Sheryl Sandberg Is A Role Model For Middle-Aged Women

She’s busting the narrative of finding love later in life

Whether you are a fan of the advice in Sheryl Sandberg’s 2013 best-seller Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, or not, the Facebook executive has made a lasting impression on working women. And she’s doing it again — this time when it comes to finding love.

Last week, Sandberg, widowed when her husband died suddenly in 2015, announced she’s engaged to Tom Bernthal, whom she’s been dating for less than a year.

Just like Lean In inspired many women in the workplace, Sandberg can be seen as an inspiration to women — especially middle-aged women — who are seeking a romantic relationship.

At midlife, Sandberg is busting the narrative in numerous ways:

She had a starter marriage

In 1993, Sandberg married Washington, D.C., businessman Brian Kraff. She was just 24. Her parents told her to find a man in college in addition to focusing on her schoolwork, and she did. But they split just a year later. As she said:

I got married at 24. By 25, I was divorced. For years, I felt like I was wearing a scarlet letter “D.” I was worried…