Turning 30 is the point at which people are expected to "figure it all out." And indeed, many of those who say goodbye to their 20s begin a new chapter in their lives by getting engaged, pregnant, or tired of everyone around them.
The big 3-0 is often built up to be the biggest celebration after our "coming of age" 18ths. A time to get ambitious. A time to achieve. But while important career changes, 401(k)s, and the inability to party past midnight (not to mention the burning matter of "settling down") might sound anxiety-inducing, in reality, our 30s aren't something to be afraid of. They're when things start to get good.
But to get the full picture of what happens during this decade, let's look at the Instagram account Thirty AF. This millennial heaven shares funny memes, relatable tweets, and all kinds of content that perfectly capture the highs and lows during this period. So continue scrolling and check out some of its most popular posts!
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He used "You are a nerd" as an excuse to break up with her? Wow... He clearly had self-worth issues, assuming it meant he was not good enough for her.
The account is run by two pals, Chloe Jankowitz, 35, and Peter West, 34. "We've been good friends since day one of our freshmen year at Emerson College in Boston, MA," the guys told Bored Panda. "Since graduating in 2009, we've always lived far apart, in different states or sometimes in different countries."
"We have a very similar sense of humor and a way we've kept in touch is through sharing memes and videos with each other. In 2018, we decided to start Thirty AF as a fun way to share these jokes with a wider group of friends. We never really thought it would ever grow into anything more than a fun hobby, but eventually, it really started picking up and we decided to put more of our focus into figuring out what our brand was and finding creative new ways to engage our quickly growing following through reposted content and regular features that we created ourselves. We both have backgrounds in marketing and media, and found that our combined skills helped us create something that stood out from other meme accounts and build a fun and engaged community of 30 somethings."
I never answer if I don't know who's calling. The decent ones send a text after saying who they are and/or what it is about. I wish all people could do that instead of keep calling several times.
At the moment, Chloe and Peter have a whopping 1.6-million following and this huge fan army also has a few notable names, like singer Demi Lovato and actor Channing Tatum.
"When life changed dramatically for everyone in March 2020 and we all found ourselves spending a lot more time at home and a lot more time with our phones, we put even more energy into building Thirty AF. We grew by over 1 million followers in a single year, and it is now a full-time job for both of us," the duo said.
The project has also expanded to TikTok and recently got its first spinoff — a food account, called Hungry AF. "We run an online shop and release a yearly Nostalgia Box that is a fun mix of products from nostalgic brands like Dunkaroos and the Lisa Frank nail wraps from Orly, and also fun products featuring nostalgic references. Our 2021 box sold out in under 24 hours! We're also working on some very exciting things for 2022 including a touring pop-up event and a TV game show - we can't share a lot of info on that yet, but it is insanely exciting and something we never thought would happen!"
🤣🤣🤣 I'm putting on my footwear before attempting to put on my legings, twice!
Naturally, all of this effort demands a lot of time and energy. "The way we manage Thirty AF has changed a lot over the years. Much of the content that we post is submitted by creators."
"We love meeting creators and comedians who are new to Instagram and helping drive traffic to their pages; we have networked with a ton of incredibly talented creators over the years and share their content a lot. We keep a close eye on meme trends and will often share roundups of the funniest memes and tweets related to trending topics (the latest being the 'According to the CDC' meme trend). We're also part of a lot of online groups, particularly for millennials and different nostalgia groups, and a lot of content comes from there. We also create a lot of original content mostly for our stories and TikTok," Chloe and Peter explained.
For the stories, the account has a daily feature. "Followers apply to be featured as our daily single looking for love. We share their photo and info about them and encourage other followers to DM them. This has been going on for almost two years and a few engagements have come from it so far!"
There's also the semi-regular Small Business Saturday feature where Chloe and Peter share the businesses they love, as well as holiday gift guides. "We have a lot of friends who are business owners and have so much respect for millennials who have decided to reject the corporate hustle and create their own businesses, so helping support people like that, especially businesses run by women and BIPOC is super important to us."
While also teaching them that it is fine to not having children. Which is amazing. Modern childfree people suffer a lot of hate but we at least have more options. But Previous generations were brainwashed to think that they needed to have kids.
