The Business of Health: Inside Martha Graeff’s Expanding Influence

The Happy Aging Founder shares the art of living well; redefining longevity, leadership, and legacy. 

“I’ll be surfing in my 80s” 

In an era obsessed with optimization and youth preservation, Martha Graeff offers something far more radical: acceptance with ambition.

The Brazilian-American entrepreneur, fashion authority, and longevity advocate has long been a familiar face in international style circles. With a career that began in modeling and evolved into styling and womenswear buying at Harvey Nichols, Graeff cultivated an instinct for beauty, discipline, and presentation. Her collaborations with Tiffany & Co., Lancôme, Isabel Marant, and Chanel cemented her position as a global tastemaker, while her digital presence grew to more than one million followers.

But it was not fashion that would ultimately define her second act. It was aging.

In October 2024, Graeff launched Happy Aging, a science-backed longevity platform dedicated to helping women grow stronger, healthier, and more empowered as they move through midlife and beyond. The brand did not emerge from trend forecasting or opportunistic branding. It was born from personal reckoning.

After her divorce, Graeff experienced what she describes as a period of recalibration. “I realized I needed to take better care of myself physically, mentally, and emotionally,” she reflects. “I wanted to feel healthier, stronger, and more empowered.” What followed was not reinvention, but refinement. She returned to the ethos that had always guided her work: connecting women, uplifting them, and building community. This time, the focus was longevity.

From Anti-Aging to Pro-Aging

Graeff’s central thesis is deceptively simple. Aging is not a problem to be solved.

“I want to cancel the idea of anti-aging,” she says. “We do not need to fight aging. Instead, we should frame it positively, honestly, and with empowerment.”

The language shift matters. In an industry built on erasure, Graeff is advocating expansion. Rather than promising to reverse time, Happy Aging emphasizes what she calls healthspan over lifespan. Women, she notes, statistically outlive men, yet often spend those additional years navigating greater health challenges. Her goal is not merely to extend life, but to ensure vitality within it.

“I want to live to 100 feeling my best,” she says. “Walking, moving, being independent. Surfing at 80 or even 90.”

The aspiration is aspirational yet grounded. Graeff’s approach rests on three non-negotiable pillars: nutrition, strength training, and social connection. She lifts weights five times a week. She prioritizes protein and targeted supplementation, including glutamine and NAD-supportive formulations. She goes to bed at 10:30 p.m. and wakes at 6:30 a.m. to protect her circadian rhythm. She invests in friendships with the same seriousness she brings to fitness.

Wellness, in her worldview, is not spectacle. It is repetition.

“I have moved away from hype,” she explains. “It is about small, consistent habits that add up over time.”

Building a Science-Backed Platform for Women

One of the gaps Graeff identified in the longevity space was structural. Much of medical research historically centers on male biology, leaving women navigating hormonal shifts, perimenopause, menopause, and microbiome changes with limited tailored guidance.

With Happy Aging, she set out to create a platform grounded in science but accessible in practice. She works closely with her medical co-founder, Dr. Daniel Yadegar, along with hormone and gut health specialists, to ensure formulations and content are evidence-based and designed specifically for women’s needs.

She speaks candidly about topics that have long been whispered: declining NAD levels after age 35, the importance of gut health for mood and immunity, and the rising recognition of the vaginal microbiome during midlife transitions. These are not marketing buzzwords in her lexicon. They are biological realities that deserve attention.

“True innovation supports long-term health,” she says. “Not short-lived fads.”

Community as Currency

If longevity is the science, community is the soul.

Through initiatives like the Longevity Club, Graeff convenes monthly gatherings where women work out, share experiences, and speak openly about midlife transitions. These events are not transactional networking spaces. They are connective tissue.

“Being a founder, at this stage of my life, is about connection,” she says. “Listening. Showing up personally.”

Her philanthropic roots echo here. In 2018, she founded The Bazaar For Good, a Miami-based initiative that hosted curated shopping experiences with 100 percent of proceeds benefiting underprivileged children globally. That ethos of collective uplift now permeates Happy Aging.

For Graeff, well-being is inseparable from service. “True well-being is not just personal,” she says. “It is about lifting others up.”

Miami as a Longevity Laboratory

Graeff’s evolution has unfolded against the backdrop of South Florida, a region increasingly positioning itself as a global wellness hub. Once known primarily for nightlife and glamour, Miami has matured into a city where beach walks coexist with biohacking clinics and female-led wellness startups.

“Miami embodies health and vitality,” she observes. “From nutritious dining to sunshine and movement, the environment encourages you to prioritize your body.”

She sees the city as fertile ground for the longevity conversation, particularly among women founders. The collaborative culture among female CEOs, she notes, has been instrumental in shaping her entrepreneurial journey. Palm Beach and Miami alike are witnessing an influx of longevity-focused facilities and programming, and Graeff believes the momentum is only accelerating.

“Miami is on its way to becoming a global destination for living better, longer,” she says.

Style as Self-Respect

To understand Graeff’s influence, one must acknowledge the throughline between fashion and wellness in her life. Far from superficial, her personal style functions as a form of agency.

“Personal style is an expression of self-respect and confidence,” she says. “And confidence is a cornerstone of longevity.”

Dressing with intention, in her view, reinforces the same message as strength training or sleep discipline: you are worthy of care. As she has evolved, so has her aesthetic. Each decade has introduced a new silhouette, a new palette, a new articulation of self.

“Fashion and wellness are deeply connected,” she explains. “Both are about honoring yourself and celebrating who you are at every stage.”

In this sense, Happy Aging is less a departure from her fashion career than its maturation.

Redefining Success

Ten years ago, success might have been measured in campaigns, covers, or collaborations. Today, Graeff defines it differently.

“Success is about building a legacy and a movement that impacts the lives of others,” she says.

She is candid about the entrepreneurial learning curve. Fundraising, investor meetings, and strategic planning required new fluencies. There were rejections. There were no’s. But clarity of mission, she believes, changes everything.

“When people understand what you stand for, doors open.”

And what she stands for is unmistakable: pro-aging as empowerment.

The Legacy of Pro-Aging

Graeff insists that Happy Aging began as a movement before it became a brand. In five years, she envisions a global community of women equipped with tools, education, and support to navigate aging powerfully. She wants menopause normalized in conversation. She wants women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s to recognize midlife not as decline, but as a stage of clarity and strength.

If she could redefine aging for the next generation, it would not be something to conceal. It would be something to celebrate.

“Aging would be a stage of opportunity, strength, and self-discovery,” she says.

In a culture still preoccupied with preserving youth at all costs, Martha Graeff is proposing a different aspiration. Not to look younger. Not to be ageless. But to grow more powerful with each passing year.

In Miami’s salt air, on the gym floor, or barefoot in the sand with her daughter, she is building a philosophy that merges science with style, discipline with joy, and longevity with community.

Her mission is not to stop time. It is to expand what we believe is possible within it.

Cheers to the next 40 years! Surfs up. 

By ML Staff