As the ‘Middle-Aged Goddess’, Jane McCann helps women all over the world feel more positive about themselves in middle age, with an Instagram audience of over 134,000 people.
Before her career in digital media, Jane worked in customer service in the health and wellness industry and taught yoga. “The name Middle-Aged Goddess started as a bit of a joke. It was when I was teaching Yoga, and there was ‘Yogi Goddess’ and ‘Bikini Goddess’, and I was like, ‘Where have all the old women gone? Where are they?’ So I thought, I’m going to be the ‘Middle-Aged Goddess’”.
Jane is ambivalent about being called an influencer. “I’m still learning to say that,” she says. “Sometimes I call myself a content creator because that sounds a bit more professional and serious, but my boys have coached me through that. They told me, ‘When people ask, what do your parents do, we tell them you’re an influencer. Just say it, Mum. That’s what you do.’”
“Sometimes I call myself a content creator because that sounds a bit more professional and serious”
One of Jane’s reasons for focusing on middle-aged women was her own experience. Thirteen years ago, Jane went to her GP feeling anxiety attacks and depression. “I wasn’t sleeping, which made everything feel worse. The response from my doctor was to give me anti-depressants, and I spent six weeks feeling like I wanted to harm myself. I ended up in Frankston Hospital, asking for help.
The response there was to put me on a higher dose, and it was a really challenging time until finally, a specialist I’d seen said, ‘You’ve got Serotonin Toxicity Syndrome; you need to come off these (the anti-depressants).’” “I had to research for myself and lead my own health and wellness, and what I learned was that I was going through perimenopause. I wasn’t going crazy. Then I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’” Jane’s mum and sister, tragically, both died from oestrogen receptor breast cancer, so hormone replacement therapy wasn’t an option. “Then I had to take things into my own hands and work out what I was going to do to make myself feel well.”
Jane’s plan is one she still follows today and one she recommends to all middle-aged women. “For me, movement has been one of the main things. My physical movement now compared to when I was forty is quite different. I’m still lifting weights, but I’m not running anymore. I’m going on walks, going to the beach, swimming, I’m doing yoga, I’m doing mobility stuff, I’m doing Vedic meditation twice a day. My partner Brett does it with me. It’s going to bed early, not drinking too much, eating well; it’s all the boring things you do that are free!”
Jane is vigilant about it, not only for her body but for her mental health. “Every now and then, I stray off the path, and I think, ‘Why am I feeling like this? Why am I so sad?’ And it’s because I’m not doing those things that make me feel good.”
Social media often gets a bad rap today. Jane’s response is, “I think it’s different for different age groups. It’s tricky for younger people, especially younger women. Although, when I was growing up, we had Dolly Magazine and Cleo, and we were looking at skinny women – there was the Dolly Diet – it was all still there. But I think now the difference is it’s 24/7 in your hand.”
“It’s given me a real community and a global community, which has been really lovely, and also when I was going through the tricky times, being able to reach out to the women all over the world and go, ‘I’m feeling like this… how are you feeling? What are you doing about it?’ Reading the comments under some of my posts has been lovely; to see everybody interacting with each other. There are definitely good and bad things about it. I have a limit now; I’m not on it on the weekends, my phone goes off early in the evening, and I do have to put boundaries around it. Generally, for me, it’s been a really good experience.” Jane has had only a small number of trolls and negative comments.
“Find your niche. You’re not going to appeal to everybody”
To young people who think they want to be an influencer, Jane says, “Find your niche. You’re not going to appeal to everybody. For me, it’s women my age, and I have quite a few younger women following now, which is lovely. Be honest with the brands you’re representing. I probably say ‘no’ to more than I say ‘yes’.” Jane will not represent women’s skincare products that say ‘anti-ageing’, ‘anti-wrinkle’, or ‘anti-sagging’. Good on you, Jane.
“Be transparent. If you’ve been gifted something, say it’s a gift. Get in your comments section, and respond, interact, and communicate. Hit the like button. If someone sends you a message, respond! If someone’s taken time out of their day to connect with you, the least you can do is respond, and that’s how you build your community.”
Jane’s agent does the business side of things for her now, but Jane says budding content creators need to remember that, without an agent, they will need to do this themselves. Jane is 58 now and has no qualms about growing older. Her mother and sister both died in their sixties, and Jane says, “If I get to be called an old lady, great! I don’t really care.”
Jane lives in Balnarring with her partner, Brett, and their German Wirehaired Pointer, Naboo.
IG: @themiddleagedgoddess