Having kids should definitely be more opt-in than opt-out. I don't begrudge most people who want kids (I don't begrudge anyone who wants kids and is ready to take responsibility for it) and I don't want to seem hypocritical as a parent myself, but if someone doesn't want kids and can be talked out of it, they probably should be talked out of it... and if they change their mind that's okay, but it's not someone else's job to convince anyone to have kids, or have more kids. Raising children is hard, and messy, and we aren't exactly short on humans.
Load More Replies...Please stop pressuring your children to give you grandchildren. It is they that have the fiscal and parental obligations of a child. Get a pet!
Not to mention not having a child is by far the best way to reduce your carbon footprint on an already broken climate
Im also not bringing children into a word where society only cares about them until they are born.
Fewer humans = healthier planet, hopefully. Maybe when we get into outerspace (stations and colonies) we can go crazy with the baby making again. Now if we can get the humans on the whole planet to reign it in for now... I grew up as an unwanted child. Believe me, it's best for everyone to have few to no children/only if you truly want to care for a child.
That's already happening. The human population is already on course to plateau and then start declining in the next 50 years. Better quality of life for an increasing number of people = better healthcare and greater opportunity = people choosing to have fewer kids.
Load More Replies...Hence Texas and Roe vs Wade ... someone needs to produce bodies to send to war.
Boston Dynamics seems to have a handle on that. Sorry, too apocalyptic?
Load More Replies...If people can't afford to put a roof over their heads, can't see a doctor without selling a kidney, or in the red just for going to college; who in their right mind would bring another life into the equation? It's like the perpetual recycling of debt that fuels a modern day slave trade. Is this why some folks would like to see abortion outlawed? Jesus would not approve of this.
It was hard and scary enough having kids right around/after 9/11, and we had less than originally planned, I think we would definitely decide it's not an option today.
My oldest brother was born shortly after 9/11. I wonder how my mother felt about it.
Load More Replies...It’s not all just bad shít. This generation has more options for traveling, different kinds of work for women, more ways to spend money on things that didn’t exist before. I don’t have debt or kids. I think like half of women don’t even like children and now we just don’t have to pretend.
This exactly! Which makes it really awkward being an Aunt when you don't want anything to do with childcare
Load More Replies...That's why most people don't understand and that we've reached a population plateau and headed straight for population decline.
Load More Replies...People are practically terrified about the future. Why would they have children to have to endure all that?!
How others don't see this is beyond me. Instead they're blaming lack of religion and gay people.
Also when women r educated on wat pregnancy & birth ACTUALLY entail, many of us choose the less painful, less deadly route of not havin kids. Pregnancy & birth r roads litered with pain, complications, permanent injuries, miscarriages, divorces, PTSD from traumatic births (this happens all the time) etc. You kno how painful it is 2 even just have a miscarriage!? You drop 2 the floor screaming in most cases & have 2 go 2 the hospital but that's nothin compared 2 labor! Pregnancy is 9 months of hell, there are 50,000 diff things that can kill u, many of which most people havent even heard of.women back in the 1950s knew none of this. They even got 2 b drugged up during birth so they wouldnt have 2 feel pain. Now they wont let u do anything! All they can do is give an epidural like 30 hrs in2 labor & many times they dont even wrk! Dont get me started on th gov tryin 2 control our bodies! Like wen 1 finds out at 22 wks th baby doesnt hav a spinal cord but u cant get an abortion
Add the housing crisis. And the climate crisis. Who cares about the economy because your children are goign to suffer HORRIBLY in the coming climate wars.
Indeed. How can we even consider having kids if we are sharing tiny apartmets with roomates into our 30s?
Load More Replies...The world is so over populated, why is it considered a bad thing when birth rates are down!? That should be a good thing!
I wonder this all the time. I think it’s to do with the economics of workforce and labor, when thinking of “labor” as this detached thing that is necessary in society. I think a decline in “birth rates” and “workforce” are only a problem to the rich and powerful, bc you have to detach people from their humanity to care more about their production power than their quality of life; plus the people responsible for these areas are too busy trying to survive and the ones who could fix it are too busy trying to trick ppl into investing in crypto.
