Instagram influencer Baddie Winkle may be known for her motto, "stealing your man since 1928," but it could just as easily be "IDGAF." Only with the "F" standing for "frog," or "fig," or "Funyun." She's too busy having the time of her life to worry about the haters, though she does wish them well.
"People have said things like, 'Why aren't you dead yet?' Things like that," Baddie, also known as Helen Van Winkle, said. The 89-year-old from Kentucky has developed an Instagram following that's 3.2 million strong, but it's also come with a downside.
"I pray for the basics," she said, referring to anyone who seems offended by her psychedelic rainbow miniskirts, penchant for dancing to Drake, or cheeky posts, like a YouTube video where she glides down a Slip 'n' Slide, shouting, "sliding into your DMs!"
The basics aren't holding her back. Winkle's living the type of life that could make Oprah Winfrey jealous. She's hung out with Miley Cyrus and the Kardashian family, designed a line of prismatic shoes, even published a book this summer (Baddie Winkle's Guide To Life). Now, she's tackling something she's been dreaming about for years: Actually crossing off the top 10 things on her bucket list. And she's gotten Hotels.com to bankroll it.
She's gone all TLC, chasing waterfalls at Niagara Falls, chilled on the 50-yard line with the Dallas Cowboys, taken a helicopter tour over the Grand Canyon, even visited Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, and Ireland. But, on the day we visit Winkle and her great granddaughter, Kennedy Lewis, she's in New York, learning how to bartend from one of Manhattan's top mixologists.
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Kakecia Tilmon, who works at The Roof at The Viceroy Hotel, a — you guessed it — rooftop bar overlooking Central Park, spends a few hours showing Winkle how to mix all sorts of drinks, like a twist on a mojito that uses vodka in place of rum and bubbly instead of club soda.
"Those bartenders, they act like they're having so much fun," she explained, taking a sip of her drink. Why not try it for herself?
Winkle's more of a classic margarita woman, but she could see herself making fancier cocktails too, after the daylong tutorial. She might also whip up a drink for her partner in crime (and Insta-fame), Lewis. Her great granddaughter's actually half the reason she's gotten such a viral following — and why she's able to go on her whirlwind bucket list world tour.
Winkle had been doing the laundry, and she put on some of Lewis's clothes. Lewis loved her look, snapped a pic, and posted it to Instagram. Immediately, her phone blew up with likes.
"It was crazy. I was like, 'you've got to get on the internet game,'" Lewis said. She started an account, naming her persona Baddie Winkle. "She got, like, 50,000 likes in the first day."
The account just snowballed from there, and over the past few years, they've navigated internet fame together, one project at a time.
"She's breaking age barriers that not a lot of, you know, older people would do this type of thing," Lewis said. Indeed, for every basic out there, there's a dozen praising Winkle for showing them they don't have to fit into a certain mold.
It's a reminder we could all use: Life's too short to give a Funyun. Or a fig.
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