warned me about this extra layer of age and definitely not so soon.
So what’s the deal?
Why do terms like ’emerging talent’ only apply to fresh faced people with birthdays in the 1990’s? Does the world assume that talent dies once you hit a certain age? That if you didn’t have it by your early 20s you were never likely to develop it ? Or more optimistically, does the world believe by the time you reach 35 you’re likely to be supremely talented?
Now here’s where I’m gaining some level of reassurance: my roster. As a manager and agent, what primarily attracts me to talent is their purpose: Are you doing something intentional that’s having an impact? Are you passionate? Am I intrigued/inspired/excited by what you’re doing? So I have a broad range of people on my books. This means – inadvertently – our roster’s about 40% over 40.
And I’ve learnt unequivocally that maturity equals bank. We have talent in their 20s, 30s 40s, 50s AND 60s with the later ages billing the most after reinventing their careers in their 50s, proving that experience is in demand and lucrative.
Another perfect demonstration of the richness of age is one of my favourite films of recent times, The Intern, staring Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro. Hathaway plays the Founder and CEO of a fashion tech start up which starts an internship for retirees.
In comes De Niro a former phone book salesman who’s looking for something to fill his time and engage his mind. Initially Hathaway dismisses him, considering him to be a useless relic but De Niro would go on to be a business advisor and trusted confidante.
So I want to call out those in society limiting opportunities to the under 35s. You suck. And you’re leaving quality and money on the table. Shout out to people like my business icon, Rihanna, for hiring older models like JoAni Johnson for a Fenty campaign.
Opportunities should exist for all and to those who don’t feel seen? I see you.
Please note that no one under the age of 37 was knowingly harmed in the writing of this blog.
