Ashton Applewhite is a pro-aging advocate and author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism. She began blogging about ageism in 2007, speaking about it in 2012 and hasn’t stopped. Aging is not a problem to be fixed or a disease to be cured. We live in a world that encourages us not to think about aging. It’s time for a radical aging movement against ageism. And we need to start by confronting our own bias. Let’s ask ourselves how do we feel about age and aging? It’s difficult to go a day without seeing an ad for an anti-aging product or a new lifestyle to keep us young. We can’t stop getting older, but we sure can embrace it. As Ashton says, we’re all ‘Old People In-Training‘.
In 2016 Ashton joined the PBS site Next Avenue’s annual list of 50 Influencers in Aging as their influencer of the year. She’s been recognized by the New York Times, The New Yorker, National Public Radio, and the American Society on Aging as an expert on ageism. Ashton blogs at This Chair Rocks. Her TED Talk ‘Let’s End Ageism’ has over two million views.