How to Be Old: Lessons in living boldly from the Accidental Icon (Hardback) - Lyn Slater

Lyn Slater empowers readers to rethink ageing stereotypes in this sharp and refreshing new book.

How can we live boldly at any age?

This is the question Lyn Slater, known on Instagram as 'Accidental Icon', sets out to answer in this hopeful and empowering memoir.

When Lyn started her fashion blog, Accidental Icon, at 61, she soon realised that people were flocking to her account for more than just style advice. Her readers had found in her an alternative model of older life: someone who defied stereotypes, refused to become invisible and proved that all women can be relevant and take risks, no matter what their age.

Exploring the process of reinvention, Lyn shows readers that while you can't control everything, what you can control is the way you think about your age and the creative ways you respond to the changes in your mind and body as they happen. Rather than trying to meet standards of youth and beauty as a measure of successful ageing, Lyn promotes more inclusive and empowering criteria by which to judge our older selves.

Even with its unique challenges, being old is just like any new beginning and can be the best and most invigorating of all of life's phases, full of rebellion and reinvention, connection and creativity.

About the Author

Lyn Slater is a cultural influencer, model, writer, content creator and former professor. She has a Ph.D. In Social Welfare and has been a social worker for 45 years. She started her blog, Accidental Icon, in September 2014 because she could not find a fashion blog or magazine that offered an urban, modern, intellectual aesthetic and also spoke to people who live "interesting but ordinary lives." Since then, Lyn has reinvented herself as an influencer of popular culture and promotes the use of fashion as a window into society and a vehicle to make personal and social change. Her rejection of age as a variable to be considered in how one dresses, lives and represents oneself has garnered her a loyal fan base of all ages. Her Instagram has 759K followers, her Facebook community includes 222.7K members and her blog 35K subscribers.