RISE OF THE
I N S TA
grans
4444 marieclaire.com.au
Trailblazing senior
style star Helen
“Baddie” Van Winkle
can earn $USD 5000
for a single sponsored
Insta post.The nannas of social media are taking on the millenials
at their own game – and banking serious dollars, proving
you can slay at any age. And why not asks Dilvin Yasa
T
he blonde pouts coyly at the camera
phone, leaning back on her plastic
blow-up swan, bosom thrown forward- all the better to let the sunlight glint
off her rhinestone choker. When she uploads the
photo to her 3.1 million Instagram followers, she’s
besieged with flame emojis and comments com-
plimenting her style, sexiness and sass. But Helen
Van Winkle (aka @baddiewinkle) isn’t a cookie-
cutter 20-something Instagram influencer. She’s
old enough to be one of their grandmothers, and
she’s probably banking more coin than any of them.
Youthful beauty, youthful beauty doing yoga,
and youthful beauty (not) eating doughnuts might
dominate online, but Baddie and her equally ad-
vanced buddies are taking on ageism and becom-
ing the new megastars of the social media world.
By trading baking for Balenciaga, they’re scoring