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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