海角大神

Lagetta Wayne, with 130,500 followers amassed since joining in June 2020, owes her social media success to a teenage granddaughter. Her very first video, a garden tour, clocked 37,600 likes.

鈥淥ne day my garden was very pretty and I got all excited about that and I asked her if she would take some pictures of me,鈥� Ms. Wayne recalled. 鈥淪he said she was going to put me on TikTok and I said, well, what is TikTok? I had never heard of it.鈥�

Ms. Wayne, at 78, has teens asking her to be their grandmother as she tends to her vegetables and cooks them up in Suisun City, California, as @msgrandmasgarden on TikTok.

She is among a growing number of 鈥済randfluencers,鈥� folks 70 and up who have amassed substantial followings on social media with the help of decades-younger fans.

Four friends who go by @oldgays 鈥� the youngest is 65 鈥� have 2.2 million TikTok followers, including Rihanna. Others focus on beauty and style, setting up Amazon closets with their go-to looks and putting on makeup tutorials live.

Most people ages 50 and up use technology to stay connected to friends and family, according to a 2019 survey by AARP. But less than half use social media daily for that purpose, relying on Facebook above other platforms.

Just 37% of those 70 and older used social media daily in 2019, the research showed. Since coronavirus struck, older creators have expanded their horizons beyond mainstay Facebook and gotten more voracious, often driven by the growing number of feeds by people their own age, said Alison Bryant, senior vice president for AARP.

Joan MacDonald鈥檚 health was in shambles at age 71. Her daughter, a fitness coach, warned that she needed to turn things around. She did, hitting the gym for the first time and learning to balance her diet with the help of a brand new tool, an iPhone.

Now 75, Ms. MacDonald is a hype beast for health with a bodybuilder鈥檚 physique and 1.4 million loyal followers on Instagram.

鈥淚t鈥檚 so rare to find someone her age being able to do all these things,鈥� said one of her admirers, 18-year-old Marianne Zapata of Larchmont, New York. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just such a positive thing to even think about.鈥�

Both aspirational and inspirational, older influencers are turning their digital platforms into gold.

Ms. MacDonald has paid partnerships with the sportswear and supplement brand Women鈥檚 Best, and the stress-busting device Sensate. And she just launched her own health and fitness app not so many years after learning how to use digital technology herself.

In the California desert town of Cathedral City, Jessay Martin is the second youngest of the Old Gays at 68.

鈥淚 thought I was going to spend the rest of my life relaxing pretty much, and I do, but this is picking up more for us. I had a very structured week where Monday I worked the food bank at the senior center, Tuesday and Friday I did yoga for an hour and a half, Wednesday I was on the front desk at the senior center. I was just sort of floating by, not being social, not putting myself out there in the gay community. And boy, has the Old Gays changed that,鈥� Mr. Martin said.

Like Ms. MacDonald, they do a lot of myth busting about what鈥檚 possible in life鈥檚 sixth, seventh, and eighth decades.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e showing that anybody can do these things, that you don鈥檛 have to be afraid of aging. The 20 and 30 somethings don鈥檛 often think about that,鈥� Ms. Bryant said. 鈥淭he authenticity that we鈥檙e seeing in some of these older influencers is really refreshing. That鈥檚 part of the complexity of their narratives. They鈥檙e bringing other parts of their lives to it. They鈥檙e grandparents and great-grandparents and spouses. They鈥檙e more comfortable in their own skins.鈥�

Sandra Sallin, a blogger and artist, has slowly built her following to 25,300 on Instagram. Her reach recently extended to the British Olympic gold-medal diver Tom Daley, who raved about her mother鈥檚 cheesecake recipe after his coach spotted it online and made it for her athletes and staff. Ms. Sallin, a lover of lipstick who focuses on cooking and beauty, also shares photos from her past and other adventures, like her turn last year in a vintage Spitfire high above the Cliffs of Dover.

鈥淚 wanted to expand my world. I felt that I was older, that my world was shrinking. People were moving, people were ill,鈥� Ms. Sallin said. 鈥淪o I started my blog because I wanted to reach out. After that, I heard about this thing called Instagram. It was really hard learning it. I really stumbled my way in. I鈥檓 shocked because most people who follow me are 30 and 40 years younger. But there are people who are older, who have kind of given up and say, 鈥榊ou know, I鈥檓 going to start wearing lipstick.鈥欌��

Toby Bloomberg, 69, in Atlanta is a Sallin supporter. She discovered Ms. Sallin after Ms. Sallin competed on the short-lived Food Network show 鈥淐lash of the Grandmas.鈥�

鈥淪he talks a lot about aging. That鈥檚 quite an unusual phenomenon on social media, which is obviously dominated by people far younger than we are,鈥� Ms. Bloomberg said.

Ms. MacDonald said she was surprised at the beginning that people actually cared what she had to say.

鈥淲hy would people want to follow an old broad,鈥� she giggled from her home in Ontario, Canada. 鈥淢y daughter, Michelle, cleared that up. She said it鈥檚 what you鈥檙e representing, that people can do what they think they鈥檝e not been able to do or were told that they couldn鈥檛 do.鈥�

Grace Maier is home full time with her two kids, ages 6 months and 2. She follows Barbara Costello, a 72-year-old Connecticut grandmother who uses the handle @brunchwithbabs.

鈥淪he does these posts, 鈥楧id your mom ever tell you?鈥� and I followed her immediately on Instagram,鈥� Ms. Maier said. 鈥淗er content brings me joy! She鈥檚 got all of these life hacks and tips that remind me of things my grandma shared with me before she passed. She also doesn鈥檛 take herself too seriously and just seems like the kind of person who would welcome you into her home.鈥�

Mae Karwowski, founder and CEO of the influencer marketing agency Obviously, has more than 100 influencers in her network between the ages of 60 and 80. With more than a billion users on Instagram alone, she points to the successes on that platform of 93-year-old Helen Ruth Elam (baddiewinkle), 67-year-old Lyn Slater (iconaccidental), and 100-year-old style legend Iris Apfel.

There鈥檚 another aspect to the reach of seniors: Grandparents and grandchildren who have teamed up to share their adventures together, from traveling the world to Nerf gun battles.

鈥淢ainstream media, I would say, presents a really narrow viewpoint on this age group. What鈥檚 great about social media is you can follow a really cool 75-year-old woman who is just doing her thing in Florida and that鈥檚 fun. That鈥檚 different. And she鈥檚 funny,鈥� Ms. Karwowski said. 鈥淭he 21-year-old fashion model influencer is managed. She has a team. She has designers falling all over themselves to give her everything. She has professional photographers. A lot of these 70-plus influencers are doing it all.鈥�

Candace Cima, 74, taught herself to shoot and edit video for Instagram by watching YouTube tutorials. She hopped on the platform in February 2019 as a fresh voice on fashion and style while encouraging her audience not to be afraid of aging. Her husband sometimes helps out with photos for @styleinyour70s.withleslieb (Leslie is her middle name).

鈥淚鈥檓 still in that learning curve, I have to be honest. Two and a half years ago, I didn鈥檛 even know what an influencer was,鈥� said Ms. Cima, in Ithaca, New York. 鈥淚鈥檝e always had a lot of ideas about aging. I don鈥檛 understand why aging has such a negative connotation.鈥�

With 37,900 followers, some of her youngest fans have shared with her why they care: 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to age the way they saw their relatives aging,鈥� Ms. Cima said. 鈥淭hey feel like they can learn something.鈥�

This story was reported by The Associated Press.