AUTHOR:
Meg Jay, Ph.D. (Twelve, 2013)
REVIEWER:
Sharna Goldseker, Executive Director, 21/64
BOOK LINK:
REVIEW:
If you are a twentysomething, raising one, or advising one, do not pass go. Go directly to purchase this book. As one Slate reviewer on the cover says, “any recent college grad mired in a quarter-life crisis or merely dazed by the freedom of post-collegiate existence should consider it required reading.”
At 21/64, we work with many twentysomethings as well as their parents and advisors, who are “paralyzed by predecessor, prosperity, and possibilities,” as coined by a colleague and 21/64 trainer Kristin Keffler. Stymied by options that growing up with wealth or access to philanthropic resources has afforded them, many twentysomethings we work with are in a development stage of identity formation as they search for their adult purpose and direction.
What Meg Jay does so beautifully in her book, based on a decade of therapy sessions with twentysomethings, is show how these years are a critical stage for all twentysomethings. Rather than romanticizing the twenties as a time for hanging out in urban tribes, extended adolescence, or exclaiming “30 is the new 20,” she argues for the importance of building identity capital in the 20s and developing the building blocks for the rest of a life full of meaningful work and meaningful relationships.
At 21/64 we have found that especially in families where wealth is not yet transferred to the next generation, adulthood and independence can be further delayed, undermining the twentysomethings’ ability to discover who they are.
I’m tempted to say this book was a page turner for me, despite the fact that it’s not a romance novel, because the real life stories of twentysomethings interspersed with theory and practical maxims about work, love, the brain, and the body were so fascinating and relevant even to someone years older.
Pick up a copy, buy one for a twentysomething you know (or their parents or advisor) and let me know what you think.
Sharna Goldseker is the Executive Director of 21/64 and can be reached at [email protected].