The author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism and a TED mainstage speaker, Ashton is a leading voice of the emerging anti-ageism movement. Warm, funny, and straight-talking, she describes her journey from apprehensive fifty-something to pro-aging radical, debunking myths and stereotypes along the way.
The United Nations and World Health Organization named Ashton to their inaugural Healthy Ageing 50—leaders transforming the world to be a better place to grow older—and said that she “shows us that a world for all ages is indeed possible if we recognize the potential within each of us, speak truth to power, and stand together as one.” She has written for Harper’s, the New York Times, The Guardian, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and has spoken at venues that range from community centers and universities to the TED main stage and the United Nations.