Load More Replies...Not to mention...kids are brats. Even the most well behaved adults were once pants pooping, back talking, germ producing- time thieves. Choosing to have kids is a decision about how much stress you can handle....A wise woman once said "dont have more children than you have arms to grab them", being the oldest kid in my family, I couldnt agree more.
Watch the 2006 movie "Idiocracy" if you want to see what our future holds.
Could be worse - could have been a world war that’s took up about 6 years of everyone’s lives!!
It's not wrong to not want kids and not wrong to want to have kids. Both sides throw flames at each other and go crying they're being bullied.
I can't imagine no having kids. My job pays well and have the nicest office in the building but i have never being happier than enjoying my children development and serving my husband a meal that he enjoys. My mom used to work in fashion until she became a stay home mom and she used to say the same, i didn't believe her back then but she was right.
Not everyone is lucky enough to enjoy the incredible privilege that you have. For most people you can’t ensure that you will have a meal to prepare or development to enrich for yourself, let alone people that you’ll love. Imagine, loving them as much as you do, how painful it would be to lack any means or ability to feed them, spend time with them, educate them? If you knew that you’d be watching them from afar and they’d hate you for never being around? Just to provide a life that is lacking. While you, yourself are never able to move on either because failing as a parent is utter agony. Children are a delight when they are brought into stability and prosperity. They are a heartache when they are brought into chaos and poverty. Most people will not go into heartache willingly, they have to be tricked.
Load More Replies...I have American freinds. As a middleclass person you simply cannot afford to have a child, mcuh less several. You need to be either really rich or totally poor. But ti seems that this is what the US voters and government want, so good luck
This all comes I'm waves. When my mom had one of my brothers in 1971 there was a movement going around telling people not to have children. She felt a lot of pressure at that time because she had 3 children already and had one more on the way. She felt the opposite that people were saying she shouldn't have kids. My parents were perfectly capable adults and could afford to have children. They had my brother and then had another.
But... that's how it's always been done! World War II was entwined with the Great Depression and followed by a baby boom.
Yes when people were told to have children and had less chances of having contraception or abortions.
Load More Replies...Unless you are Native American, or Mexican from the parts of the US we stole from Mexico to found this country, we all came to America as immigrants or slaves somehow!! We were NOT here 1st. Kind of like now, a bunch of entitled people just selfishly took what they wanted to the detriment of others (the natives already living here for centuries and the slaves or forced immigration, that were brought here to do s**t for said entitled assholes that they themselves were too good to do but profited/benefited from) and the animals that suffered as we populated like rabbits! WTF!? Did they just stop teaching history and world cultures in schools!?
Load More Replies...Humans are kinda head towards extinction anyway? The population has already plateaued.
Load More Replies...How many children have YOU adopted that otherwise would have been aborted, if you're so against it? And lmao, I'm queer, I'm not demanding anybody else be. I just want people to not attack me on the train for holding hands with somebody.
Load More Replies...Okay dude I'm just gonna guess that ur old white a** can't comprehend what I am about to say but just because a woman isn't willing to carry your dumb a** children doesn't mean you get to attack others @george mihaita
Load More Replies..."We also do regular story poll features like our Bop or Flop feature where followers decide if a song is a bop or a flop. When songs score over 65% bop, they are added to our Bop or Flop playlist on Spotify that has almost 40k followers," the two of them added.
Their latest story feature is Now That's What I Call Music brackets where followers rank albums from one of the Now That's What I Call Music. This gig takes Chloe and Peter an entire week and at the end of it, they announce what is the biggest bop. "People (including the two of us!) get so into it. We are starting our NOW 7 bracket next week, we're both rooting for Survivor by Destiny's Child to be the winner... But we'll see. Britney and NSYNC do seem to win a lot! We're going to bracket Now 1-10 and then do an all-stars round where the winning tracks face off against each other. It's really fun!"
Thirty AF's content touches on a lot of different themes but some of the most recurring ones are "self-deprecating humor that millennials relate to, commentary on issues facing millennials such as salaries ... not having the ability to own a home, some tongue in cheek 'okay boomer' humor (love you mom and dad!), finding relatable humor in issues like anxiety and depression, etc."
But the biggest hits are nostalgic posts for the 90s and early 2000s. "The past few years have been really weird and stressful for everyone, and looking back on the comfort of these things that we all bonded over as kids has provided a lot of comfort and connection during these turbulent times," Chloe and Peter said.
