The Millennial Generation are redefining what it means to be an adult; this is not wholly intentional. Rather, it is largely the culmination of social and economic factors working against Millennial independence. In young adulthood, we are the best-educated generation, but student debt makes the few households we head less likely to thrive. Perhaps as a consequence of this, Millennials are less likely to marry, or are—to rephrase—more likely to delay marriage; according to one Pew study, “marriage today is more prevalent among those with higher incomes and more education.” Because we marry later or not at all, Millennial women are more likely to give birth out of wedlock, although we generally do so at later ages than women from previous generations. Denied and eschewing the milestones that defined growing up in previous decades, the Millennial Generation have been forced to develop new trends and signs of adulthood, which follow or run tandem to the experience of a second puberty in their twenties. Continue reading →