WHEN a TV journalist at the top of her field quit her job at 52 to be an influencer, some people thought she was out of her mind.
But Tamsen Fadal, now 53, has grown her Instagram to a whopping 1.2 million followers — and she’s gotten pretty good at doing things she never thought she would before.
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Tamsen was a mainstay of New York City’s PIX11 for 15 years, serving as an anchor on the Morning News five days a week.
But in November 2023, she made the surprise decision to leave — but not for another news job.
As a journalist, she’d built up an impressive following on Instagram and TikTok, where she posts about wellness, dating — and menopause.
Now she’s a menopause advocate on social media full-time, though she calls herself a “thought leader,” not an influencer.
Tamsen admitted that it was not an easy decision to leave her long career as a journalist.
“I’ve been a journalist for a long time and I was at [PIX11] for a very long time, and New York is really dear to my heart and I really grew here on the air and grew up here,” she told The U.S Sun while celebrating her Bella Magazine Relationship + Self-Love Issue cover.
“It was important for me to be able to start telling stories for women in midlife and in this stage, in this transition.”
Many of her friends thought it was a crazy move, but they knew what she wanted to do with her life next and that it was important to her.
“It’s important for me to be an advocate because that’s what I really believe in, and I’ve been doing a lot of advocacy around menopause awareness and the research that’s needed,” she said.
Her husband, too, was supportive of the big change and “knew it was coming” for a long time.
“I think what’s important is that you’re with somebody that supports where you are at that moment and where you want to go,” she said.
“It’s been this kind of pivot that I knew eventually was going to happen, but I didn’t know when.”
Her content is very blunt, to the point, and honest, which could maybe make other people uncomfortable — but not Tamsen.
She regularly tests the waters of new things, from taboo topics to bold fashion.
At a photoshoot in January, she even wore a latex skirt.
“This was WAY out of my comfort zone, I’m so happy I did it anyway,” she wrote at the time, captioning a video.
You think, ‘I can never tell anybody all that,’ and then all of a sudden I’m talking about body odor [on Instagram].
Tamsen Fadal
She now uses her platform to share everything she got right on her health journey and everything she learned the hard way.
“I think the advice to my younger self resonates the most with my fans, interestingly enough, and I also think talking about menopause,” she said.
But even with a large social media following, Tamsen said she doesn’t feel the pressure of having to look a certain way.
“Sometimes I’m rolling out of bed, sometimes I’m putting on my HRT patch, sometimes I’m all dressed up. I like that it’s who I really am,” she said.
“It’s been really important to me to be authentic to who I am, to say yes to the things that really resonate, to the products that I really use. I’m not just going all over the place.”
“That’s what this freedom was all about.”
She recently launched her new Instagram series, “In Menopause, Any Questions?” where she’ll give big sister advice on navigating perimenopause and menopause.
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The content ranges from overcoming brain fog to what to even ask for when you visit the doctor.
“There’s just certain times in your life that you think, ‘I can never tell anybody all that,’ and then all of a sudden I’m talking about body odor or I’m talking about things that you would never think,” she added.
“The more people that hear those things or hear what women are going through, whether it’s perimenopause, young women or women that are in midlife, the more that those conversations become normalized.”
She believes that women in the media who are this age and talking about this helps the younger generation.
Tamsen doesn’t have any children of her own, but acts like an aunt to the young people who are coming up so they “feel comfortable in these next stages of life.”
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“We’re all going to be there,” she said.
The former news anchor has received tons of positive feedback from younger women who appreciate her breakup and dating advice and wellness tips.
“Younger girls, I think, are really appreciative of that kind of advice,” she said.
Next up, she’s working on her book about combatting and living with midlife menopause.
Tamsen will also head back to her journalistic roots and launch a podcast in the next few months.
Even though she has over one million Instagram followers, her main priority is growing her online community with like-minded people.
“I think building that community is really important to me so that people feel like they’re heard with each other,” she said.
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