I thought I wanted to grow old disgracefully, but I've realised that I'm actually a 'Queenager'

Step aside youngsters, there's a new set of leaders, influencers, ministers and matriarchs in town. Here Christian writer Michele Guinness introduces you to the 'Queenagers'.

You know you’re old when you’re past fifty and a young man gets up and offers you his seat on the tube. Sadly it isn’t chivalry. It’s a: “With that wrinkly face, poor soul, it’s a wonder her legs can keep her up at all.” That’s the moment when you are cubbyholed into the “no sexual value ergo no societal value” box. He probably thinks you’re frail, weak, doddery and deaf as well.

But there’s a new word fighting its way into the English dictionary - "Queenager". It describes women of mid-life and upwards who refuse to be hidebound by the cultural caricatures of vulnerable, dotty elderly dears who cant go out alone and drain the beleagured NHS of its vital resources. For them age is just a number. But a Queenager is a leader, influencer, minister and matriarch, living life to the full and enjoying it.