I recently visited the ‘The Coming of Age’ exhibition, currently on at the Wellcome Collection through November 29th 2026. The main takeaway, for me, from this thought-provoking installation is that we need to rethink what aging means in a society that is living and working and thriving well into what were previously considered ‘elder’ and ‘fading’ years.

With people choosing to have fewer children – and those they do have later in life (ahem!) – it means that people who are now considered ‘old’ we will be a greater percentage of our population than ever before. And this percentage is only set to increase as time goes by.

However, if older people are living well and happy and feeling productive, then what is ‘old’ anyway? And older than whom? Youth-centric culture that idolises your 20s and throws women away after you’re 40 makes less and less sense when ‘youth’ are in the minority and the vast majority of our lives is spent in the increasingly inaccurate demographic label of ‘old’.

Do some morning pilates for your joints, pack your reading glasses, and sashay your elderly self down to check it out!

Here are some of my favourite highlights from the exhibition.