Karen Davis

Flying the flag for midlife women

Karen Davis is an Amazon No.1 best-selling author and founder of an award-winning beauty subscription box for women over 40. She’s touring major cities in the UK on her 1970s Raleigh Chopper bike (now painted bright pink) to help raise awareness of ageism towards middle-aged women.

At the age of 60, Karen understands that the bike might be a little ridiculous but says, “I think anyone who grew up in the 1970s like me will nd it both nostalgic and amusing – we can’t always take ourselves seriously!” Karen’s background is that of a beauty PR before moving into creating reader offers for the national press. In 2019, she launched her beauty subscription box TOYL (Time of Your Life) speci cally for midlife women.

e subject of midlife is one close to Karen’s heart. When she was in her 40s, the menopause was rarely discussed and many midlife women were made to feel they were ‘over the hill’. Karen went on to say, “In fact, midlife is a time when many women make major changes to their lives and, while there’s a lot of talk about the menopause, it’s not necessarily the de ning issue for us which is why TOYL Isn’t just about beauty, it’s about a community of midlife women supporting each other.”

Midlife women are the fastest growing demographic in the world, soon to be the largest demographic in the world yet Karen tells us that when you dive deeper into the statistics around older women, ageism does seem alive and well. She quotes as just one example that, although 36% of women in the UK are aged over 50, only 23% on TV are above this age.* e TOYL Tour hits Brighton on March 25th and Southampton on April 1st, and while in town Karen is hosting an event at the Leonardo Royal Hotel for women to meet and chat about their lives during these years.

“Midlife women have an enormous amount to o er both in terms of wisdom, experience and common sense, we just need more opportunities to do this,” she said.

To nd out more about the TOYL Tour and dates visit www.toyl.co.uk/pages/ welcome-to-the-toyl-tour-2023 www.toyl.co.uk www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/19/ men-tv-women-channel-4-study