#like the oldest millennials have just BARELY started ‘middle age’ in their early 40s as of 2023

[gch1995]

I just turned 28 years old last month, and it really is gross, overrated, and stupid just how much the US glorifies the 18-25 year old crowd. It’s really sad how the media starts treating you as “early middle-aged” as soon as you turn 26, especially those of us who are women.

As if the majority of us were really all that developed, fun, fulfilled, happy, self-confident, and emotionally mature in our late-teens to early twenties as the media often portrayed us in movies…In reality many of us had barely finished puberty, or were still finishing it, didn’t know what the future held, felt deeply insecure, felt deeply lonely, feared commitment, got offended too easily, had our heads in books for school, and didn’t put too much effort into being physically healthy with shitty food options…

As if the majority of us who are relatively healthy, well-adjusted, and practical Millennials aren’t going to live another 40-60 something years before we die of aging related illnesses or natural causes somewhere between our 80s-90s…That actually means 40-45 years old is when the “middle” technically starts, but the media so often encourages for those of us in our late twenties to thirties to start viewing ourselves as “middle aged.” Just because we’re no longer “baby” adult Zoomers, it doesn’t mean we’re past our physical prime. I’d argue we’re even more in it than we were in our early twenties, but the US media will never admit that because it’s too shallow and creepily youth obsessed.

As if we still haven’t spent more years as a legal minor than a legal adult by the time we reach our 30th birthdays…

As if many of us between our late twenties to mid-thirties (sometimes, even late thirties-early forties) still don’t often get asked to see IDs by bartenders at bars and restaurants when we ask for a drink, and often look physically interchangeable with people between their late-teens to mid-twenties, anyway…

As if many of us between our late 20s-30s still don’t get viewed as “kids” by our Gen X and Boomer coworkers at our jobs, anyway…

As if the average woman of 35+ isn’t still far more likely to naturally and safely carry a perfectly healthy baby to full term with minimal to nonexistent complications up until we reach our late 40s. No, the media encourages those of us who are young women to have a complete meltdown over such a low increase in risks for that usually only start to outweigh the positives a whole decade after our 35th birthday as soon as we turn 30.

I could go on and on, but yeah, you’re not even at the halfway point in life until you reach your 40s. Those of us who are younger Millennials/Zillennials in our late 20s-early 30s still have between another 6-18 years before we get there, and elder Millennials have just barely started “middle age.” In a way, you could argue that they are technically still a part of the young adulthood cohort, too. They are still in their early 40s, perimenopause usually doesn’t start in women until the late forties, and a number of sociologists and psychologists don’t even begin referring to people as “middle age” until they reach 45.

I think it's really funny when tumblr posts are like we need characters that are old pathetic washed up elderly losers with their entire lives behind them lamenting the fact that they wasted their time on earth and have no future as the end draws near. Like 28 years olds or something.