Hello everyone.

Today is the first one of these #plus40fabulous posts that Leah and I came up with the idea for when I went down to see her last month. We have both hit 40+ and were talking about the stigma around becoming older and how we are supposed to change and conform. As I said in my video in this post HERE growing up in Norway made you believe that when you hit 35 you have to cut your hair and stop wearing short skirts, hair accessories, short skirts and so on. I'm sure you all know the "what not to wear..." bullshit. We started this challenge to break down some of the stigma around age and show that you can pull off wearing anything no matter what age you are.

So in this introduction I want to focus on how I have gotten to where my style is today and share some really funny and colourful photos from my past with you as well.

Typical 70s colours and BEIGE!! Yuk!! 2 years old here. My shoes are cute though despite the colour.

In this photo I'm seen with my grandmother who was such a strong and bold woman. She is my hero and a woman I often think back on with admiration. I grew up in the same house as her and I think that in many ways has made me to the person I am today. She had some really big struggles in her life as becoming a single mother in 1926 at the age of 21 with all the stigma that brought, she fought cancer twice and she was a typical farmer/fisherman housewife which meant that she was looking after the farm in the winter while my grandad went away to make a living of fishing. Many hard jobs in addition to being a mum of two. I loved her dress sense too. She always wore dresses, colourful dresses. Cardigans and scarfs in colourful patterns and she was always happy. She had a saying that I use very often myself "there are no real problems if you look at them as challenges" and that just shows the positivity she lived by in her life.


When I was a child I was very shy and introvert. I rarely spoke without being spoken to and didn't dare to go over and start playing with other children unless they invited me. It started to change as I got older and being a young girl in the 80s. I got gradually more confident and got friends easier. As a child of the colourful 80s I loved colours. Especially pink, red, mint green, blue and yellow.

Photo from around 1989 ish.. on a school outing and we are all wearing lovely garish coloured shell suits!! :D (me on the left in the front in case of doubt)

After a childhood and early teenager filled with colours I changed my hair colour from blonde to red when I was around 17 and started dressing more subtle. I can't believe the horror when I found this photo where I'm around 17 and I'm wearing BEIGE!!! bad enough wearing it as a 2 year old in the 70s and I had no say in the matter, but at 17 and I picked my own clothes!!!

My neck looks so long in this photo as well. And no, they are not white laces in my Dr Martens, they are mint green haha.

But my bleak period didn't last very long as within a year or two I had become more true to myself and gone fully colour overboard!!! Just take a look at these photos!!

Yup!!! :) That's right. I'm a troll.... :) :)

What can I say??? Most certainly I wasn't scared to show off!!!

In my late teens and 20s I started changing a lot and I became gradually more and more confident and didn't care what people thought about me.I wore what I wanted to wear and said screw you to flattering or tone it down a bit after becoming a mum at 22. I think this attitude made me realise that you're not living your life to make other people happy, you have to be true to yourself and dress for you. And so I've done.

With age I've grown more and more confident and talks proudly to people. I'm outgoing and very sociable. I love getting to know people and I feed from similar minded people to myself that dare to be different and wholeheartedly be themselves. The best years of my life has been the years from I was 30 till now when I'm 40. I love my life, I love how confident I am, I love how strong I am, I love how little I care about what people think about me(although sometimes I get a bit paranoid and fight with the opposite feelings, but I just put on some red lipstick and brush it off!!!)

These women that are taking part in this challenge are all women that are true proof of strong, individual and fabulous women over 40 that are saying no to becoming frumpy, boring or mondane.

Here is a list to all of them. Please check how they have introduced themselves and leave them a comment as well if you'd like to let them know what you think.

Lisa: http://www.kitandkoboodle75.blogspot.co.uk/

My style is everything from cute vintage style dresses to more rock chic and trendy.

I'm 40 years old, but don't think I've ever looked better than I do right now. I have a spark in my eyes and that is something that is worth million times more than all kind of youth. I wouldn't want to swap life with my younger self for anything in the world as I might be 2x20, but I'm also 2xfabulous!!!

If you want to spread the word about #plus40fabulous keep on using our hashtag and it would be great if you followed us in social media.

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Our email address is plus40fabulous@gmail.com if you want to get in touch or if you are a blogger(all genders) who want to take part.




Xxx