This is your life
What’s it like to be a twentysomething today? Here’s a window into this generation’s psyche in all aspects of life.
BEAUTY AND HEALTH
We reject contoured Instagram selfies but stop-start YouTube make-up tutorials to get ready for espresso martinis on a Saturday night, before regretting that we pre-booked a Sunday morning aerial yoga and postworkout green juice, which looks better than it tastes. We try fitness trends as often as we change our cotton Calvin Klein underwear (thank goodness for ClassPass) and feel somewhere between inadequate and inspired into a daily fitness regimen by #transformationtuesday Instagrams. Some days that motivation will only go so far as donning Lululemon tights and heading to the farmers’ market.
Technology
The phone is the new car because now it’s our smartphones that provide us with the ease of getting about, of keeping in contact and staying social. We’ll be the first to claim we’re not really addicted to technology – except for the daily instances of checking our emails then falling into a two-hour Instagram stalking hole. We haven’t updated our Facebook status since our parents joined and Snapchat is mildly amusing. We know social media is self-curated, but regardless we’re still willing to comply with it.
Social life
Though we bemoan the fact our friendship circles aren’t likely to widen post-school, post-uni, post-entry level job, we like our core group the way it is. Facebook might be for our mums, but we still use messenger to keep tabs on Australia Day barbecues and birthday lunches. Because of recent events we’re inclined to go guerrilla in after-dark habits, hosting our own dinner or warehouse parties. It will definitely surprise some to learn we don’t drink as much as our counterparts in the 1960s, though when we do it’s forking out for top-shelf spirits, then playing cleanskin roulette for a drink when dining at home. We Uber everywhere and only take cabs when surge tips past x 1.8-ish. Smoking is bad for you, and too expensive anyway.
RELATIONSHIPS
Dating is best done in summer. Rooftops and outdoor venues have more exit options than the lengthy winter dinner. Our friends met on Tinder, but they had friends in common anyway, so why delay the inevitable? Everyone hates the “what are we?” conversation. Weddings are fun but it’s hard to imagine going from multiple dates to venue hire anytime soon. Couples have a hard time wrestling with the morals of the wedding tax every vendor slaps on their services when they know nuptials are involved. When 30 looms, we’ll nevertheless pay up.
Holidays
The gap year is part of Australian lore, and if we didn’t make it happen the year we left school we still think it’s something we are entitled to do. Our island location stimulates a hunger for the peripatetic life. We Airbnb when we go away to counterbalance the financial sting of a holiday, some of which, try as we might, ends up on credit. We’ve been to Asia and are saving for New York. If that doesn’t happen we’ll probably end up in New Zealand or Hawaii. Our friends keep telling us we have to see Japan.
CAREER
We told ourselves we weren’t going to work in offices, and here we are. Some of our friends have moved overseas. It sounds glamorous, but they’re doing more of the same. Others have quit the cubicle life for the start-up life, regaling us about it with smug smiles. We were told we could be whatever we wanted, but our HECs debts say otherwise.
SHOPPING
We have just about as many options on our Net-a-Porter wish list as we do tabs open on our iPads. Back-in-stock updates litter our work inbox (the new Re/ Dones will be sold out by the time we check our personal Gmail). We sit in bed late and trawl Instagram for new labels until our eyes begin to water and it’s 1am. There’s nothing like buying something overseas so no-one has it back home, and physical stores are the only way to go if it’s jeans or swimwear we need. Topshop and Zara offer instant hits.
MONEY
Our parents toldt us to invest in property – we wish we had listened. We share tips on which private health-care funds to join, but still find it hard to kick our daily coffee habit. Some of us have credit card debts, although no-one talks about it. We’re appalled if restaurants don’t split bills, but accept credit card surcharges – few of us carry cash.
STYLE
Our big-ticket items are accessories like a Chanel quilted handbag or a Balenciaga leather jacket. We’re told we need to invest in our clothes, but chain stores are far too fun. Even when we found ourselves accidentally dabbling in normcore – unironically – we are still finding our style personalities. We’d like to think we’re unique and that our choices reflect what we’re like. Some of us may have reached the stage where we think we need to dress our age, or project our professional aspirations, but when we’re still paying rent or living with our parents it’s hard to define what dressing like a grown-up really is.
Down time
It’s all about finding somewhere new to humblebrag about – a new bakery with farm-to-table produce, a bar that distils its own whisky. We save long-form articles from the New Yorker to read later, but end up finding ourselves on Buzzfeed or watching a Tastemade video. No-one will ever admit to not knowing about the politics both in Australia and the US even if you have a passing knowledge at best. Everyone has a faux-intellectual opinion on Brexit.