Women’s Health: Why Friendships
Are Good For You!

Suzanne Braun Levine
Huff/Post50

The surest route to decline as we age is isolation. Older people fade away psychologically, physically, and socially, if they don’t have the emotional or intellectual stimulation we take for granted earlier in our lives. So the post 50 version of “an apple a day” is “nurture your friendships.”

THIS IS WHAT “40” LOOKS LIKE
Ms. Celebrates a Birthday!

Gloria Steinem memorably said, when on her 40th birthday, someone said she didn’t look forty, “This is what 40 looks like!” Now, the magazine she co-founded and I edited for 17 years is turning 40.

To commemorate that occasion the New York City Council – the city of its birth – issued a proclamation to honor the magazine, the women who created it and its readers. Signed by Christine C. Quinn (for the Entire Council), the first woman New York City Council Speaker who hopes to be the city’s first woman mayor and Council Member Gale A. Brewer honored Ms. for “40 years of service to its readers who have shared their struggles, achievements and stories within its pages, and by so doing, have changed the world.”

Ms. Magazine, Wonder Woman and
40 Years of Change

Marlo Thomas
The Huffington Post
June 13, 2012

You can’t judge a book by its cover. But you can absolutely judge a magazine that way — because the cover is a good indication of what the magazine cares about. And that is precisely, why 40 years ago, women everywhere began grabbing up Ms. magazine with both hands. From the start — and continuing today — those covers have instantly told you that Ms. cared about what women cared about. With an editorial team staffed with revolutionaries, Ms. not only had the wisdom to imagine the perfect combination of image and cover line to capture the concept of an important issue; it also had chops to bang out the story.

Permanent Parenthood – A New Life Stage?

by Jane Adams, Ph.D.
Author, Life Coach

My friend Jane Adams has written a terrific blog about an experience I know personally – having a grown child live at home. She has some enlightening statistics and insights.

“Reinventing Love, Relationships, and Intimacy in Second Adulthood”

The Transition Network
Washington, DC/June 5th

A conversation with Suzanne Braun Levine on “Reinventing Love, Relationships, and Intimacy in Second Adulthood” is being sponsored by the DC Chapter of The Transition Network and Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank on Boomers, work and social purpose, that publishes Encore.org for people interested in encore careers, jobs that combine personal meaning, continued income and social impact.

A Day To Say Goodbye To Old Grudges:
Untangling Mother-Daughter Ties

Suzanne Braun Levine
Huff/Post50

Like many women in midlife, I find Mother’s Day as much a reminder of a fraught relationship as a celebration of motherhood.

Even if we are not caring for our mothers, and even if we rarely spend time with them — even, as in my case, they are no longer alive — the emotional status of our relationship with them is a major factor in our ongoing reinvention. The intimacy between a woman and the woman who gave birth to her has its own unique mix of physical, psychological and gender forces within each of them.

Why Women My Age Are Reading
’50 Shades of Grey’

Suzanne Braun Levine,
Huff/Post50

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James is number one on the New York Times best-seller list — an unusual slot for a pornographic novel. And it has gotten there by word of mouth. Have you heard about it? Have you read it? Are you thinking you might? In my conversations with women all over the country in recent weeks, the answers are variations of yes.

Not that the plot matters, but it’s about an innocent college student and an incredibly attractive and very rich man, who also keeps a bondage chamber.