Quick Reads: “Twentysomething” by Robin Marantz Henig and Samantha Henig

Twentysomething: Why Do Young Adults Seem Stuck?

By Robin Marantz Henig and Samantha Henig

HUDSON STREET PRESS

In one of the New York Times Magazine‘s most-shared articles of 2010, science writer Robin Marantz Henig examined the research on “emerging adulthood”—the notion that young adults are taking longer and longer to grow up. In this follow-up she collaborates with her 27-year-old daughter, Samantha (the Times Mag‘s online editor), to explore the myriad social factors—the student-loan crisis, the social-media revolution, the mainstreaming of fertility services—that make this slow-maturation process unique to millennials. The obvious critique, which the Henigs acknowledge but can’t quite dispel, is that this falls into the category of a nice problem to have. Extended adolescence, after all, tends to be limited to those who can afford it.

This review originally appeared in our November/December issue of Mother Jones.


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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

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