Susan Dabbar – 65

About me

PROVOKEDmagazine’s Editor-In-Chief, Founder Susan Dabbar has spent decades pivoting from one extraordinary career to the next, proving that reinvention isn’t just possible; it’s necessary.

From designing nuclear submarines as a naval architect to shaping brand strategy as a Disney executive and Nestlé brand manager, from competing as a professional poker player to founding an international educational consulting business, her career has been anything but conventional.

The throughline becomes clear: Susan thrives where curiosity meets challenge. Now, as the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of PROVOKEDmagazine, she’s once again reinventing herself, channeling that same energy into a media platform that unapologetically questions, disrupts, and redefines the conversation for women.

This isn’t just about aging—it’s about autonomy, ambition, and agency. When she’s not stirring the pot asking big questions, she’s being kept in check by her two millennial children, who refuse to let her act her age, and her cheeky Frenchie, Pippin, who clearly runs the show.

Much of her tech support comes from her husband of over 40 years, a fellow nerd who thinks date night includes a deep dive into Google analytics. A lifelong traveler with more moves than she can count, Susan is pretty sure she holds an unofficial world record in relocating.

What do you do and why do you do it?

I built PROVOKED because I couldn’t find the thing I needed.

Smart, unfiltered storytelling for women like me—women who’ve lived a few lives already and still want more.
Not more stuff.
More truth. More nerve. More next.

Welcome to PROVOKED.
We are building a world built for women who aren’t done yet.
Not with dreaming. Not with daring. And definitely not with raising their voice.

PROVOKED is for sharp minds and bold lives. A digital salon for the curious, the newly unburdened, and those with nothing left to prove but everything still to say.
We offer stories with texture. Commentary that cuts through the noise. Essays that stay with you.

This isn’t Lifestyle 101—it’s a life examined, out loud.

Here, you’ll find the beauty of a second act—or no act at all.

Reinvention is an art. Aging is a privilege.
And curiosity? The ultimate luxury.
The world may have told you to disappear. To retire. Quiet down.
We say: take up more.
Light the candle before noon. Ask better questions. Start the thing.
Laugh louder than they expect. Write your name bigger.

We have welcomed thousands to the community we’re building.
It’s not a quiet one. But it’s a good one.

What changed for you after age 50?

Everything—and all at once. My fifties hit like a collision between endings and beginnings. I was caregiving for aging parents, grieving the slow loss that comes before the actual goodbye, launching kids into their own lives, and somehow reinventing myself for what felt like the twentieth time. And just to keep things interesting, I did it all while moving to a country where I knew no one.

That kind of upheaval? You stop pretending. You realize how short and how sacred your energy is. The fifties forced me to strip my life down to what’s real—purpose, curiosity, and a deep, unshakeable sense of who I am.

The world expected me to shrink. I took up more space instead.

What would you tell the 20 or 30-year-old YOU?

Stop editing yourself to fit someone else’s story.

I spent too much time trying to sound “likeable” instead of powerful. I’d tell her:

• Get messy sooner.
• Don’t wait to be “ready.”
• Say the hard thing in the room full of men.
• Speak your truth to women.
• Start the thing before you think you deserve to.
• You’re already her.

What do you think you’ll tell yourself in retrospect at the end of your life?

No apologies. I’d look back and say: good job, I stayed curious. I didn’t shrink. I asked better questions, I kept learning, and I built something that gave other women permission to be loud and visible. I didn’t play small—and I didn’t go quietly.

What impact do you think increased visibility can have on your business?

Visibility is everything—especially for women over 50, because invisibility is the bias we’re fighting.

Every time I show up, another woman sees what’s possible. PROVOKED isn’t just a publication—visibility means reach, yes—but it also means representation. It tells women: your story isn’t over, and it’s worth being seen and told.

Who or what inspires you and why?

I’m inspired by women who refuse to edit themselves down—who show up real, raw, and unfiltered. The ones who’ve lived through loss, failure, or reinvention and still lead with humor and nerve.

Lately, it’s not a single person but a collective—a generation of women who are rewriting what power, beauty, and relevance look like after 50. They remind me that we’re not done becoming.

Something else I’d like to share

We’re the continuation of the movement our mothers and grandmothers began.

They fought to be heard; we’re fighting not to be erased. Feminism doesn’t end with us—it evolves through us.

We’ve still got work to do, stories to tell, and questions to ask. Let’s keep pushing, keep building, and keep raising our voices.