Some viewers doubted the videos’ authenticity even as they praised Ms. “I felt that she was trying to inhabit a much younger part of herself.” “I had trouble watching the videos,” said Cynthia Medalie, 66, a psychotherapist in New York. “Honestly, I thought I was seeing an impersonator pretending to be Martha,” said Vianna Carlsen, 49, a stylist who divides her time between Copenhagen and New York. Stewart said in an interview, adding, “I have a good body, good form, good posture.”īut there can be a cognitive dissonance to seeing an 80-year-old who looks so youthful. “I can almost feel the camera behind my back,” Ms. And leave it to her to do so with a hauteur that belies her giddiness - a holdover, maybe, from her early career as a model, starting in high school. Only here she’s parodying not only herself, but also the whole idea of hard-sell beauty commercials. So rest assured, beneath it all, this is still the cake-baking, mulch-spreading Martha, as she is known to her millions of followers. She also executes her famous finger wag and utters her “It’s a good thing” meme. Stewart dresses conservatively, in loosefitting tops throughout the videos. Making the most of her 15- to 30-second screen time in each, she winks, pouts, shrugs or sticks out her derrière she mimes putting on serum, eye cream and lip balm, urging her viewers to “project fabulous.” All the while she seems to be channeling that supreme blond bombshell of her youth, Marilyn Monroe.īut true to form, Ms. And no question - they are attention grabbers.