When I mean "Child of the 2010's", I'm not talking about growing up and being a kid, I'm talking about coming of age. Some people who were teens in the '80s call themselves "Children of the '80s" because the '80s were the most important decade of their lives. For me, that's 2010's. There is an obvious difference between being an "Aughts Kid" and a "Child of the 2010's". You need to read it thoroughly, the comment explains pretty clearly what means. And childhoos doesn't end until 13, not 12.


I get where your coming from. Personally I consider myself a Young Adult of the 2010's, being age 18-25 from 2014-2021. And a Late 2000's/Early 2010's Teen, being age 13-19 from 2009-2015.

Also I have another question, what do you define as a Young Adult. I've always thought of it as being age 18-25 or age 18-29, but I tend to see many sources claiming it to be age 18-35! IMO anybody over the age of 30 is NOT a young adult. They may have some young traits (especially members of the Millennial Gen, who are still struggling to pay of their student loan debt) but they certainly aren't young anymore. If anything they are at the prime of their lives for the most part when it comes down to their careers.

I think those ages 30-45 are the first half Middle Aged Adults aka the settling down age (getting married, having kids, at the peak of their careers, etc.).

Those ages 45-65 are at the tail end of middle aged adults (their children tend to come of age, typically become more conservative, phasing out of workforce/retirement, etc.).

Those ages 40-50 are smack dab in the middle (possibly where mid-life crisis takes place in the most).

Anybody over 65 is an elder and anybody under 30 is young in my book.

Also I have another question, what do you define as a Young Adult. I've always thought of it as being age 18-25 or age 18-29, but I tend to see many sources claiming it to be age 18-35! IMO anybody over the age of 30 is NOT a young adult. They may have some young traits (especially members of the Millennial Gen, who are still struggling to pay of their student loan debt) but they certainly aren't young anymore. If anything they are at the prime of their lives for the most part when it comes down to their careers. I think those ages 30-45 are the first half Middle Aged Adults, those ages 45-65 are at the tail end of middle aged adults, those ages 40-50 are smack dab in the middle. Anybody over 65 is an elder and anybody under 30 is young in my book.


Obviously being in your early 30s is not the same as being 18-24 (the same way being 17 and 13 aren't the same), but I've always seen couples in their early 30s being described as "young couples" and the like, so I have always considered it to still be young adult. 19-34 sounds about right.

Also I have another question, what do you define as a Young Adult. I've always thought of it as being age 18-25 or age 18-29, but I tend to see many sources claiming it to be age 18-35! IMO anybody over the age of 30 is NOT a young adult. They may have some young traits (especially members of the Millennial Gen, who are still struggling to pay of their student loan debt) but they certainly aren't young anymore. If anything they are at the prime of their lives for the most part when it comes down to their careers. I think those ages 30-45 are the first half Middle Aged Adults, those ages 45-65 are at the tail end of middle aged adults, those ages 40-50 are smack dab in the middle. Anybody over 65 is an elder and anybody under 30 is young in my book.


Personally, I think your entire 30's is the transition from young adult to middle aged. I know many people in their early 30's who still look college aged, especially ones who have never done drugs their whole lives. Maybe 30-34 year old's are no longer young adults, but they are way too young to be called middle aged. I think for an average person the middle age begins in your late 30's. Your 40's are the peak of your middle age, and I think your 40's are the peak of your lifespan as well. 50's are still middle age but IMO the transition from middle age to old. Someone who's around 57-59 years old could look like a young grandmother or grandfather.

Personally, I think your entire 30's is the transition from young adult to middle aged. I know many people in their early 30's who still look college aged, especially ones who have never done drugs their whole lives. Maybe 30-34 year old's are no longer young adults, but they are way too young to be called middle aged. I think for an average person the middle age begins in your late 30's. Your 40's are the peak of your middle age, and I think your 40's are the peak of your lifespan as well. 50's are still middle age but IMO the transition from middle age to old. Someone who's around 57-59 years old could look like a young grandmother or grandfather.


I don't think a lot of people in their 50s are grandparents nowadays, unless they had kids before they were 30, and their kids had kids before they were 30, both of which aren't really common anymore. I think you made a chart before, and I said I'd agree with it if everything were shifted forward 5 years. ;D (so 35 to 44 would be transition to middle age, and 45-54 would be middle aged).

The oldest Millennials didn't start college until the fall of 2000.
It still depends though. Some sources are leaning towards the old demographic while some others are leaning towards the new group.

I get where both of you are coming from. However I think the maturity level of an 18 year old is dramatically different to the maturity level of a 34 year old. However I guess you got a point, since many 30-34 year olds may still be in college and such, so they still are pretty young in the grand scheme of things! So if young adults is defined as ages 18-34 for instance a total of about 16 years then that would mean age 26 would be the peak your of your young adult years, which makes sense if you think about it. There young enough to have some grasp of current pop culture this making them able to relate to the 18-25 cohort and just old enough to be post college age (for the most part) and in their careers so old enough to relate to the 27-34 cohort.

It still depends though. Some sources are leaning towards the old demographic while some others are leaning towards the new group.


Yeah but thread extremely rare these days though. Most recent sources start it in the early 80's and end it in the mid or late 90's.

