Millennials bigger and more diverse group — which is complicated

But let’s set all that broad-stroke bull-emoji poop-emoji aside for a couple of minutes while I get talkin’ ’bout my generation (that’s a reference to a song I once heard Danny Tanner sing with Uncle Jesse’s band in a classic “Full House” episode).

We are entitled. And we are humble. We’re hardworking and lazy. We’re everything, just like older generations, but we’re also a little bit more because we’re the most diverse generation this nation has ever seen. We look like the cast of “Glee,” if you saddled them with student debt and entry-level employment opportunities offering “experience” in lieu of a paycheck. And our group is only getting bigger and more diverse: Pew predicts millennials will peak in 2036 at 81.1 million members, thanks to immigrants, primarily from Asia and Latin America.

All the cool moms love to tell me that Lena Dunham is the voice of my generation. Thanks for the intel, ladies, but I disagree. The voices in my generation— enough to create a cacophony — have flipped burgers, waited tables and schlepped your Starbucks to keep the lights on and our inner passions burning. Dunham’s brilliant, but she can text me after she’s worked a double shift at Forever 21 on Black Friday. I still get flashbacks.

Do I sound cynical? Blame my birthdate. Only 19 percent of millennials say most people can be trusted, less than half the share of boomers who think so. But we’re also more hopeful than boomers, which makes sense when you think about it. We were kids when the nightly news ran a regular dose of scary stories about the dangers of talking to strangers online, teens and twenty-somethings when President Barack Obama came to power with a message of hope and change.

And we like Obama. Mostly. Or at least more than our parents do. It was the young vote that swept him into office. Polls show we like him less these days, as do other generations. But hey, I never said we weren’t fickle. Just ask the heads of the political parties. Even if we believe in the general message, we’re not willing to commit to life as Democrats and Republicans. We’d rather be independents, and almost one-third of us can do without organized religion as well. But the majority of us believe in God, and we overwhelmingly ascribe to the golden rule and creating a better world for our friends. The share of millennials with close gay friends or family members is way higher than older generations, so it’s no surprise that 68 percent of us support gay marriage, compared with 48 percent of boomers.

And yes, while we’re talking about love, I’ll weigh in on the hook-up, right-swipe culture. It’s totally a thing. As a digital native, I’ve used Tinder, Coffee Meets Bagel, Match, Bumble and Hinge — with success. I know these apps are often a punchline. But like many women in my generation, I live in a big city, far away from the safe network of my family, and an app seems like a better option than going to bars to meet guys.

Our journey to find love is complicated. I know our parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents are dying to know when we’re gonna settle down and say “I do.” Even though we’re less likely to be married than Gen Xers or boomers were at our age, that doesn’t mean we’re against it. While y’all had Jack and Diane, we had Cory and Topanga to inspire our #RelationshipGoals. Sixty-nine percent of unmarried millennials say they want to get married — and (much to my boyfriend’s surprise, should he find this essay in the newspaper on Facebook) I can confirm that many of us have the private wedding-themed Pinterest board to prove it.

But millennials want a solid economic foundation before walking down the aisle. And that’s taking a while. Not just because we drink more wine than any other generation and tend to spend more per bottle (which, sure, is likely a factor), but also because entry-level wages haven’t caught up with the rising cost of rent where most of us live and work. It’s like that old saying, “Why buy the cow when you don’t have enough room in your studio apartment to store the milk?”

I could go on, and I jotted down a few more points before writing this. But my leggings don’t have pockets, and I can’t find that piece of paper. Ugh, I knew I should have used my iPhone for that.