Agefree in America: Aging Has No Demographic

Beardwood’s proprietary national study on views of aging in America and what it means for brands.

In the summer of 2026, we asked Americans across all generations, “How do you really
feel about aging?” We started with a qualitative conversational study of 194 interviews, followed by a quantitative survey of 1,037 Americans with an even split among Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. Our proprietary national gen-pop study, Agefree in America, shows that aging has no demographic. Yes, there are universal truths (death, taxes, back pain). Our actual age has little to do with how we view aging or what we buy. People want to feel Agefree, which equals “more like myself.” As featured in The Internationalist.


The data revealed that generation predicts almost nothing about their views on aging. People were sorted based on two things: 1) how much they think or worry about aging and how often, and 2) how much they buy into wellness as the answer, measured by what they buy and do. Consumers split into four distinct mindsets: The Unbothered, The Braced, The Self-Authored, and The Obsessed. Every mindset includes all four generations in similar proportions.

  • The Unbothered have low anxiety and low buy-in. Aging isn't something they think about much, and it doesn't drive what they buy. A good day for them is a day they got things done, not a day they felt young.
  • The Braced have high anxiety and low buy-in. Aging is on their mind constantly, and they feel it in their bodies. But they've stopped believing the brands that promise to fix it, and they keep their fears to themselves.
  • The Self-Authored have low anxiety and high buy-in. They believe in taking care of themselves, but aging doesn't keep them up at night. They have a routine that works, and they're looking ahead, not back.
  • The Obsessed have high anxiety and high buy-in. They believe their efforts work, and they can't stop making them. Their fear drives them to try new things to stay ahead of their own aging.

49% of Americans think about aging daily, every generation, equally, according to our data. Also, mind and body don’t age at the same pace. 56% of Americans say their minds feel younger than their ages, and 42% say their bodies feel older. Feel-old moments hit every generation, hard.

"I bent over to pick up something and my back was really strained. This would have never happened when I was younger."

—Gen Z

"My son came to me with some cultural reference and said, 'you don't know the cool things.' I thought — wait. Am I the mom now?"

—Millennial

The wellness industrial complex treats aging as a problem to be fixed, and folks are feeling it. 38% say wellness has made them more anxious about aging and 40% agree that wellness culture is mostly about fear of aging in disguise. Two out of three of our qual respondents say they hide their fears because marketing can feel patronizing and they don’t think people will understand. The smartest brands don’t even mention age in the first place. OXO built Good Grips around arthritic hands and sold them as better tools for everyone. HOKA built plush soles for elite trail runners, and people with aching knees made it their shoe. Neither ever said age. Design for how people are changing and don’t talk about age.

Americans are happiest when age isn’t a factor at all. 44% of Americans want more Agefree days rather than “accomplishment days”. But a third of our qualitative respondents say this Agefree feeling happens unexpectedly and "I can't plan for it." Across every generation Agefree = “I just want to feel like myself.” Not younger or prettier or even living longer, it’s all about feeling like me, no matter the age or stage.

64% of Americans want brands to design for how I’m changing, but don’t talk about aging. Only 36% of Americans say you can talk to them about aging in any way.

What’s a brand to do when aging has no demographic? If we could tell marketers one thing, it’s that age = change. Market, design, and strategize for the changes. We are all getting older every second . . . and generational marketing of aging isn’t helping. Age groups do matter, as our Gen Alpha: Keepers of Calm study shows. Generations can tell you a lot about culture and life stages, but not about aging and wellness.

The mindsets aren't designed to be categories for segmentation in the traditional sense. They're meant to help us, as marketers, better understand how people relate to our brands from an aging POV. Your brand will be seen by all mindsets at once. You can't pick and choose, since all generations live across each mindset. So they're not labels; they're guidelines. Each mindset comes with "bare minimums," or simple rules to always keep in mind to ensure your brand will never be the reason someone feels talked down to or gets pissed off. We’ll share them in the full study. Labels are always dangerous, and we’re not claiming these mindsets are the answer to every challenge in marketing and innovating for an aging and changing population, but we do think they are better than most of the assumptions we (and our clients) went in with.

The complete study of Agefree in America is coming soon.

Study authors: Ryan Lynch, Courtney Berkery, and Olivia Howe.