After 15 years of bringing the news to New Yorkers, Tamsen Fadal is ready to make headlines of her own.
At age 52, the popular PIX11 anchor is leaving the newsroom — to embark on a new career as a social media personality.
And while the likes of TikTok and Instagram are often considered the domain of tech-savvy youth, Fadal has become a surprise star on both apps, sharing stories about middle age.
The anchor first turned to TikTok several years ago amid her struggle with menopause. Fadal found an unexpected audience among women silently waging a similar battle.
Since then, Fadal has racked up almost half a million followers on the app, where she now discusses divorce, loneliness, feelings of invisibility and other issues facing those in their 40s, 50s and beyond.
By tackling such taboo topics, Fadal is fighting stigmas and breaking down barriers, becoming more visible at an age where women are expected to start fading into the background.
“I started this out just talking, just having the conversations,” Fadal — who has won a whopping 13 Emmy Awards — told The Post on Wednesday, saying she never planned to pivot careers.
“[But I started to realize] this is bigger than what I think it is. It really is a place I’d like to create a platform to have those tough conversations, those fun conversations, the conversations we don’t have the answers to, because I don’t feel like there’s a road map after a certain age.”
Now, buoyed by the support of fans across the country, Fadal, who has also amassed 1 million Instagram followers, is drawing her own map, leaving PIX11, where she has worked since 2008.
In addition to social media content creation, the intrepid star is starting a podcast, planning cross-country speaking engagements and penning a book about menopause, middle age and “the meaning of it all.”
Just before the pandemic, Fadal — then in her late forties — suffered an “incident” partway through a PIX11 broadcast that became the catalyst to start sharing her personal stories on social media.
“My heart was racing out of control,” the Big Apple broadcaster stated. “We were on a commercial break and I got taken off the set by two colleagues who realized something was wrong. They brought me into the bathroom, and I got down on the floor just to cool my body.”
In addition to the heart palpitations, Fadal also suffered a “really intense” hot flash, but had “no idea what was going on at the time.”
After consultations with multiple doctors, the anchor was stunned to learn that she was in the midst of menopause.
“I was like ‘What? What does that mean? I’m too young for menopause!'” she recalled. “[But it] turns out I wasn’t too young, I just didn’t know any better.”
Fadal “wound up” going on TikTok, making videos about her symptoms and doing interviews with experts.
Menopause was a long and arduous ordeal for Fadal, who told The Post: “I had tremendous brain fog, I had a hard time reading the teleprompter a lot of nights, [and I suffered] a lack of confidence. I thought I was going crazy, I thought I was depressed.”
But she found strength in sharing her story.
“I started to speak out about it and when you start doing that, you hear the other voices and you lift each other up,” she explained. “I have now found this whole community of women. I feel like there’s a place where we can have shared experiences so people don’t feel people alone.”
Still, Fadal — who will file her final broadcast with PIX11 on Friday — says it wasn’t an easy decision to step down from broadcast journalism.
“I have wanted to be a news anchor in New York City since I was young,” she admitted. “It was my dream. I never thought I would be embraced like I was by people in this city.”
Fadal will also miss her colleagues — particularly meteorologist Irv “Mr. G” Gikofsky, who has been a close friend for years.
“I’ve worked with Mr. G since the first day I got on the air in the evening,” she gushed. “He’s a legend of broadcasting and someone who is very, very special to me.”
The anchor also paid tribute to Kaity Tong, who has been a mentor for many women in the New York news biz.
“She carved the way,” Fadal declared. “When I got the job [broadcasting] at night, she took me to dinner and she cheered me on. I’ll never forget it. To have another woman do that in this industry is incredible.”
Fadal’s own mom passed away from breast cancer in 1990, at the age of 51.
Now older than her mother ever was, the brunette says she was inspired to make her brave new career change because “tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.”
Fadal — who married Debmar-Mercury co-president Ira Bernstein in 2021 — is also inspired by her father, who is still making new friends and taking up new hobbies at the age of 83.
And for those in middle age who are hoping to make a change or start something new, Fadal encourages them to be “bold” — even if it seems a little scary at first.
“I think it’s okay to be afraid, too,” she stated. “People think being bold means you don’t have any fear, and that’s not what it is. Being bold just means being able to take that next step without having everything lined up perfectly.”
But with millions of fans and plenty of content to share, Fadal seems to have things lined up pretty close to perfect as she steps out boldly into the future.
“I’ve had the privilege of telling stories of New Yorkers, to share their lives,” she said. “I’ll always be a journalist and this is another platform to tell stories about things that matter in the second half of life.”