Guinness World Record, Match Earnings, Be Best: Broadsheet May 9

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Melania Trump celebrates one year of Be Best, there’s a new kind of members-only space for families, and female authors are reimagining middle age. Have a terrific Thursday.

EVERYONE'S TALKING

• Better with age. Some of you may remember that we highlighted a story back in January that claimed older women (specifically those over 60) were having "a moment."

Well, I'm happy to report that that moment hasn't passed. What's more, it seems to be expanding. According to this Wall Street Journal story, there's a literary movement afoot to "[reimagine] female middle life." The piece cites the recent bestsellers from Michelle Obama and Melinda Gates and teases a number of books coming up this spring and summer that are written by women who "look at midlife as a time to start over, take risks and view themselves in the world as anything but invisible."

Why now? The story nods to everything from dissatisfaction with the old tropes around aging to the #MeToo movement as potential kindling. But it's clear that the spark is a group of female authors who believe they have something fresh to say and are unwilling to take a backseat in the cultural discourse just because they're no longer in marketers' target demo.

As a society, we love a good wonderkind, and it can be easy to feel like a failure if you haven't made it big by 30. (Did any of you catch this NYT story about the struggles of "elderly" tech workers?) So it's a good reminder to hear from women like editor and author Karen Rinaldi, 57, who says she couldn't have written her forthcoming memoir even a decade ago. The WSJ reports: "[I]t took those extra years to feel comfortable admitting to her weaknesses and seeing what she could learn from them."

Kristen Bellstrom

@kayelbee

[email protected]

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

• One year of Be Best. First Lady Melania Trump held an event celebrating the one-year anniversary of her anti-cyberbullying program Be Best. Trump will plan more trips devoted to the program and expand its focus on children's online safety. Washington Post

• What a Wonder. The Wonder is a new, members-only space, starting in Tribeca, launched by Sarah Robinson and Noria Morales. For $450 a month, families can join for a place to hang out together and sign up for kids' classes—in a more adults-friendly environment than the usual leaning up against a wall at karate class. Coins2Day

• Your 2020 news. The next policy proposal paid for by Sen. Elizabeth Warren's tax on the ultra-rich will be a $100 billion plan to combat the opioid epidemic. Sen. Kamala Harris is pivoting her campaign messaging to more directly attack President Trump. Sen. Cory Booker, with Rep. Ayanna Pressley, introduced the MOMMIES Act, which would extend the time period that Medicaid covers postpartum women in an effort to combat the maternal mortality crisis. Among Democrats, experiencing sexual harassment reduces voters' support for Joe Biden; in ranking the former VP as their first-choice candidate, there's an 11-point gap between Democrats who haven't been subject to harassment and those who have.

• And some more... Does this sentence frighten anyone else?: "Here's what it's like to watch your college boyfriend run for president." Writer Sasha Watson dated Beto O'Rourke in college, and she shares a thoughtful, complex reflection on growing older and reconciling criticism of Beto with the 22-year-old she knew. Washington Post

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: The Senate revived the Export-Import bank with three confirmations, including Judith Delzoppo Pryor as a board member and Kimberly Reed as president. Carlyle Group promoted Ruulke Bagijn, co-head of AlpInvest Partners’s primary funds investment team, to head of investment solutions. Joanne Bradford is leaving her role as CMO at SoFi; she'll be replaced by Intuit's Lauren Stafford Webb. Jane Aikman left Arqiva, the U.K.’s largest tower company, after less than a year as CFO. Pinstripes named Topgolf's Susan Walmesley CMO. BET named Staci L. Hallmon SVP of media sales for BET Her. Vanderbilt University vice provost Melissa C. Thomas-Hunt joins Airbnb as head of global diversity and belonging.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• Turning things around. It's a big week for gatekeepers reversing bad decisions. The Guinness World Records awarded British nurse Jessica Anderson the record for being the fastest woman to run a marathon in a nurse's uniform after first denying Anderson the honor because she didn't run the race in a dress, apron and cap; she'd instead run the London Marathon in her nursing scrubs. And, as you can read in Coins2Day, CES gave an award to sex toy startup Lora DiCarlo after denying the company the prize earlier this year.

• More women in mining. BHP Group CEO Andrew Mackenzie aims to get women to make up half of the mining giant's workforce. It's a challenge and an outlier for the male-dominated industry. Wall Street Journal

• Match made in heaven. In its earnings Tuesday, Mandy Ginsberg's Match Group made a stronger-than-expected showing credited to user growth on Tinder. The company has been focusing on improving Tinder's matching algorithm—because users are more likely to shell out for extra features if they're already finding success on the app. MarketWatch

• Dishing with Dern. In a new profile, actress Laura Dern discusses the horrific behavior she witnessed on film sets growing up—she says it was "mere luck" she wasn't assaulted—her work with the Screen Actors Guild to better protect young actors, and building female friendships and mentorship on the sets of Big Little Lies and Little Women. New York Times

Today's Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe. Share it with a friend. Looking for previous Broadsheets? Click here.