Guidelines for an Age-Inclusive Birthday Card

If you have found this site, you probably have heard of ageism. You may already understand that it is a problem. Ageism is prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination based on age. It is unfair and inaccurate, and it has real impacts on our well-being and our economy. 

To tackle ageism, we need to change how we think about aging. Birthdays are one of the major times that we think about our age and so are a prime time to challenge our beliefs about aging. In some cultures, birthday cards are an integral way that we mark this occasion, making birthday cards a great place to rewrite our beliefs about age.

So, how do we do this? We’ve come up with some guidelines on how to create age-inclusive cards. The guidelines discuss vocabulary, storylines, and images and how all these components create messages about aging. There are examples of what to avoid as well as what to use.

These guidelines are the result of conversations we’ve had with card designers and sellers who agree that it’s time to create age-positive cards. The guidelines are also based on research that shows that changing our messaging and images does change our beliefs and behavior. This process is called “reframing aging” and it can be applied to everything from our casual conversations, media and advertising, and public policy. Birthday cards are one way to use our words and our art to change minds and influence culture.

Change won’t come overnight, but each bit of age-positive messaging we add to the world pushes ageism a little further from the center of culture. Whether you are a designer, seller or consumer, we hope you use these guidelines to help create a world where we can all be valued at every age.