Share Your Story

Yes, you. We’re always looking for new stories. Mid-life Women is an online community centered around women 50 and beyond who share their personal life experiences, wisdom, and advice to uplift and empower other women. Share Your Story was born of a love for story - and a deep knowing of its power to bring women together in meaningful connection in powerfully real and human ways. 

 

If you’ve got a story that promotes understanding of individual experiences, we want to hear about it. To have lasting power and impact, each individual human story needs to have heart, meaning, and purpose.

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We’ll be honest, though: writing for Mid-Life women takes some work. We want your story to be at its best, and we’ll push you to get there. Once accepted, you’ll get extensive feedback from our editor. It’s also rewarding. Your friends, family, peers (and potential employers, clients, or publishers) will read your work, and you’ll also learn a lot in the process—about communicating your ideas, about writing, and even about the topic you thought you already knew so well when you started.

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What we’re looking for:

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You may submit a rough draft, a partial draft, or a short pitch (a paragraph or two summarizing your story and why it matters to our community) paired with an outline. The more complete your submission is, the better feedback we can give you. Keep in mind that we only accept original content—we do not publish anything that’s been published elsewhere (including on your blog).

Please don’t send us press releases or sales pitches. They make us feel sad inside.

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Before you submit, make sure your submission:

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• Has original thesis that clearly identifies the story being discussed—not just a list of tips and tricks.

• Has a voice. Be emotional, venerable, hopeful, curious, bold, motivational, inspirational... Be you.

• Is written for an audience of women 50 and beyond.

• Facts, judgement, inference, and argument need to be supported with convincing evidence, not just opinions. Fact-check, and cite sources where appropriate. reasons and evidence. 

 

What we publish:

 

We publish stories anywhere between 700–1,500 words, depending on subject complexity. 1,200 words is about average.  Sharing your truth doesn't always have to be about revealing a past hurt, dark secret, or inspirational story. It might also be about sharing why you launched your own company or to tell our community how you've triumphed over loss and tragedy. Sharing your story can be painful and uncomfortable but it can make a difference in your life and ours. 

 

How to submit (and what happens next):

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See form below to start the submission process. Once you are selected as a contributor, we prefer submissions as Google documents so the editor can easily provide feedback and guidance directly within your draft. Here’s what happens after you hit Submit:

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• An editor will review your submission and determine whether it’s a potential fit.

• The editor will work closely with you on things like organization, argumentation, and style.

• Once you’ve addressed our comments, send your revised draft back.

• We’ll schedule you for online publication as soon as revisions are complete.

 

Terms and Conditions

 

Here are some guidelines that we have developed to minimize communication misunderstandings. When you submit your story to Mid-Life Women, you agree to the following:

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• By submitting your story you confirm that this is your own original work and that it has not been previously published on any site. In exchange for us publishing the story, you agree that we are free to republish the story at any time, in whole or in part, on mid-lifewomen.com, our newsletter, our social media, our website partners and all other websites we control without restriction.

• We agree that you can republish submitted stories on your own website two weeks after they go live on Mid-LifeWomen.com with a link back to where the stories appeared first.

• All content must be your own work and any references must be appropriately cited.

• Any links will be reviewed by Mid-Life Women and must be relevant and not promoting services or products. 

• You will receive a short (50 word or less) bio box with a link back to your website and social channels at the end of the article.

• Mid-Life Women reserves the right to include its own images,  links or ads in any submitted stories.

• If you purchase an image to use in your story from one of the large stock image companies, it will require attribution (e.g., Artist’s Name/Shutterstock.com) need to be properly credited in your figure caption. 

• You agree that you are not an employee of Lighthouse Media Group or Mid-Life Women and will receive no compensation, now or in the future, for your stories.

• Mid-Life Women reserves the right to remove any guest story with or without a reason.

• Mid-Life Women reserves the right to reject any story that it feels is not a good fit for the site.

 

If you feel like we may be a good fit, please fill out the submission form. We look forward to working together to help inspire and empower mid-life women and beyond.