How to Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon

Former social worker Slater celebrates her late-in-life successes and shares tips on aging gracefully in her punchy debut. Encouraged by her mother to live as a “belligerent woman,” Slater entered middle age with a conviction that “how old I am is hands down the most boring fact about me.” In her 50s, she supplemented a hip replacement with a PhD in social work and her first trip to Europe. At 61, she launched a fashion blog, Accidental Icon, which catered to older women who lived “interesting but ordinary” urban lives, and found a sturdy following for her photos and passionate musings on style and design. Now pushing 70, Slater notes that her @IconAccidental Instagram account has nearly 770,000. Much of the books is structured as a manual to help readers achieve the kind of confidence Slater radiates online (“I’m a badass in part because I’m an older woman who is decidedly not trying to look young”), but she allows for flashes of vulnerability, admitting, for instance, the shortsightedness of her onetime mantra that aging “isn’t real” and disclosing her occasional insecurities about getting older. The result is a radiant self-portrait that will charm readers of any age. Agent: Mollie Glick, CAA. (Mar.)