AARP Eye Center
Meet @J_Dimps, 80-Year-Old Twitter Rockstar
By Beth Carpenter, May 2, 2012 07:26 AM
Meet Josephine Lamberti. She's 80 years old, lives alone on Staten Island, and has a bigger Twitter following than Ed Asner and the founder of Pinterest. (Sorry, guys. We love what you do, though!) We called her up and asked her how this whole thing got started.
How did you get on Twitter?
Josie: Well, my grandson came up with it to keep me company, and he thought of something I would enjoy.
Donny, her grandson: Originally I was making these funny workout videos on YouTube, and when I put one on and I used my grandmother in one, she got all these comments about her and how funny she was.
I'd say it really took off last summer during the whole "planking" craze, I had my grandmother plank on a couch and Justin Bieber saw it and tweeted about her.
Out of everyone you've talked to on Twitter, who would you most like to meet "in real life"?
Josie: I'd like to meet Rihanna because she sounds like fun. You gotta have fun in this life. You gotta enjoy it.
What do your friends say when you tell them about your Twitter fanclub?
Josie: They can't get over it, that I'm 80 and what I'm doing this. 80's just a number, you know.
Older people should try it. I'd love them to get the fun out of it as I have. Everybody's not in perfect health, but you shouldn't let those things bother you, you know.
It's given me a new life, I'll tell you that. My life had been so boring and dull. Go to Tweeting! It keeps you busy, and it's a lot of fun. You're reaching people like movie stars, sports people, you're meeting everybody just by being on this. I just love tweeting, All of a sudden everything opened up! I made the headlines on Staten Island News. I'm getting calls from friends I haven't seen in years. I'm going to be on NBC tonight, last night I was on Channel 7... I don't know why!
Josie is trying to hit 80,000 Twitter followers - and she's close! If you're on Twitter, give her a shout - she loves to hear from her fans. Are you on Twitter? Tell us in the comments, we'd love to follow you!