This Is the Year Millennials Officially Got Old |
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Guest Essay
By Anna Silman
Ms. Silman is a writer and an editor.
A few weeks ago, a group of girlfriends and I were messaging about their upcoming trip to visit me in New York City. The topic turned to what they should wear to look cool at a series of scene-y downtown bars they had heard about online and planned to visit. This was a group of stylish women who had worked in fashion and media and normally had no trouble dressing for the occasion. But, having been to some of those spots and borne witness to the Gen Z trends I saw there, I had to be the bearer of bad news: There was nothing in any of our wardrobes that would look cool. Every young, hot girl dresses like Adam Sandler now: cargo shorts, oversize graphic T-shirts, wraparound sunglasses. Our Rachel Comey blouses weren’t going to cut it. No matter how much we tried, we were going to look washed-up.
The moment crystallized a sentiment many millennials have been feeling recently: that 2025 is the year we officially got old. This reality has been creeping up for a while now, but it’s become impossible to deny it any longer. The youngest of our cohort are about to turn 30, and the oldest are pushing 45, meaning that we’re all now inhabitants of the life phase that the psychologist Clare Mehta has called “established adulthood,” a demanding period that can involve juggling careers while caring for........