We’ve all hear the phrase, “age ain’t nothing but a number” and Helen Van Winkle better known as the Instagram sensation Baddie Winkle is the perfect example. Admittedly when we first saw her famous “flick of the wrist” Vine it all seemed a bit silly and without much purpose. However, after further investigation it seems as though Grandma Van Winkle has a bit more method in her madness than just making fans on social media laugh.
Baddie Winkle really proves that spirit has no age and that you only have one life so you might as well not only live it but enjoy it and make a splash! A self proclaimed eternal rebel , the 87 year old Baddie Winkle tells Refinery 29, “I don’t feel old. I have never felt old. I think you can dress any way you want to.” Winkle lives in Knoxville, TN, with her granddaughter and her 19-year-old great-granddaughter, Kennedy, who was the one responsible for Winkle’s youthful and urban style. “Kennedy is responsible for all of this. Kennedy and I have a lot of fun together. We’re very close.”
According to Winkle, it all began one afternoon: “ I was laying out in the sun, and I put on some tie-dyed shirt and a pair of cutoff shorts of my [great-]granddaughter Kennedy’s. She came home and said, ‘Oh, Granny, you look so cute! Let me take a pic of you.”
Ever since the first Instagram post, Winkle’s outfits and antics have turned her into somewhat of a sartorial celebrity with 1.5 million followers on Instagram. She and great granddaughter Kennedy are sent a boxes of clothing and merchandise to play around in. “We wear some of them, and some of them we don’t, because we don’t like them,” Winkle says. “Most of the time, Kennedy picks what they send over. She’s my stylist, too — she helps me out a lot. Of course, she wants me to do things I don’t want to do, too, but that’s neither here nor there.”
The moral of the story is Badie Winkle is enjoying life to the fullest and allowing her life’s paths to take twist and turns that she probably never expected. Even if you don’t plan on wearing teen street gear and making funny videos you too can learn from Mrs. Van Winkle by simply having fun and not taking life too seriously!
