Writing about midlife invisibility for Marie Claire
- Jun 9
- 1 min read
A piece I wrote for Marie Claire has recently gone live online, and I'm delighted, not least because I haven't written for this magazine for years.
The piece is about midlife invisibility, something I thought about a lot while I was writing Turn Back Time. Not the building site silence (which, as I explain in the article, is actually quite welcome) but the subtler stuff. The meeting where your point gets talked over, the email thread that moves on without your input, or the slow, almost imperceptible fade that you don't notice until it's already happened.
It's something I asked my girlfriends about while researching the book, and the examples came thick and fast. As I write in this article, it's less about being overlooked and more about becoming disposable.
In Turn Back Time, I wanted to explore what happens when that fade gets interrupted. What does a middle-aged woman (Erica in this case) notice when her visibility is suddenly switched back on? What does she gain, and what does she realise she's lost? If you've read it already, you'll know.
The piece also includes a shout out to Sam Baker and her brilliant book The Shift, which explores similar territory and which I'd highly recommend. You can read the full article on the Marie Claire website here.
