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3 weeks ago | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Jennifer Howze
Eleanor Mills reviews her experience at Moulin de Chaves, a Buddhist silent retreat in France The gong chimes. The silent retreat begins. Earlier today I handed over my mobile phone to the teacher for safe-keeping. That deep bong means I’m in, we’re off — a silent retreat in France with no speaking or interaction with the outside world for a week. Around me, my 28 fellow retreatants (26 women, two men, a mixture of ages) look a bit scared.
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3 weeks ago | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Flora Symington
Did you wake up feeling different this morning? Did you know that this weekend (30-31 March) we enter an entirely new revolutionary cycle? (It’s also Mother’s Day, although we know that 30% of Queenagers don’t have children. We also know that this day can evoke feelings of loss and sadness as well as being a happy family day. We’ve got a great piece by Bibi Lynch about surviving Mother’s Day when you’re not childless by choice.
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1 month ago | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Jennifer Howze
Happy 4th Birthday to NOON – which is an opportunity for celebration about YOU too Happy weekend. And Happy 4th Birthday, NOON!It’s been 4 years this week since we launched the NOON site and I started writing these newsletters. I can remember building the site and setting up our Instagram account. I was the first follower (ha). They were days of such anxiety and excitement.
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2 months ago | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Jennifer Howze
Bridget Jones, back in cinemas now, has a habit of failing upwards. As midlife women we don't have that luxury. What we do have, is the NOON Jobs Board....
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2 months ago | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Jennifer Howze
Award-winning business journalist Judi Bevan and her husband adopted a baby from China more than 2 decades ago. Now in midlife, she’s turned her attention from writing about business to penning the play Too Many Books, informed by the experience and the emotional journey of parents seeking to adopt. Not so long after my 18-month-old daughter arrived from China, Eleanor Mills was at my table, thanks to Bob Hoskins and a rainstorm.
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2 months ago | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Jennifer Howze
As we move into the age of strongman government and oligarchs, how do we get women's voices heard? As the world feels increasingly topsy-turvy and we move into the age of strongman government and oligarchs, revelling in the daily rituals that reliably bring joy has never felt more important. For me, it’s birds: Noticing them.
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2 months ago | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Jennifer Howze
There's a revolution in how women 50+ feel about themselves, changing the story from "decline" to "opportunity and optimism" – and here's how NOON is helping create it This newsletter is all about Revolution. I know that sounds a bit dramatic but a revolution in how women 50+ feel about themselves, changing the story told about us from “decline” to “opportunity and optimism” is what NOON is all about. Revolution was the theme of this week’s NOON Circles.
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2 months ago | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Jennifer Howze
Helping older women helps younger womenThat is what I really passionately want to change – and that would make such a difference to younger women too. Imagine, if in the midst of trying to juggle career and kids in our 30s and 40s, we were told: “Calm down, you can really power up your work life, career and purpose in your 50s, 60s and beyond.”In the 100-year-life, maybe we can take the pressure off what so many younger women tell me are the ‘years of survival’.
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2 months ago | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Jennifer Howze
I’d always believed that the generation behind us Queenagers would land far higher up the beach than we have. Now I wonder whether – rather than being the forward troops, with a mighty army forging behind us to travel further – we are actually as high as the tide is going to get…But then I re-read Hope in the Dark and I changed my mind.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
noon.org.uk | Eleanor Mills |Jennifer Howze
Hope you’ve had a good week – it’s certainly been a good month for Queenagers onscreen – and it’s got me thinking about midlife beauty. Demi Moore, 62, won a Golden Globe for her performance in The Substance, a feminist horror movie about ageing, objectification and misogyny in Hollywood.
