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Madge Muse series showcases the women in our community with inspiring stories. We caught up with the iconic Suzanne Boyd, editor in chief of Zoomer who shared her journey and outlook on aging and wellness with us.

(Image source: Suzanne Boyd Instagram)

Madge Love: What was your path to becoming the editor in chief of Zoomer? 

Suzanne: The short answer is that I was living in New York and was headhunted by Moses Znaimer to become the founding editor in chief of Zoomer. The long answer is that I always worked in journalism. From when I was very young I wanted to be in print journalism and that’s what I’ve done. I started in newspapers and then moved into magazines. My first magazine job was at Flare magazine, where I was editor in chief, and then I was editor in chief of Suede, and then finally editor in chief of Zoomer for the last 14 years. It’s been a direct path. I always figured I’d be working in print journalism and I am. It’s no longer a print journalism world, and so obviously we do digital, social media, digital newsletters, website all that, but it was really the printed page that inspired me, the idea of putting words and pictures together to create a package that was its own unique thing but spoke to a specific point of view, which was always what I thought was so great about magazines and still is.  

ML: Zoomer is defined by its positive outlook on getting older, and so it would be interesting to hear from your perspective how the narrative around aging changed in recent years?  

Suzanne: When Zoomer started in 2008, we were early to this conversation. A lot of what we heard in terms of media feedback and anecdotally from people when we were starting out was that we were seen as a joke… we were for the “oldies.” I always thought that people who age are lucky – that means you’re alive, consider the alternative! My boss, Moses Znaimer, created the concept of “zoomerism” through Zoomer media, it’s about this positive vision of aging, looking at the demographic and recognizing that it’s such an influential one. People always talked about how influential youth are, but it was because they were large, and those young people are now older people. Even 15 years ago, the media was very agist, there weren’t a lot of brands or media even addressing older people in a specific way unless it was medical equipment or retirement funds, and we have seen a shift in that. You’re seeing it in popular culture – when Hollywood casts women who are age-appropriate for the male stars or drive storytelling through the stories or eyes of older women. Even the (most recent) Superbowl – was that the oldest Superbowl ever, after J Lo at 52, three years ago? We are seeing society age up and that’s a really good thing.  

I think what’s really important is that people usually think aging is just you get old, it’s awful and that’s it. Now we recognize that we can control the aging process is quite substantial ways. We can make it good for ourselves or bad for ourselves, just based on little things we can do every day whether it’s exercise, nutrition, or attitude. So I think now people have a better understanding of longevity and what that can look like. When you think about what 50 years looks like today as opposed to what 50 years looked like during the height of the Golden Girl’s era, everything now seems much more contemporary and younger because of the tools we now have access to from beauty to wellness to nutrition to science. It’s a really different opportunity around aging these days. 

ML: What do you consider your greatest achievement?  

Suzanne: Living life on my own terms.  

ML: Are there any challenges that you have faced that you feel comfortable sharing? How have you managed to overcome them? Are there any tools or strategies that have helped you face these?  

Suzanne: I think I’ve had public, professional challenges which have been well documented. Starting out, when I was at Flare, I was laid off, but then hired back 6 months later. That inspired me to work really hard and then I became editor in chief within 6 years. Or when Suede magazine was put on hiatus but actually closed down after only 4 issues, that could be considered a setback but I did turn it into a positive because I hadn’t taken time off work or had a vacation for probably 10 – 12 years before that, so I had a nice long vacation before I started working at Zoomer, which was really good for my health.  

You can think about how as a woman, and as a Black woman there are all those challenges you can imagine and the answer to those are to work harder and be smarter. But really, from a wellness perspective, I think the biggest challenge throughout my career has been the insane amounts of stress that come with what a job like mine entails. The stress is ongoing and constant because, as I said earlier, print is no longer a magazine that comes out once a month. It’s a daily 24/7 immersion in content and information that you have to get out on several platforms – that’s what the expectation is. There’s no off switch at all, which makes the stress exponential. So, I think managing that would be the biggest challenge, because something like that pervades your entire life, you don’t leave it behind at work. Now that we’re mostly working from home because of the pandemic you don’t escape to your own space because your own space is the office. Dealing with that has been a constant in my life, and the way I try to deal with it is by being aware of it, and compartmentalizing. I don’t have time to vacation or take time off that often, but by mentally compartmentalizing certain reactions and taking time to mentally switch your mind to other things during the day, it’s manageable.  

ML: What does wellness mean to you?  

Suzanne: When it comes down to it, wellness is really about being happy and feeling happy. When you have wellness, you tend to be happy 

ML: Who or what inspires you when it comes to how you approach wellness?  

Suzanne: I would have to say my mother. When I was growing up, she was into things that were considered strange – health food, yoga, and meditation. I think that was a movement in the 70s when people became conscious about the benefits of certain wellness practices. However, that wasn’t the case where we lived where she was the only person doing those things. She would make us do yoga and meditate and of course, we didn’t get to have candy, we had to have healthy food. Looking back, as annoying as it was back then, these were good practices to have ingrained into you. Now, at 85 she’s doing super well and is quite healthy, and I think that’s because of how she always lived and those practices. I haven’t kept up with it over the years, but knowing that I have that foundation and seeing her example makes me quite conscious of it. 

ML: Do you use cannabis as a part of your wellness routine? 

Suzanne: No, it’s not a part of my wellness, I don’t use it at all but I’m not opposed to it. I’m allergic to opiates and after a medical procedure I underwent a few years ago I couldn’t take any of the prescribed opiate-based painkillers and so I had to get through red wine and some CBD products for pain relief.  

I am thinking of trying it because I’ve had insomnia for about 30 years. I’ve always been an insomniac – I would read all night as a teenager and as I was coming up and just starting my career in Toronto I was working in nightclubs from midnight to light, so I have this really ingrained habit of not going to sleep until the wee hours of the morning. Now that I’m gainfully employed during business hours, I do have to wake up early, and so I think it’s coming to a point where I would like to address my sleep issues and get into a more consistent pattern of going to sleep and waking up early, so I am thinking of trying CBD products for that purpose. 

ML: What are the essential items in your self-care toolkit? 

Suzanne: The Peloton bike app is one,  surfing, paddle boarding, windsurfing… anytime I can get near waves and water or just even look at pictures of waves is another. I have pictures of waves all around my apartment and my office and I find that because I grew up surfing all the time, that’s another big one for me. Writing poetry and my personal writing is one, as I read a lot of books and go to the movies a lot but that’s still the part of my brain that’s in work mode because I do so much of the arts and entertainment with the magazine and the website. Spending time and laughing with friends.