Favorite Year-End Essays From the Ethels

Eyelash extensions, empty nests and nude photo shoots: Here’s what AARP’s thriving community of older women enjoyed writing and reading about in 2025

Amy Alipio,

AARP

Comments

Published December 17, 2025

a collage of cover images from ethels tell all essays

The most popular essays from the Ethels community this year dished about everything from eyelash extensions to empty nesters.

Monica Garwood

Welcome to Ethels Tell All, where the writers behind The Ethel newsletter share their personal stories related to the joys and challenges of aging. Come back Wednesday each week for the latest piece, exclusively on AARP Members Edition.

The women of AARP’s flourishing Ethels community had a lot to say this year about sex and dating — but also about friendship and family, retirement and resilience. In weekly Ethels Tell All essays in AARP.org’s Members Edition, they candidly wrote about everything from cheating husbands to battling grandmothers.

Named after AARP founder Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, The Ethel newsletter was launched in 2020 to amplify the voices of older women and has grown to more than 400,000 subscribers. The Ethel Circle, a closed Facebook group, is now some 125,000 members strong. Local Ethel groups — with many boasting more than 1,000 members — hold in-person gatherings in 47 states.

“This past year has been an incredible one for all things Ethel,” says Shelley Emling, executive editor of The Ethel. “The Ethels are seeking to live their best lives — and they did just that in 2025.”

Below, revisit the year’s top Ethel essays, as well as editor favorites you may have missed.

Life-changing beauty trick

Brahna Yassky tried eyelash extensions after she got tired of people telling her she looked tired. While she worried that the lashes would give people a false impression of her, Yassky found that “they don’t make me look like I’m trying to be anything other than myself.” In this year’s most popular Ethel essay, Yassky shared what you need to know about the trendy beauty procedure and how it changed the way she feels about herself.

Spicy times ahead

The Ethels aren’t shy about exploring the joys — and problems — of sex after 50. Among the year’s most read essays, Ethels gave advice on how to reignite libidos despite aging bodies, and revealed the sex questions older women asked Google. Then there was this saucy ode to vibrators. It wasn’t all about the ladies, either; Marcia Kester Doyle addressed how couples can still experience intimacy even if their partner has erectile dysfunction.

Most Popular

a woman hugs a see through figure meant to represent a ghost

Ethel writers explored the struggles and joys of female friendships.

Monica Garwood

That’s what friends are for

Ethels celebrated the power of female friendship while also acknowledging it can sometimes get rocky. Finding one friend too demanding of her time, Suzanne Hayes wrote about ghosting her for years — only to discover through social media that something awful had happened to her. A friend’s repeated selfishness led an Ethel essayist to end their longtime relationship: “I am going to take the stance that I deserve to spend my precious time and energy on people who care about my life experience in addition to their own. That care feels nice. That care feels like friendship.”

Husband material

Husbands were a popular topic among Ethel writers and readers alike. Candy Schulman wrote about how her recently retired 72-year-old husband had started acting like a teenager. She also wrote about how she argues with him about taking better care of his diet and health. Joy Frank-Collins poignantly wrote about losing her husband to leukemia and the friendship that arose after she reached out in appreciation to her husband’s bone marrow donor. Ex-husbands got a shout-out too, as in this essay by Hayes about how her ex saved their family vacation.

two naked figures sit inside a flower shaped like a camera shutter

Learning to accept and celebrate aging bodies was a popular topic for Ethel writers and readers alike.

Laura Liedo

Smashing stereotypes

Above all, the Ethels community inspires older women to rewrite the narrative of aging, proving it’s a time of reinvention, strength and joy. At 70, Gayle Kirschenbaum decided to do a nude photo shoot with her 101-year-old mother. Melina Bellows admitted she wasn’t sad to be an empty nester — and signed up for a course that would lead her career in a new direction. And Doyle embraced her newfound power of invisibility. “Many female friends my age complain about being part of the ‘invisible generation’ and the lack of relevance that comes with it, but I only see its advantages,” she wrote. “I don’t need to conform to societal expectations in the way I look, and I feel more valued now for what I can bring to the table: wisdom and experience acquired by age.”

AARP essays share a point of view in the author’s voice, drawn from expertise or experience, and do not necessarily reflect the views of AARP.

%{postComment}%