Ashton Applewhite


Ashton Applewhite is a writer and activist based in Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Background

She is the author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism and a spokesperson for a movement to mobilize against discrimination on the basis of age. In 2016, she joined the PBS site Next Avenue’s annual list of 50 Influencers in Aging as their Influencer of the Year. Applewhite has been recognized by The New York Times, National Public Radio, the New Yorker, and the American Society on Aging as an expert on ageism. She blogs at ThisChairRocks.com, and has written for Harper’s, the Guardian, and The New York Times. She has been named as a Fellow by the Knight Foundation, The New York Times, Yale Law School, and the Royal Society for the Arts. In 2015 she was included in a list of 100 inspiring women who are committed to social change.
Applewhite is also the author of Cutting Loose: Why Women Who End Their Marriages Do So Well and other books. Under the pseudonym Blanche Knott, she wrote the Truly Tasteless Jokes series, the first volume of which was the best-selling mass-market book of 1983, and was the first woman to have four books on The New York Times best-seller list. Applewhite's memoir, "Being Blanche" was published in Harper's Magazine in June 2011.

Works