Welcome to The Faunt

Celebrating style, silliness, and femme power at 55

Welcome to The Faunt, a fashion and wellness Substack celebrating fun aunt energy—power, pleasure, and silliness—in the awkward years, the mid-50s.

Think of it as the Black Lady digital version of Cicero’s How to Grow Old. Both are about aging. (Also, I have a thing for Garamond and Futura fonts.)

Speaking of fonts—get it, F-A-U-N-T, fun aunt. Who is yours? Was yours? What would she say if she saw you now?

Worried your plastic surgery might wear off, and the UPS driver at work will realize you’re not 18?

Wondering if you’re destined to be the forever-single lady in your playgroup? Possibly, unless you hit the apps or hang out where singles your age meet. You know, memorial services! Funerals! Wakes!

Dark? Maybe. No darker than staying up late wondering if you’ll choose the wrong partner… again. Or thinking about your nieces and nephews’ future—climate change, animal extinction, never visiting Mars.

WTF?! What The Faunt, ladies?

Clap it up for The Faunt—your digital answer to mid-age existential woes, goofy and relevant.

This era, with its wingmen (death-spiraling, saggy boobs, and overnight-oats-ruminations), calls for a new mindset: cultivating your inner Auntie Fae (fun-aunt-energy).

We’re neither Cicero (things have changed since 44 BC) nor our Silent Generation moms. We’re empaths—responsibly and irresponsibly so.

Our mission, should you choose to accept it: unleash your inner Auntie Fae. The Faunt is your go-to for celebrating femme power, pleasure, joy, style, well-being, and silliness at 55 and beyond.

Why The Faunt?

I’ve worked in retail, and here’s what I’ve noticed: American women in their 50s? MiserableAF. Women 80-and-up? Delightful. My octogenarian friend says it’s because, “Older ladies are cool. They’ve figured out that life is all about sex.”

What The Faunt?!

When’s the last time you had P2P (peer-to-peer) sex? Me? Pre-COVID. Très uncool.

Vulnerability wasn’t in my auntie playbook growing up—or even into middle age. That shifted at 48.

I was standing on a sidewalk—name-drop alert—in downtown Johannesburg. An auntie looked me in the eye and said: “I’m so sad.”

Auntie vulnerability?! At any age? Très chic.

You know what she didn’t do? Wallow in it. She’s been my model ever since.

That’s why The Faunt. Auntie B—a mirror of the African parts of me—is my muse. The Faunt celebrates empathy (African-style, Southern-style), bold action, owning your power, embracing silliness, and mastering the art of fun aunt energy. Sexy, bold, unapologetic, irreverent, internationalist, liberated, and free—that’s the vibe.

Expect a mix of:

• Fashion and wellness

• Coping strategies

• Research-backed insights

• Silliness

Warning: This isn’t a space for those who have it all figured out or peeps who play it demure. Here, femme joy, happiness, well-being, boldness, creativity, nonconformity, pride, and power reign supreme.

Shrinking Energy

Speaking of aunts, do you watch Shrinking? It’s the Apple TV dramedy about Jimmy, a boundary-free, grieving therapist who somehow still has a license.

My favorite character in Season 2, Episode 9 (Full Grown Dude Face)? Gaby, Jimmy’s Black Lady colleague, played by actor and comic Jessica Williams.

While no one calls Gaby—or next-door neighbor White Liz—Auntie or Tee-Tee, both women bring necessary extended-family energy to 17-year-old Alice, Jimmy’s daughter. Gaby however leans more “cool aunt” than “fun aunt.”

The Difference?

Cool aunts order candles from Etsy shops that sell merch labeled “cool aunt” and have them delivered to the office. Fun aunts buy artisanal candles from specialty stores in San Francisco’s Mission District or Maison d’Etre in Oakland, where the tagline is, Celebrating Life at Home.

Cool aunts: Millennials or younger.

OG fun aunts: Gen-Xers and up.

We respect order and tradition, freedom and autonomy. Raised on Civil Rights, the ’70s, and the ’80s, we obsess over pleasure and beautifying—our world, bodies, and selves. Even home entertaining, whether for a party of one or eleven, gets the fun aunt treatment.

We prefer OG brick-and-mortar specialty shops—they engage the senses.

Fun aunts couch funness in nice things—or is it status? Openly or secretly, we love both.

The moment Gaby earns her fun aunt stripes? Alice is in a fitting room trying on a dress for a dance. Gaby zips her into it, compliments her beauty, and ties it back to Alice’s late mom—a subtle, meaningful gesture.

Social skills and emotional intelligence, Gaby has both.

This is what fun aunts do: bring calm to chaos, affirm individuality, then gently acknowledge the shadows of—trigger alert—dead-mom face.

Cue relief. Perhaps waterworks.

And then… Gaby—an adult!—apologizes to Alice for ghosting her during a viral drama: “I think it’s safe to say I probably shouldn’t have bonked your dad.”

Yup, that happened. Bonking.

For context: Gaby and Jimmy only became “bonking buddies” after his wife (her best friend!) died in a car accident.

Why do we forgive them? Because they’re likable, it’s TV, and grief makes boundary-less empaths crave vitamin D and poor choices.

The Takeaways?

If you’re an aunt, channel Fun Cool Aunt Gaby:

• Stop comparing young people with dead parents to their dead parent. They are their own people; treat them as such.

• Stop comparing yourself to others; stand in your own beauty.

• Apologize when necessary, but keep it under 15 words.

Why So Much Space for Gaby and Shrinking?

Simple. Full Grown Dude Face gutted me—teen me, adult me, forever-teen me. It’s a perfect moment for this theme. Sometimes the heart trumps editorial logic. That’s the artist’s prerogative—rock with me.

Gaby nailed it. She’s the future subscriber of The Faunt I dream of. A little messy, a little wise, and fully alive. Never mind that she’s a character, not a person. Her humanity strikes a chord, and that’s enough.

Think of the time you’ve spent reading this section like a surprise bonus track on a late-1900s album: unexpected, indulgent, undeniably satisfying.

You’re welcome.

The Faunt Philosophy

The myth: bad choices are a fun aunt trademark. Especially if you’re single and child-free. That’s so ’90s, it’s antiquated.

The fact: fun aunts are hype women, uplifting families—biological, chosen, or somewhere in between. We eat your failed cakes, boost your self-esteem, and introduce you to cappuccinos and sample sales. It’s what we’ve been doing since forever, ageless.

In short, we bring the fun, the pleasure, and keep the balls in the air—even if all we do is show up, noble-yet-absentee-father style, charming, the supplier of “get out of jail free” cards.

At this age, it’s time we take a page from our own playbooks. Do for self what the eff we do for others: make life sillier, funner, meet-cuter.

Now, Your Turn

What’s your best fauntie story? Silliest thing you worry about? First memory of your niece or nephew? Goofiest skin-care obsession? Drop it in the comments.

Tell everyone you know about The Faunt!!

Let’s keep the convo going. Cheers! Hit subscribe!! Thank YOU!! x🪩i