About Wendy
I first created Goodbye Crop Top in response to a profound lack of women my age across the media landscape. I was 49 years old at the time and I noticed it was a rare thing to see women over 40 portrayed in a positive way in print, on television or across social media platforms. Even worse than stereotypical representation, it seemed to me that women over 50—and even women over 40—were largely erased out there, made irrelevant by the simple act of exclusion. I feel so great about getting older, that I felt insulted when I didn’t see the full dimensions of my experience reflected.
I decided to plant my flag not so much as an influencer (I’ll leave that to the younger women), but rather as a kind of age-activist. I made it my mission to be that which I wanted to see. I’m grateful for the privilege of growing older and reject the narrative that women should stop wearing red lipstick or long hair or mini-skirts or—gasp!—crop tops after some arbitrary birthday determined by a bunch of dudes in a boardroom way back in 1950. I reject the notion that we should fade into the background and knew instinctively that I wasn’t alone.
It’s my hope, then, to build a community of empowered women who embody style and substance; who have fierce opinions and the confidence to voice them; who have boundless creativity and also know when to rest; who desire to lift one another up and be lifted in return; who have a sense of humor to go with their great taste.
Goodbye Crop Top is a place where women of any age——but particularly those with a few crow’s feet—can come for camaraderie, validation, information and style. Of course, style is about so much more than the clothes you put on your back: It’s about who you are underneath—about what you say, what you do, the company you keep and how you move in the world. Style is a feeling...a feeling of being comfortable in your own skin, of living in alignment with your inner and outer worlds.
Goodbye Crop Top is really just a metaphor for what to let go of and what to hold onto. Whether you choose to wear or say goodbye to the crop top is entirely your choice; empowerment is the message. I see Goodbye Crop Top as an emerging movement that inspires you to unlock your creativity, connect your inner beauty to the outside world, do what enables you to be the truest version of yourself and embrace exactly where you are in life.