As the youngest of four kids, and with a nine-year gap between her and her next oldest sibling, Jane McCann was jokingly referred to as “the accident of the family”. But as the McCann clan moved around from Melbourne to London to Canberra, young Jane always felt a little like that accident; that her older sister and brothers were a unit, while she lived on the outside.

After going off on her own and filling her memory bank with life experiences, Jane moved to Melbourne and temporarily stayed with her sister, Josie, for what was intended to be three weeks. Instead, she stayed for three years, and the two became inseparable. 

That is, until Josie died of cancer at age 57.

Jane was 48. 

Middle-Aged Malaise

Josie’s passing came at a time where Jane was jockeying for her place in this world. Dealing with menopause had flared an existing tendency towards depression, and the grief over losing her sister only deepened those blackened feelings; that collapse of identity; that dearth of meaning. 

She felt untethered. She felt old. Up until this point, she had done everything she could to live up to society’s expectations of what a woman should be and look like.

And now she was feeling the crushing weight of modern beauty standards in every new wrinkle and grey hair. 

Enough was enough. 

Middle-Aged Goddess

“It’s easy to become addicted to sadness, loss and grief and not so easy to choose to change but I’ve witnessed it. I’ve done it. I know you can too.”

-Jane, in an Instagram post on the 10-year anniversary of Josie’s death

12 years ago, Jane, like most of us, created an instagram account. For a few years there, it was like any other old-school social feed - random, barely captioned snapshots of daily life, dotted with inspo quotes and pics from pop culture. 

As the years progressed, so too did not only the social media climate, but Jane’s online purpose. She took all that unspoken grief and sadness and self-criticism and opened up, sharing vulnerable thoughts and experiences about being a woman in an ageing body in our particular world.

Not only did the comments increase and the followers amount, but through giving voice to her long-stifled inner terrain, her very perspective and life philosophy was reborn. 

Being the change she wants to see 

Jane now rails against the sexist status quo, against the stigmas and standards thrust upon women. But she does so with a light touch. With empathy and relatability and humour. And she does so not only through flagging what’s wrong with the world, but by showing how to live a big life regardless. 

“Ageing gracefully brings to mind women just kind of disappearing, fading away just quietly into the background…don’t be too loud, just quietly disappear over there.”

Even now, when Jane’s blatant personal branding is one of acceptance and celebration, brand partners still attempt to airbrush and filter out her aesthetic reality. 

To that kind of behaviour, she calls out the bullshit - “how are we ever going to be comfortable with our natural selves if we're not seeing examples of that online?”

She now takes that bold, no-nonsense sensibility into the real world, meeting and opening up raw and honest discussions with women, about what it’s like to be a woman. 

The result? Magic.

Time makes a SuperHuman

Jane has known many people that she’d happily refer to as a SuperHuman - strong individuals that have faced difficulties and challenges and not only learned from them, but persisted while being gentle with themselves. 

And she believes that more often than not, that rite of passage happens later in life.

It certainly did for Jane:

“Ageing ain’t for sissies, but if you get to do it - what a gift.”

SuperHuman Habits

It all starts with her ‘morning cup’, a teacup gift from her late sister. 

Into that cup goes Tremella, which entered her daily routine 18 months ago. Not only did the popular beauty and skin tonic feel like a hug from day dot, but it tamed a pesky case of rosacea that “went berserk” during menopause. 

Also into that cup goes Mason’s Mushrooms, a must-have for a globetrotting gut like Jane’s.

“I don’t know if anyone’s said this, but you sort of develop a relationship with the mushrooms? I think the right one finds you at the right time.”

Jane enjoys the ritual of tonic preparation and finds it sets the tone for a daily routine that includes meditation, ocean plunges, and consciously putting down the smartphone in favour of better things for the mind and heart. 

Meet @themiddleagedgoddess on instagram.