When the publisher asked if I would be interested in reading But You're Still So Young, I was honestly a little hesitant because nonfiction is not my typical genre. But as a 32 year old female who has struggled with the idea of adulthood and doing things "right," I knew I needed to branch out and give this one a shot!

But You're Still So Young is a well-researched book about how millennials are redefining adulthood. For years we were sold the idea that life will be perfect if we go to college, get our dream job the day after graduation, gain financial stability, get married, buy a house, and have kids. Oh and all of this needs to be accomplished before you are 30. But that is not the case anymore.

More and more millennials are delaying marriage until their 30s. Some are moving back home after graduation because they have thousands of dollars of debt and the dream job with a 401K simply isn't there. And many are delaying having children because they don't feel like adults even though they are in their 30s!

I personally have struggled with feeling like a true adult, even in my late 20s when I started my career and got married. Some days I still feel like a kid when I have to call my daddy for help with my car or ask my mom how to cook something. But we have been sold this idea of what makes a person an adult for so long that we now feel like we haven't achieved this milestone because we can't tick off every piece of criteria on society's outdated list.

I recommend this book to every 20-something or 30-something who is struggling with the fact that life didn't play out the way they expected. Most of the time, the book didn't feel like nonfiction because the author included different narratives from people she interviewed. Their stories kept me interested in the book because I genuinely wanted to know how things turned out for each person. But You're Still So Young made me realize that my 30s are not a death sentence and I still have a lot of living to do! Many thanks to Dutton for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was unable to really be drawn into Schaefer's book -- I'm not sure if it is the writing style or the topic, but I was left disinterested.

I am about to turn 32 and I DREADED my 30th birthday. Absolutely dreaded it. I didn't own a home, wasn't married, and didn't have children. All these things are still true today. Wow do I wish I could have read this book sooner. It redefines everything we think we know about where we need to be in life. I highly recommend anyone in their 20s or 30s read this book- you will gain such new perspective!

Kayleen Schaefer’s upcoming book, But You’re Still So Young really resonated with me. Schaefer perfectly verbalizes many of the disappointments and anxieties of our generation.

We’ve been through two “once in a lifetime” catastrophic events in just over ten years, and most of us aren’t able and or don’t want to achieve the benchmarks of adulthood set by the previous couple of generations. It can feel pretty hopeless at times, and I loved the people she profiles in this book. They are real and relatable and are all facing issues in different facets of “adulthood.”

I loved Text Me When You Get Home, and this one is no different. I’m not sure there are any answers except keep going and do what you can, but if you’re looking for a little community and to perhaps see yourself in others, definitely check out this book. It’s out on March 2nd.

As a thirty-something without a spouse or kids, this book was speaking directly to me. I appreciated the structure of having a chapter devoted to each of the five milestones that sociologists in the 1950s said you needed to achieve to be an adult. There is some data and description of why we no longer check those boxes in our early twenties (or ever), but the real heart of the book is the stories of others in their thirties. The book features people at various stages of life and levels of expectation of where they "should" be. I would recommend this book to anyone at any age who scrolls through social media and feels somehow behind everyone else.

Loved this book! I am only 29, but totally related to a lot of it. So glad that there was someone who was willing to point out that the same societal rules from the 1950s can't apply now! Thank you!!

I found this so interesting as someone who is early thirties myself, and connected with so many thoughts and feelings throughout the book. Once I started, I couldn’t put it down and finished it in one sitting. There were a couple of chapters that I found less interesting, however overall was an insightful read.

In her entertaining, comforting book, Kayleen Schaefer explores how she and several interview subjects met (or did not meet) the following thirty-something milestones: (1) finishing school, (2) leaving home, (3) marrying, (4) becoming financially independent, and (5) having a child. Schaefer does a wonderful job illuminating the unique challenges and frustrations people in their thirties face in the 2010s. I enjoyed her interview subjects’ stories, but most compelling to me was Schaefer’s own story of moving to New York, trying to make it as a writer, seeking a lasting romantic relationship, and contemplating motherhood. I actually wish she’d written a memoir so that I could sink into her personal story, which she seemed to tell very honestly and with some humor. But Schaefer weaves her personal story with the stories of other thirty-somethings. The result is something between Ariel Levy’s The Rules Do Not Apply and Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women. Which is to say that I felt that the book might have been stronger had Schaefer either focused on herself (and gone deeper) or focused on her interview subjects (and maybe offered more of a narrative). That being said, this is a good book, and it accomplishes what it sets out to do: it “mesh[es] together some kind of comfort that we’re working our way through adulthood as authentically as we can.”