Creator of ‘We Do Not Care Club’ describes first video, response from followers

(Aging Untold) — Melani Sanders is a social media sensation now, but there was a time when the creator of the popular “We Do Not Care Club” wasn’t one to be in front of the camera.

That changed one day when she decided that she had reached capacity. She was already tired and still had so much to do. Instead, she recorded a video from her car in the parking lot of her local Whole Foods.

In it, she announced a new club — the WDNC, the We Do Not Care Club — and asked if anyone wanted to join her.

After posting it to all of her social platforms, she learned that people did!

Now millions have watched Sanders’ videos that address perimenopause, menopause and life after menopause.

She described the community as “that sisterhood that we need.”

Her book, “The Official We Do Not Care Club Handbook,” is a New York Times bestseller, and Sanders has gone on a nine-city, sold-out tour.

“And I did everything scared,” she said.

How the club started

In an interview with Aging Untold’s aging well coach Katherine Ambrose and board-certified physician Dr. Rhea Rogers, Sanders said she had gone to Whole Foods for ashwagandha.

In the parking lot after that shopping trip, she looked in the mirror and thought of all the things she had to do, including laundry, cooking dinner and taking a book to the library.

“And then I just said, you know what? No, you don’t,” Sanders said. “I am at capacity. I’m tired. My body is tired.”

Sanders said she’d had a hysterectomy some months before and thinks her body went into shock.

“But at that moment, in that car, I was just tired,” Sanders said. “I had had it with myself. I had it with my family, with my friends. I just had it and I was over it.”

So she hit record to see if anyone wanted to join her.

In the 20 minutes between posting that video to all of her platforms and arriving home, Sanders was gaining hundreds of thousands of followers, she said.

Response from followers

Sanders said she was “a little confused” by the response. She has been a creator for years and has had viral content before, but she said, “this was just something different.”

Within a few weeks, millions of people were following Sanders.

She said she became scared and for a while, she turned off her computer. Then, she decided to read the comments.

“One of the main things that women were saying was, ‘me too, me too,’ and ‘thank you for speaking up, thank you for using your voice,’” Sanders said. “All of this is just with Melani just being Melani.”

That was enough in that moment, Sanders said, and over the past year she is “slowly coming to grips with I’m enough.”

Menopause and perimenopause experience

What has surprised Sanders most about the menopause or perimenopause experience is that nobody was talking about it, she said.

Sanders said she had a great surgeon for her hysterectomy but was not told anything about perimenopause or menopause. She had to figure it out on her own.

Community and announcements

A big part of the We Do Not Care Club is Sanders’ funny “special announcements.”

She said members send ideas for them in the comments.

“‘Everyone, we’re all putting the world on notice of what we ‘simply just do not care much about anymore,’” Sanders said.

Sanders said the support from the “We Do Not Care Club” gives her courage.

How to follow Melani

You can follow Melani Sanders on:

• Facebook
• Instagram