I don't think a lot of people in their 50s are grandparents nowadays, unless they had kids before they were 30, and their kids had kids before they were 30, both of which aren't really common anymore. I think you made a chart before, and I said I'd agree with it if everything were shifted forward 5 years. ;D (so 35 to 44 would be transition to middle age, and 45-54 would be middle aged).


Naw, I'm talking about on average. You shifted it because that was your experience based off your family, and a lot of people in my family look young for their age too. I'm still sticking with 30-39 as the transition from young adult to middle age, 40-49 as the peak of middle age, and 50-59 as the transition from middle age to old. This is average btw, and an average person would have most likely smoked at some point of their lives, or doesn't look young for their age but doesn't look too old for their age at the same time. IMO, 35-44 being the transition to middle age would mean they look really young for their age and has taken great care of themselves their whole lives, and if someone still doesn't look old yet by the time they're 60, then they definitely look young for their age. We wouldn't be saying all of this if it was 40-50 year ago. In modern society people keep looking more and more younger for their age. Since the 90's or 2000's, 30 has become the new 20, 40 has become the new 30, 50 has become the new 40, etc.

I was born in '85 and I claim the 90's.  I remember every bit of it


I was born in 1974 and I was in my late teens during the 90's.

It really seems like some people can't grasp that there's a difference between being a child of an era and a teenager of a an era. Both groups are equally entitled to their nostalgia. Obviously someone who was 7 is going to be nostalgic about different things from the same era than someone who was 17.


Yeah, I really don't see why this seems to be such a controversial concept for some. When I think back on the '90s, all of my memories revolve around stuff like Ninja Turtles, Super Nintendo, Power Rangers, Pogs, Goosebumps, etc., which is obviously radically different from the types of things that somebody born in 1976 is going to think of when he's looking back on his high school/college years.

It's same way with my '00s recollections compared to somebody born in 1997. Obviously, we experienced the decade in two completely different ways, with me entering college when they were just in 3rd grade, but the simple fact that I was older in the '00s doesn't somehow make my nostalgia of that decade any more "valuable" or "meaningful" than those who were growing up then as kids. It just makes it different.

Bottom line: Being a "child" of a particular decade is just a wholly different experience than being a "teen" of a decade.

Yeah, I really don't see why this seems to be such a controversial concept for some. When I think back on the '90s, all of my memories revolve around stuff like Ninja Turtles, Super Nintendo, Power Rangers, Pogs, Goosebumps, etc., which is obviously radically different from the types of things that somebody born in 1976 is going to think of when he's looking back on his high school/college years.

It's same way with my '00s recollections compared to somebody born in 1997. Obviously, we experienced the decade in two completely different ways, with me entering college when they were just in 3rd grade, but the simple fact that I was older in the '00s doesn't somehow make my nostalgia of that decade any more "valuable" or "meaningful" than those who were growing up then as kids. It just makes it different.

Bottom line: Being a "child" of a particular decade is just a wholly different experience than being a "teen" of a decade.


But here's where things get a bit tricky, what about young adults? As in those ages 18-30/34 during most or a good chunk of a certain decade!? Because if anything, its the 20 somethings that have a pretty keen importance to a decades culture.

Take this for instance, the show F*R*I*E*N*D*S ran from 1994-2004, so mostly the 90's. Because of this many people now consider it the quintessential show for 90's sitcoms (on par with Seinfeld). Like I determined before, I consider young adulthood to be between age 18 & 30. So someone who was age 25 or 26 (the peak of young adulthood, and ironically the age of the actual characters on the show; here's a wiki article to see for yourself: http://friends.wikia.com/wiki/Friends ) when the show first aired in 1994 would be your average 1968er or 1969er. Someone as old as a 1964er could've still been part of the young adult culture when relating to the tv show and someone as young as a 1976er.

Other quintessential Gen X Cultural moments occurred in 94' including the Suicide of Kurt Cobain, the rise of post Grunge because of this, the rising peak of Gangsta Rap and East vs West Coast, the drafting of NAFTA which divided Clinton's support among Xers, and Quintessential Gen X movies like Reality Bites and Clerks (filmed in my home state :D ).

Just throwing in my two cents, but when analyzing the whole decade debate, it seems we tend to forget about the young adults during a respected decade. We also tend to forget that childhood lasts longer than teenhood. Teenhood lasts from age 13-19, a total of 7 years. While childhood lasts from age 3-12, a total of 10 years. So while its easier to pin point who was a 90's kid or not, its much harder to articulate who's a 90's teen or not. In the case of me I would be mostly a 2010's teen being age 13-19 from 2009-2015. But at the same time I technically spent more time in the 2010's being a young adult (if you include 18-19) for 6 years in the decade. So would my years being age 18-19 relate more with how I was when I was 13-14 or to 23-24? Thats totally upto debate! But I think its a tragedy we don't (as in the internet community as a whole) talks about 90's nostalgia through the lens of a twenty something.

Its a darn shame that Millennials practically own 90's nostalgia now. So in a way I could emphasize the frustration with the OP in the article I posted. Although I do agree that Millennials do have every right to be nostalgic of the 90's through the lens of being kids, its important we aknowledge the teens and twenty somethings that literally defined the decade 8)