Welcome to The Chaos!

Midlife. Real talk. Unfiltered.

Jun 13, 2025

I’m Angela Burk - writer, consultant, and proud partner to an Aussie whom I convinced love can thrive across 8,000 miles, two continents, and way too many time zones. I’m also a mom to seven (yep, seven) kids - three mostly-grown sons of my own, and four kids from my man who, let me remind you, lives in a whole other country. So yeah...chaos is kind of my thing.

After a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it retirement (technically, a month), I realized my next chapter wasn’t a hammock. It was a laptop. And a micro-needling roller (I knocked 'em until a girlfriend made me try one). And probably a stiff drink (for me, a spicy marg). The Real Girls Guide to Over 55 is where I turn all the messiness of midlife into stories, strategies, and the occasional snort-laugh - for women who refuse to fade, from women who’ve been there, are in it, or are bracing for what’s next.

And yes, when I say snort-laugh, I mean the kind that happened recently over dinner with a girlfriend who’s still getting her period at 54 and raging her way through the start of menopause like it’s a sport. She’s crushing it, by the way - Girl Scout badges in hot flashes, body shifts, and hormonal landmines.

Let’s be real: the best advice, the real permission, and the most honest WTAF-is-happening moments don’t come from huge glossy books or celebrity experts. They come from women like us, Real Girls, who’ve lived a little, lost a little, laughed a lot, and are still figuring shit out as we go. We’re navigating the changes, reclaiming our bodies, our voices, and maybe - finally - our damn confidence. And we’re doing it with one hard truth in mind: we don’t have forever, so we better start now. If you’ve ever caught your reflection mid-hot flash and thought, “Who the hell is that woman?”; you’re exactly where you need to be.

I’ve juggled C-suite boardrooms, single-parent madness, and red-eye flights from San Francisco to Melbourne to keep a very long-distance relationship alive and somewhere in all that chaos, I realized we have a lot to say at this stage of life.

This is the living, breathing (and sometimes ranting) space where I’m building The Real Girls Guide to Over 55. And you? Your stories, questions, hot takes, and real-deal feedback will shape each and every chapter - because your voice matters more than my own highlights reel.

Here’s what we’re talking about:

Sagging knees, spousal illness, and why it all hits at once
Wrinkly elbows, mood swings, and Poise Pads as purse staples
Menopause rage, shifting identities, and the myth of "one and done"
Parenting adult kids (without duct-taping your mouth…unless that helps?)
Divorce, dating, and surviving a household of seven kids across two continents (or an empty household in a single hemisphere)
Retiring, un-retiring, and redefining ambition post-50
Sex that feels like broken glass - or the best you’ve ever had (it’s a toss-up)
Money, power, and why clarity is the new self-care
Health curveballs, endless appointments, and the badass joy of being here
Party of one - and loving it, learning to love it or at least not hating it

Want in? Here's how:

Subscribe, share, comment. Loudly and often.

Email me at realgirlsguide55@gmail.com - I read and respond to everything, and I’m always looking for stories, expert takes, and truth-telling women to spotlight in the book.

As one of my sons told me recently:

“Getting old isn’t a flaw, mom - it’s a flex, especially the way you’re doing it.”

Damn, he’s right…And for us real girls in our mid 50s? This is our moment. Let’s make this loudest, boldest, most unapologetically real chapter yet.