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There’s a new breed of
super-twentysomethings who do
have their shit sorted. Instead of
using this decade as a throwaway
10 years to shun the Adult World,
they have actually used it to their
full advantage to get shit done.
So instead of going from 20 to 30
with nothing to show for it but a
crushing credit card bill, a slew of
bad relationships and a job they’re
only lukewarm about, the super-
twentysomething capitalises on
their twenties. And this could
very well mean the difference
between being Hannah Horvath
and being Lena Dunham.
Clinical psychologist Meg
Jay is the first to acknowledge
that most of us cling to the idea
that our twenties is a time for
play and travel and all-night
bar-hopping and sleeping with
unsuitable men and not much
else. And, hell yeah, it’s totally
the time for having fun before
you’re hit with a mortgage.
But, without sounding all
judgey, is adult-shunning being
embraced a little too much? And
to our detriment? It’s not helped
by a culture that “infantilises”
twentysomethings, according to
sociologist Frank Furedi. We’ve
all seen that Instagram post, “I
don’t want to adult today.” There
is a slew of books focused on
the collective freak-out that
is our twenties (like Emma
Koenig’s F*ck! I’m in my
Twenties!) and even a
“preschool” in New York for
adults who want to revisit
being treated like a child.%
OF WOMEN AGED 18-24
LIVE WITH THEIR FOLKS.
OUR TWENTIES ARE
a time for exploration and some
carelessness, to a degree, says Jay,
who argues that 30 is not the new
20 in her hugely popular 2013
TED Talk (seven million views
and counting). But spending 10
whole years doing this, without
anything to show for it? That’s
when life catches up, and you can
find yourself, to paraphrase Jay,
playing a game of musical chairs,
where you’re the last person to sit
down – so you go for the closest
chair, even if it’s not the best one.
The power of your twenties
is enormous. Research shows that
most of our earning potential
happens in the first 10 years of
our careers. Our fertility peaks in
our twenties. And as Jay points
out in her TED Talk, “80 per cent
of life’s most defining moments“80 PER CENT
OF LIFE’S MOST
DEFINING MOMENTS
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