"We aren't just sitting around waiting for the Reaper," says Margie "The Hammer" Hollingsworth, 72, a retired nurse with a shock of purple hair and zero visible wrinkles thanks to what she calls "spite and SPF 100." "We are the Reaper's problem. He has to wait for us."
"The youth are terrified of getting old, and the middle-aged are bored," says Dr. Lena Pierce, a pop culture sociologist. "The Granny Gang offers a third option: irreverence. They represent the ultimate freedom. They have survived loss, illness, and societal pressure. Now, they simply don't care. Watching them is a form of aspirational entertainment. We all want the confidence of a woman who wears neon leggings to a funeral because 'Grandpa loved color.'"
"Once you realize you have absolutely nothing left to prove, you become dangerous," says Dolores "D-Day" Chen, 80, a former librarian who now manages the gang's Instagram account (450k followers and counting). "We dress for ourselves. We speak for ourselves. And we drive as slow as we want in the fast lane because, honey, we paid for this asphalt."
The Sass-y Squad formed two years ago when a local developer tried to turn their community garden into a parking lot. Instead of writing letters, the women chained themselves to the backhoes wearing matching pink tracksuits. They won. They kept the garden, and they kept the tracksuits.