The Quality Makers: Leslie Price and Michelle Curb of Gloria

While women over 40 represent 25% of the population — and control 85% of consumer spending —media geared toward this audience (which includes me at age 55), has dwindled. Previous generations devoured Redbook, Good Housekeeping and similar content but this no longer speaks to the more active, ambitious and influential generation of aging women. Gloria founders recognized this void and launched their “modern media brand for adult women” that features fashion, expert interviews and other curated content that makes you think — and more importantly, feel seen. As co-founders Leslie Price and Michelle Curb tell women, “If you aren't yet ‘old,’ but aren't still ‘young’ this is the read for you.”

I had the pleasure of sitting down with these OG media mavens to discuss Gloria’s mission, how it feels to age in a youth-obsessed society and why osteoporosis is a hot topic. You may just stop mourning the death of print after hearing from these sage and stylish founders.

Gloria launched in March 2021, as businesses began to rebound post-pandemic — what led you to create an online publication dedicated to women in mid-life at this time?

Leslie: Michelle and I worked together at a start-up and for years had talked about doing something. I was nervous about quitting my job, but we decided to go for it; what was funny is that we decided to go for it right before the pandemic happened. The timing was ultimately great because we had to take our time. Whenever we revisited the content or mission [throughout development], it still resonated.

Michelle: We started talking about it in 2018 (the year I turned 40) as we were sitting around in media rooms. We were starting to feel different; we’d had children, and our priorities were naturally changing. We realized that there wasn’t anyone creating content for us that felt modern, cool and interesting — nothing that applied to our lives and our shifting priorities as we were entering a new phase.

I love the moniker, and must ask — who is Gloria?

Michelle: It’s not not Gloria Steinem, but it’s about what that name evokes in us and that person who has that energy. It’s also coming from “glory.” We wanted that feeling going into our lives. It personifies powerful, happy, joyful, loud … all the things we want out of this phase in our lives.

I love that! You’ve clearly attracted the over-40 reader with your spirit and content but wondering if you have also engaged a younger audience.

Michelle: Yes! I would say our audience is aged 35-55, but we do get emails from even younger readers — these younger Millennials don’t think they fall into this target audience but want to be prepared.

I love your language around aging: “Don’t call it a mid-life crisis. It’s a jumping-off point.” For you, personally, what does aging mean?  How have you shifted in this second half of life?

Leslie: I was always the most ambitious person and achieved so many of my dreams, but realized I was not happy. I wanted to take my experiences and try something different. Take a risk. But taking a career risk when you are older is scary; while there’s a confidence that comes from feeling like you have achieved, and you don’t have to prove yourself anymore, you have more fear of making changes because you have more responsibilities. Honestly, I had to leave NYC to take my career risk.

Michelle: I felt a strong sense of urgency. I know there’s time — it’s not too late — but when you look back on a 20-year career you know how fast it goes. So, as I turned 40, there was a shifting of priorities to decide how to get where I am going and how to spend my time.

I, like your readers, can relate to these sentiments. Knowing you wanted to leverage your experiences, Leslie, how have you tapped into your former work at In Style Magazine and Man Repeller — where you always had your finger on the pulse of style and what women want — to determine content for Gloria?

Leslie: Part of our mission is to make people feel seen, and that is the feedback we are receiving. We don’t feel we have a lot of competition because everything in women’s media either skews young or just isn’t telling these stories about this nuanced time in our lives.  When thinking about content and mission for Gloria, we are either educating (pulling in an expert of providing information that is of value), highlighting a woman who is doing amazing work or capturing different facets of women’s lives and identity. It’s about the women themselves (versus their roles, such as being a parent), their life and their happiness.

Michelle: It’s also about internet curation for someone who likes to keep up with what is happening. I pride myself on it, I personally always want to be in the know, but you have less time for it as you age. Also, this time of life can be isolating with so many obligations, and reading Gloria is your one moment that is not a lot of work. We feature what to read or watch or know. No news or politics.

Your site has such a great range — I love “We Want” for its dedicated style and shopping, but believe your power lies in the substantial pieces around divorce, cancer, the pressures of the beauty industry. Are there topics you have been eager to address? Other than news and politics, are there topics you feel don’t belong in Gloria?

Leslie: Fertility has been a huge topic for this age group. And health has become a steady part of what we cover, partly because there is not enough women’s research but also there’s a lack of information; there’s endless things we could write about. We write about fashion and beauty as it’s part of lifestyle but also because it’s tied so much to our identity.

We don’t feel the need to cover parenting as a genre because it’s very saturated but also because women at this age are spoken to as moms and we are trying to think of women’s identity as a person. There are so many other topics we don’t cover — when determining stories, we look through the lens of why it is relevant to our reader and why we are the right ones to tell the story. 

What are the most read pieces to date?  

Michelle: Our osteoporosis piece! People don’t want to be caught unexpectedly deficient and realize they are going to live a long time. As we are living in a culture of wellness, they are bringing those same wellness ideals into this next phase. A lot of people want to prepare for menopause, prepare for old age. You get a lot of medical information out there (from places like Wed MD) but ours is the here and now advice, suggesting a supplement you can take immediately. I can’t tell you how many people I know are now lifting weights following this story.

Leslie: We get so many comments about the divorce articles. There was one article where the genesis was a tweet about a woman telling couples she is getting divorced — men always responded with “I’m sorry” while women always said, “Congratulations.” It was an emotional piece because while it is sad, it is also good; that is the nuance.

Michelle: Personal stories that make the readers feel seen perform the best. 

As Gloria is brilliantly monetized — brava Michelle for leveraging her startup experiences here; so many others have tried and failed —the publication is free. This “allows everyone to access the content” which is important to these founders. We at TQE are thankful Leslie and Michelle are truly prioritizing women in women’s media, making us feel seen and offering a unique take on aging.

Feel seen, get educated and be entertained at Gloria.