Atlantic Canadian Influencer Finds Success Embracing Her Gray
SAINT JOHN — Writer and singer Jennifer Power Scott didn’t think she’d be hitting her stride as a rising Instagram star in her 50s, but one year after launching her account, @the_silver_canuck, that’s exactly what’s happening.
“I never would have imagined that growing in my grey hair was going to lead to a new career direction and all this adventure,” says Power Scott, who goes by the handle Lady d’Argento. At over 30,000 followers, she’s now one of the largest “silver sister” accounts in Atlantic Canada, with more than 400 posts featuring fashion, dancing, and fitness.
“All my life I’ve been singing, acting, dancing, writing. I love photography. I love videography, and editing. This, for me, represents a coming together of all or all of my passions, and there’s nothing that can be much better than that.”
Her romance with Instagram began in 2021 when she was working on a CBC documentary. She needed to set up a shoot with hair stylists and the ‘gram was the place to find them.
“I became really enchanted with it and blown away by the level of creativity and artistry,” she says. Hair became her entry point into social media mavendom.
“I don’t think there are many times in my life I’ve been more inspired.”
The inspiration has been contagious. Her account has garnered a lot of attention, notably from New York-based hair care brand Hairstory, which has named Power Scott a “Hairstory Ambassador.”
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After a year of discovering her social media voice, and audience, Power Scott’s content has grown to not only celebrate her transition to grey hair, but also healthy aging, dance, and “living with joy.”
“I am a jazz singer, so over the years I’ve cumulated a lot of pretty dresses and gowns,” she explains. “I’ve always loved fashion since I was a small child. It’s just been a constant in my life.”
The vivacity of Power Scott’s style comes across in every post, making her a good brand icon for local clothing shops, like Boutique Zekara in Rothesay which she is working with now.
“[Jennifer has] a lovely, bubbly personality. She has great style, and we really share the same values,” says Samantha Snow, a customer service representative at the store. “That’s what we want to represent here at Boutique Zekara: vibrancy, living life to the fullest, living life positively.”
It’s a symbiotic relationship with the people and the businesses in the city that she now calls home. Originally from Newfoundland, Power Scott has a fondness for Atlantic Canada and wants to share that with her audience.
“I have thousands of followers in the United States and other countries and I feel I’m in a position to really share with them a lot of what’s wonderful about New Brunswick and Saint John,” she says.
Now that she has her feet under her as a stylist, photographer, editor, and producer of her own social media brand, Power Scott is looking to explore some more challenging content creation environments.
“I would really like to work on, in the next few months, getting out into the Uptown and over by the Bay of Fundy [and] really showcasing some of the architecture and nature,” she says.
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She says that one of the most interesting things she’s discovered from her social media journey is how much she’s learned from people who are younger, both in terms of how to use the technology but also how to keep a positive perspective on life.
“I really feel passionately about the importance of continuing to have dreams, role models, goals. No matter what our age.”
Coming full circle, just as Power Scott used Instagram to find hairdressers for the documentary she was working on, others have scouted her. She’s gone to a few auditions, both in Canada and in the United States.
But, ultimately, it’s the content that drives her passion, the joy of creating it and the community she’s built around it.
“Yesterday, I posted about being a woman over 50 who’s refusing to feel washed up and invisible,” she relates. “I had a couple of women say it made their day and that’s everything. If you can get that kind of feedback when someone says it made them laugh, or it gave them a little bit of a boost.”
“When people talk about social media a lot of focus is on the negative…especially from excessive use. But I’ve seen in my life very positive mental health benefits from it. The joy of being able to give someone else a laugh, or a smile, or a little dose of inspiration. To me – that’s golden.”
Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].