If you've been spending too much time on social media today instead of doing your job (no judgement) you might have noticed that the Forbes 30 under 30 list has been published. On it, among names in science and media, are celebrities like poet Amanda Gorman - the youngest poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration - pop singer Olivia Rodrigo and Miley Cyrus, who has just made the list again, at the age of 29.
And that's great. These are brilliant women who've done an amazing job in their respective careers and deserve recognition. But every year the very presence of the Forbes 30 under 30 list raises the question: why, as a society, are we so obsessed with getting everything done before you're 30? The Forbes list is an annual reminder of the arbitrary deadline of 30 that looms as an Anthropologie-furnished destination by which you need to have achieved all of the 'important stuff'. And sometimes those aren't even the big things: I'm not talking about gracing the front of an international campaign, or starting your own semi-successful business or getting paid to do yoga on Instagram here.
Thirty-anxiety has a habit of throwing up the far more micro-level questions with which the majority of us are probably all-to-familiar: am I far enough ahead in my career? Am I even in the right career? While I've been racking up a £37k debt at University has everyone else been growing a successful supplements business and buying starter homes? Am I drinking enough water? Was there ever a point when every person on Tinder wasn't conducting an elaborate catfish operation? Am I drinking enough water (again)? Should I be on the property ladder?! (In London? Good luck. Unless you're planning to pawn you're non essential organs on the black market).
It's unsurprising that over and above Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers, Millennials are the age group that are feeling the most stressed-out: A poll by The Independent found that we actually spend up to six hours a day - almost the entire duration of a Game of Thrones season - sweating out our anxieties. Money worries presenting the biggest cause of anxiety, followed by fears about the future, achieving a good work/life balance and getting on the property ladder. Meanwhile 40% of us feel pressure to impress others and according to a 2016 study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry people in their 20’s reported the highest level of depression, anxiety and stress and the lowest levels of satisfaction
Unsurprisingly, stalking interior-porn and our friends' beautiful vintage furniture on Instagram isn't helping either, because we're a generation that judge ourselves and others by harsh standards. A study by Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill found that the majority of 18 to 25 year old's show signs of "multidimensional perfectionism" - perfectionism that is driven by very high expectations and is endemic in Millennials. And not just that you should have a house and an incredible career and a relationship that isn't with a fictional character - but that you should have all of this while being A STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN, because Curran and Hill believe multidimensional perfectionism is driven by social media's conflicting message that we should have it all while still being completely self-reliant and independent.
All of this is driven in subtle ways by things like the annual Forbes 30 under 30. Or all of those '30 books to read before you're 30' '30 countries to visit before you're 30' '30 sexual things to try before you're 30' lists. And it's especially tough for women because chances our most of us have at least one person in our lives who likes to remind us, with almost sadistic pleasure, that a woman's fertility drops off a cliff in your 30s and that you might as well hang up a 'Closed for business sign' sign thereafter. But really, there's not any reason to panic: luckily, your capacity to visit the Taj Mahal will still be exactly the same at 31 as it was when you were 29, and there will be just as much time to trying to flying backwards cowgirl spoon in your thirties as there was in your twenties (which still doesn't mean it won't cause you an injury that will be embarrassing to try and explain at A&E).
So, in summary - if you’ve made it onto the Forbes 30 under 30, then brilliant. Well done you. Really. We should celebrate and champion women (and men) who are achieving amazing things. But just because you haven’t been on the cover of a glossy magazine or invented a rocket don’t be disheartened - people regularly achieve things before and after 30, it isn't the deadline by which you have have to do them all. Unless you're Amanda Gorman because, well, then we have nothing to say except you're absolutely killing it, and long may she continue to do so.