Mika: Age is our advantage, and the 2026 “50 Over 50” list proves it!

Six years ago, when we launched the first Forbes and Know Your Value “50 Over 50” list, I had a very simple idea: What if we stopped treating 50 as a finish line and started treating it as a starting point?

Today, as we unveil our sixth annual list, that idea feels bigger — and more urgent — than ever.

This year, as always, we are celebrating 200 extraordinary women across four categories: Impact, Investment, Lifestyle and Innovation. They are entrepreneurs and executives, artists and journalists, leaders in politics, philanthropy, entertainment, business and beyond. And they are proving something I have believed for a long time: Age is not an impediment to doing the most meaningful, ambitious and impactful work of your career. In many cases, it is an advantage.

I know this personally. This year, I turned 59. And I have to admit: When I was younger, the idea of turning 60 scared me. Sixty sounded old. It sounded like a finish line, a number that meant certain doors would begin to close – especially if you’re a woman who works in media.

Now, with 60 around the corner, I feel almost the opposite. I feel like I’m just getting started! I still have so much I want to do, so much I want to learn, and so many stories I want to tell.

I’m thrilled to wake up every morning, deliver the news, sit across from fascinating people, ask questions and debate the very real impact of what’s happening in the world. I have never felt more curious or more energized by the work. If anything, I have more to offer now because I have spent decades learning how to do it. That’s the gift of experience — and it is exactly what the women on this list remind me of.

Not only does 60 feel like a beginning, the times we live in call for it to be. While through this list we are highlighting 200 remarkable women, we also have to acknowledge a difficult reality: In many ways, the situation for women in the United States and around the world is moving backward. Access to life-saving reproductive health care remains under threat. The pay gap persists. Flexibility at work — something so many women fought hard to achieve — is moving in the wrong direction. And a brutal job market is making it harder for women, particularly those trying to build careers while raising families, to find opportunity and financial security.

This moment calls for us, especially those who have weathered the storm, paved the long runway, and have the experience in fortitude to fight for the next generation. 

Just look at some of the names on this year’s list:

At 54, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is breaking new ground as the first female military veteran to serve as a state governor. Her path — from Naval Academy graduate and Navy helicopter pilot to federal prosecutor to governor — is a remarkable story of reinvention and service.

At 64, investigative journalist at the Miami Herald, Julie K. Brown, is being recognized for work that changed the world’s understanding of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and gave victims a voice. She helped expose Epstein’s wrongdoings in a series of stories in 2017 and 2018 that led to his arrest (and the arrest of his associate Ghislaine Maxwell). Her reporting is a powerful reminder of what happens when an experienced journalist refuses to look away.

Dale Anglin, 62, is tackling another crisis: the collapse of local news. As inaugural director of Press Forward, she is working to make sure communities across America have access to reliable information about the places they call home. That is not simply a journalism mission. It is a democracy mission.

And then there is Karen S. Carter, 55, who became the first woman to lead Dow as CEO this year — after joining the company as an intern in 1994. Think about that career arc!! She didn’t arrive at the top overnight. She built a lifetime of experience that ultimately prepared her to break a barrier that had stood for more than a century.

Several of the women on this list came to us in a way that is especially meaningful: through our public nomination process. (We really do read those submissions!) Angelique Albert, 55, CEO of Native Forward Scholars Fund, was nominated by the public and is a wonderful example of why we keep that door open. She has dramatically expanded opportunities for Native students and secured a transformative $50 million gift (from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott)  for the organization.

Legendary designer Betsey Johnson, 83, also came through public nominations. Nearly five decades after launching her iconic fashion brand, she is still creating, experimenting, connecting with young audiences on TikTok and proving that getting older does not require becoming less interesting. I love her refusal to “grow up.”

And twin sisters Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts, both 52, were public nominees too. The cofounders and co-CEOs of The Lumistella Company have turned The Elf on the Shelf into a global phenomenon — and 20 years in, they are still finding new ways to grow it.

That spirit runs through the entire list.

Actress and entrepreneur Tracee Ellis Ross, 53, made her Broadway debut this summer. Michelle Wong, 58, was a key producer on “KPop Demon Hunters,” a cultural phenomenon that won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. These women aren’t simply maintaining careers they started decades ago: They are opening new doors.

That is exactly what I hoped the “50 Over 50” would become when we launched it in 2021. I wanted women over 50 to be better valued for what they contribute — and, dare I say it, to be seen as cool.

I also wanted younger women to look at these lists and see possibility. To understand that there is time: Time to make mistakes. Time to change careers. Time to start over. Time to discover that the thing you thought you would do forever is not actually the thing you want to do forever.

Six years later, the women on this list have made that case better than I ever could. They remind us that age is not a deadline. It is a resource.

So to the 200 women on this year’s “50 Over 50”: Thank you for showing us what is possible when experience becomes fuel instead of a limitation.

And to every woman wondering whether her biggest chapter has already happened: I hope you’ll take a look at this list. I think you’ll find the answer. (A hint: Not even close!)

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