Lonni Pike on going viral in midlife

We first interviewed Lonni Pike in 2020, the same year she started her Instagram page. Back then she had over 4,000 followers and was already inspiring people to live their best life, through sharing her body art and her gray hair, but most of all, her contagious smile and free spirit.

We interviewed Lonni in 2020 and she went viral shortly after for being nice to a troll. She has since quit her job and is now a full-time influencer.
Photo courtesy of Lonni Pike

A couple of months after we published the article, I noticed that we had a strong influx of traffic to the article about Lonni. I wondered where it came from, since we hadn’t shared it on social media that day, and the incoming traffic was significant.

I Googled Lonni, and lo and beyond I found all kinds of articles about her, by different publications, from The Daily Mail, to Cafe Mom. I suppose other people, the world over, were also Googling her and landing on our post. 

To top it all off, the reason Lonni went viral was for being super kind to a troll. Isn’t that something to be celebrated?

We interviewed Lonni in 2020 and she went viral shortly after for being nice to a troll. She has since quit her job and is now a full-time influencer.
Photo courtesy of Lonni Pike

Shortly after, I saw that Lonni’s following on Instagram, which she had rebranded to @grayhairandtattoos, had surpassed 100,000. But her virality did not stop there. At 58, Loni has over 1 million followers on Tik Tok, and last year quit her job to be a full-time influencer.

Lonni also has a podcast with her sons, “We’re in trouble now” that you can listen to on Spotify, Apple, and most renowned podcast platforms. If you’re more interested in YouTube videos, well, you’re in luck, because she also has a channel there!

We interviewed Lonni in 2020 and she went viral shortly after for being nice to a troll. She has since quit her job and is now a full-time influencer.
Photo courtesy of Lonni Pike

In our conversation in the video that illustrates this article, Lonni shared that she feels immensely humbled by her explosive growth online. It only means she can reach more people with her message of living life the way you want to, regardless of age.

Lonni is also absolutely open about her sobriety and encourages others who may not have reached their bottom to realize they too can be happy. Happiness is not reserved for a select few, she assures.

Will she be getting more tattoos soon? Not for now, since she says she’s already expressed every milestone and feeling she wanted to through the tattoos she got over the past year. Also, her favorite artists are either booked solid or have moved away from where she lives.

Of course, it’s not really about the tattoos or even buzz-cutting her hair (she did that recently and looks absolutely fabulous), or wearing clothes that some people think are “too young” for her. It’s about expressing yourself freely whether you’re 20, 90, or any age in between.

Lonni shared that her followers on social media skew much younger than her age, most likely because she intimidates many women of her own generation.

We came to the conclusion that when someone criticizes something in a peer, it could be because they secretly wish they could be as self-confident to pull off a look that doesn’t conform with society’s standards.

But, as Lonni reminds us, it’s not about dressing exactly like her, or getting tattoo sleeves, if that’s not your jam. It’s about being true to yourself, whether it means sporting coastal grandma vibes or wearing sequins (something I’ve gotten into in my late 50’s).

I can’t wait to see what else Lonni surprises us with, since she works hard each and every day at creating content for every one of her social media outlets

We interviewed Lonni in 2020 and she went viral shortly after for being nice to a troll. She has since quit her job and is now a full-time influencer.
Lorraine C. Ladish

Bilingual and bicultural Spanish-American editor, writer, speaker, influencer, yoga teacher (RYT500) wife and mom. Founder of Viva Fifty! Published author of 18 books. Her most recent book Your Best Age was released by HarperCollins in September of 2017.

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