About
The Mutton Club is an online magazine celebrating and informing women 40+. We’re part of the Magnificent Midlife online community of fabulous and feisty women in midlife and beyond.
This is not a medical site, but experience and research have taught our writers a lot about how to transition vibrantly through midlife and menopause, and we’re keen to share that knowledge.
We aim to inspire and stimulate. We want to make you laugh, question, be moved and empowered. Our content is written by experts, guest writers and founder/editor, Rachel Lankester. That’s me below.
Hello I’m Rachel Lankester, founder of The Mutton Club and Magnificent Midlife. I’ve had several careers, including journalism, banking and 20 years in communications consultancy, but I most LOVE what I do now – helping like-minded women in midlife and beyond feel great and live life to the fullest.
After an early menopause at 41, everything shifted and I did a lot of soul searching. I’ve spent over a decade researching all the ways we can help ourselves have a positive and healthful midlife and menopause transition.
Early menopause kicked me into being way more proactive about what I wanted from the rest of my life and to take better care of myself. I didn’t want to carry on doing what I’d always done. And I wanted to challenge the midlife status quo and all those nasty negative perceptions! I’m so passionate about this, I wrote a book about it! Magnificent Midlife: Transform Your Middle Years, Menopause and Beyond!
What’s in a name?
In the UK there’s a not very nice expression ‘mutton dressed as lamb‘. Apparently there’s something similar in the US, ‘sheep masquerading as lamb’. It’s a mean way of labeling an older woman who tries hard to look younger.
It’s one of many ways women over 40 can be pigeon-holed and often then dismissed. How many positive words in English are there to describe a woman over 40? Cougar doesn’t exactly flatter. How about old maid?! Or crone? Hag?
The Mutton Club turns those negative perceptions around, letting women claim the word mutton like the gay community claimed the word queer. Gaining entry to the Mutton Club is something to aspire to, not be afraid of!
Our women are proud, embrace their inner beauty and use their experience and wisdom to do good in the world. The Mutton Club is a place to gather, be proud, beautiful, funky and outspoken.
We’ve been featured on:
Why the Mutton Club and Magnificent Midlife?
I looked around for resources and community that spoke to me, but found only pockets here and there. Nowhere I could hang out, find stuff I wanted to read and that would inspire me. Mumsnet didn’t suit and Gransnet – not yet!
We define ourselves in so many ways other than just mums or grandmothers. Many of us aren’t parents or don’t want content for parents. We don’t like narrow definitions! We come with different sexual orientations, gender identities and cultural backgrounds.
So I created a different on-line community for all women. It celebrates diversity but allows us to share what we have in common. It’s a place to explore ideas, learn new things and have a giggle. We talk openly about stuff like menopause and we aim to find relevance and purpose, be visible and have a BIG voice. I was scratching my own itch! And then I wrote the book! It’s had some fab reviews!
If you’d like a quick burst of 1-to-1 wisdom and clarity, then why not book a free Midlife Breakthrough call with me. We can evaluate where you’re at now, what you want from life, what’s getting in your way, and start creating a plan and a midlife toolkit to get you back to thriving.
You can also listen to my Magnificent Midlife Podcast which has been recommended by The Sunday Times and Feedspot – as the third best midlife podcast worldwide!
I talk all things midlife, about issues that matter and interview amazing women doing very cool stuff. Listen on Apple Podcasts/ iTunes, on Podbean for android, on Spotify, Amazon Alexa or any good podcast app.
Check out my little video below on Challenging the Midlife Status Quo! You can also find out more about me and my work on our Media page.
What do you need help or inspiration for?
We have all sorts of information on the Mutton Club. If you’re new, you’ll find links to some of our most popular and useful posts below:
Midlife reinvention – inspiring stories from regular but also extraordinary women who’ve changed their and or other people’s lives
Caring for parents – parents and Alzheimer’s, care options, best to plan ahead, lasting power of attorney
Travel inspiration – Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, Myanmar, USA roadtrip, Iceland, Kenyan safari, Cuba, Jordan desert trek
Have a dig around in our category pages (from our main menu) – there’s lots of cool stuff there. If you’d like to know about our favorite online resources and what we use to make the Mutton Club tick, check out Cool Tools.
Here’s all our menopause blog content. One thing we don’t cover much is fashion for midlife and beyond. There are so many other bloggers doing a much better job than we could ever hope to. If you’re looking for fashion inspiration we suggest the wonderful Midlifechic, Not Dressed As Lamb and the Senior Style Bible.
If you’d like to meet other midlifers and take part in our online community please join our free Facebook group, The Flock.
Get more involved!
If you’d like to be learn from a huge library of midlife-related courses and workshops, check out our monthly online Magnificent Midlife Membership. That’s where you’ll get the strategies, support and connection to really make midlife magnificent. You can dip in whenever, find inspiration and information on a whole host of midlife-related topics and join me for regular live calls if the fancy takes you.
We have a 30 day money back guarantee and you can cancel anytime. It might be just the shift of focus and regular boost you need. Because life’s too short for plain biscuits, right!
I also have an intensive live 6-week group mentoring experience called Revitalize which might be just your thing!
Doing more
I have big dreams at the Mutton Club and Magnificent Midlife. I’m building a community that challenges the status quo and enables a powerful collective global voice. We promote women’s causes and campaign against issues like sexism, ageism and climate change. We want to facilitate volunteering and mentoring, and provide financial and moral support to charities and organizations that support the rights of women and girls worldwide.
If you like our content and aims, please share with your own network. Tell us what you’d like to see in the Club. Write for us. (You can find out about our writers here.)
If you’d like to support our work, but aren’t ready for our paid Membership, please consider becoming a Patron for as little as $2 per month.
Spread the word that it’s cool to be mutton. Together we might really change the world.
Disclosure
Some of the links you see on this site may be affiliate links. That means if you click on them and make a purchase, we may make a small (tiny) commission. Please be assured that regardless of this, we only ever recommend products and services we like and would use ourselves. Affiliate links are one of the ways in which I seek to monetize the content on the site. There is also Mediavine advertising on this site.
Occasionally I also collaborate with brands on a paid partnership basis. In all instances I give my honest opinion and brands accept this. Any such collaborations are clearly marked as sponsored content. My aim is that the quality of any such posts should be as high as any on The Mutton Club blog. Any post marked “paid partnership” means I have been paid to write the post or include promotional details and links.
The site needs to make money to keep going and to help us in catching the attention of the world at large. This enables us, in the long term, to provide support to the causes we value.
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