Joan MacDonald is 76-year-old fitness granfluencer who has used Instagram and YouTube to document her yearslong journey to improve her overall health and well-being. With her content—which ranges from exercise routines to nutritious recipes and other health and wellness tips—MacDonald aims to inspire her nearly 2 million followers to gradually make their own lifestyles healthier.
She also recently launched her own app called “Train With Joan,” which serves as a hub for workout videos, recipes and a community-wide group chat for users to support each other’s health goals. Additionally, in December, she released her book, “Flex Your Age,” to share her strategies for healthy living in more depth.
MacDonald has an ongoing partnership with sportswear and nutrition brand Women’s Best and often dons its workout apparel in her Instagram posts. And with an average engagement of 3.13%—which is three times the median engagement for a creator with a following of her size, according to Obviously data—she continues to maintain a devoted social media following.
“Every day, I interact with people who are inspired by my story of turning my life around,” she told AARP in 2021. “I’m called an influencer now. When I joined the platform, I didn’t even know what an influencer was.”