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2 September 2013

Nina Finds a Niche

By Rachel Sloane

Angry about abusive social media messages? Worried about elderly parents needing a care home? Looking for ideas of places to go and things to do now that teenage children have fled the nest?

Young mothers discuss the important issues in their lives via websites such as www.mumsnet.com.  Now there is a website aimed at a slightly older and perhaps more sophisticated  woman – and it was the idea of a Suffolk-based businesswoman, Nina Finbow, mother of three adult daughters.

 

“I saw how successful mumsnet was and thought, ‘but what about our age group’? We are the fastest growing demographic group; we have experience and a voice that equally needs to be heard. So I thought, ‘What can I do?’” Nina remembered, speaking in her beautiful garden, her two dogs at her feet.

 

The idea she came up with was to create a platform for the more mature woman but, unlike a forum or chat-room, www.platform505.com is an online magazine that also invites comments from its readers,

“I thought about what we could write about, our mid-life experiences, and the analogy came to me that is should be like sitting around the coffee table with friends. Think of all the things you would discuss. It might be something political, our experiences of divorce, our sister’s cancer or our husband’s retirement,” she explained. “On Platform 505 we want to stimulate thought, inspiration and discussion and so we have the strapline ‘the online journal for the Thinking Woman.’” 

 

Read more of this article in the September 2013 edition of Suffolk Norfolk Life.