Will I be too old to be relevant?
Disrupting Workplace Ageism
How can we dismantle stereotypes on ageist workplace ideas? This series features stories of professionals defying expectations and takes a hard look at what the research reveals about real-world ageism in the workplace.
Christine Koh is a multimedia content creator. In the face of a successful career, some doubts linger.
“As a 48-year-old digital creator, sometimes I wonder: will there be a point where my voice isn't considered relevant because I'm too old?
“I wasn’t thinking of that when I left my path as a neuroscientist. I was thinking of my baby and the time I had to spend away from her, knowing in my heart I didn’t love being in academia. I was much more excited to work on my website, Boston Mamas. I was passionate about providing hyper-localized information about parenting — even if I didn’t know what a blog was when I started! And, it took off. People read what I wrote, the media called, and it started to earn awards. Everything snowballed from there: I started two design companies, wrote a book, started a podcast, and became a creative director.
“Both my husband and I are career jumpers, with both the good and bad things that brings. It’s awesome that my kids see you can do things in a different way, that you can create change, conversations, and meaning. Growing up, I didn’t see my Korean immigrant parents do a lot of things for joy — they needed to get food on the table. Things were tremendously different.
“I’m not going to tell you to follow your bliss — not blindly. What you can do at any time, at any age, is start to sow the seeds of whatever it is that you want to jump to. When you start saying things out loud, you make your dreams a little more real and a little more possible. “All my businesses were sparked by a curiosity and desire to fill up spaces I thought were empty. I love the quickness with which you can execute on a creative idea that comes with working in the digital space. I want to know how to make things better. I’m the one who bats for stories around life trajectories instead of trends. I consider myself an influencer of ideas. That will never be irrelevant.”