I was trying to remember the name of a song recently. All I knew for definite was that "Mountain" and "Sea" were in the lyrics. It took a bit of searching (yes on Google) to find it. FYI it was "Truly, Madly, Deeply" by Savage Garden.
"We really do try to read every message we get and reply when we can, and one of my favorite types of messages is a 'PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who remembers [insert obscure TV/music/product/game reference from the 90s]' type of message and this always gives us ideas for posts and features. So much of the 90s feels like a bizarre fever dream, and being able to connect with other people in an 'OMG I remember that too!' moment is such a fun and, not to sound cheesy, wholesome way to connect," the team behind Thirty AF added.
"There is so much that is driving everyone apart right now and put effort into focusing on our differences, nostalgia is something that can, for a minute at least, make us focus on the things that brought us together as kids. And that has been a main and growing theme of Thirty AF and something we're excited to keep sharing!"
Wait what? Women can be happy and feel fulfilled by having a successful career?
Yeah why don't we have good hackers that go in and erase peoples mortgages and student loans like undercover brother?
You mean we American want healthcare. Europe has healthcare (of course dental could be improved). We would like people to not live on the street. Family with kids to be able to feed them and pay school meals and also less violence
Boomers took everything, ruined everything, then blamed everyone else.
My mom always said "be quiet until they go away" if someone showed up without notice. I do the same with my kids, lol. Even if it's someone I know I want to be prepared to socialize. And if it's someone I don't know its creepy. It makes sense to not just open your door to anyone when it's so easy to call/text/email beforehand.
The older I get, the more I rely on professionals to do anything and everything for me. No more hanging my own photo frames.
Actually, this is sorta genius. I could have saved myself and my realtor a lot of time had I known one house we wanted to see had 6ft ceilings, another had shelf paper glued to the "newly finished floors," and a third had a basement floor on an angle making most of it unusable despite being listed as "finished" and "spacious."
I'd trust my kid to do the booby traps, but there's no way he'd buy groceries or do the laundry.
But that's the only perks you have. Eating what you want. Or drink soda or eat candy on weekdays (but in secret if you have kids).
Can you imagine the decompression alarm just went off, you're putting on your spacesuit, get to the helmet and are trying to stuff your three-foot-long tress up under your helmet before your oxygen runs out....
Note: this post originally had 102 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I'm clearly the target group person exhibit A here. Loved every single post! Thanx
Well over the target group.... but they feel like my people...
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Load More Replies...I used to be embarrassed that I was a millennial. But we're hilarious!
Gen-X here with Millennial & Gen-Z children. These were bloody brilliant. I just might have to give some of these a go.
Wow!! When they say kids grow up fast...Enjoy these brainfart moments now youngins...cuz in your 60's it's a life standard requiring copious amounts of Chocolate 🍫!!
I’m not in the target group and am wondering why on earth you think the target group is Millennials. This is just generally funny! Can we be done with the ageism?
For the record: not all millennials are feminist, snowflakes or leftists.
For the record the majority are and that's a good thing. Signed, a former conservative who educated themselves.
Load More Replies...Have you considered throwing your sense or humor in the trash and starting over?
Load More Replies...Sure. Lets not bring issues that are destroying us. That will help...
Load More Replies...I'm clearly the target group person exhibit A here. Loved every single post! Thanx
Well over the target group.... but they feel like my people...
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Load More Replies...I used to be embarrassed that I was a millennial. But we're hilarious!
Gen-X here with Millennial & Gen-Z children. These were bloody brilliant. I just might have to give some of these a go.
Wow!! When they say kids grow up fast...Enjoy these brainfart moments now youngins...cuz in your 60's it's a life standard requiring copious amounts of Chocolate 🍫!!
I’m not in the target group and am wondering why on earth you think the target group is Millennials. This is just generally funny! Can we be done with the ageism?
For the record: not all millennials are feminist, snowflakes or leftists.
For the record the majority are and that's a good thing. Signed, a former conservative who educated themselves.
Load More Replies...Have you considered throwing your sense or humor in the trash and starting over?
Load More Replies...Sure. Lets not bring issues that are destroying us. That will help...
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