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."
"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
Although there is the EU, there is no "Unified Europe" similar to the US. Every country has their own healthcare, and the quality of it varies. How do you come to the conclusion that European dental healthcare coule be improved, though? Living in Germany, I'm very satisfied with dental healthcare.
Load More Replies...The United States is the only industrialized country in the world that does not have universal healthcare. The US also has the highest GDP in the world. (and yes, that “space hotel” is being planned by a company based out of California.)
Might want to let China know that, I don't think they got the memo
Load More Replies...The people who can afford the space hotel can go live there. Then we can make sure they can't come back, cut off access to their funds and redistribute those funds as healthcare. Just a thought
The people who can afford to live there are already the main reason there is so much lobbying against protecting our water, air, etc... What do you think will happen when they don't have to worry at all about flooding, fires, etc... from global warming?
Load More Replies...I hope that it fills every room with ultra rich assholes, suffers a catastrophic malfunction and everyone on board dies.....I genuinely mean that..
We keep their money and spend it on healthcare and education.
Load More Replies...We would like healthcare that does not include long waiting lists, rationing of life changing treatments, exorbitant fees, or ageist denials. Then, give us dental care and humanitarian mental health services.
What the hell are humans doing sometimes. Space hotel? So many so many so many issues right here.
Do we? Explain why people with diabetes can't afford insulin.
Load More Replies...I'm still waiting on my flying car. I'll take a space hotel! AirBnB and VRBO are about to make some real money!
Why this always evolves to comments depreciating US versus EU or other countries? Can we behave like adults in here? All society has its own pros and cons. US became what it is today taking a different path from EU, and both of them are great. True transformation comes from society engagement, and always would require some chand balances on what you are having as a benefit and what you are loosing.
I'm big on fixing societal problems, but frankly, humanity has had hundreds of thousands of years to fix society. We can spend a few decades on space.
We do have healthcare options, we just don't force everyone else to pay for our healthcare. Sorry, while I understand there are people with cancer, there's also people who drive drunk and crash, people contract HIV from unsafe and irresponsible sex or drug use, abortions ( abortion is literally against my religion and you want me to pay for it? What happened to religious freedom?). I don't pay for other people's mistakes, I've got my own. If people don't have to worry about health care I can see it going downhill for society, however fast or slow that process would be. Don't get mad that we don't have universal healthcare. Get mad that somehow we were able to whip up a "vaccine" for COVID-19 in no time and yet...cancer cure..anyone?
Just like Gil Scott-Heron's "Whitey on the Moon" (if "whitey" = top 1%): "I can't pay no doctor bill. (but Whitey's on the moon) Ten years from now I'll be payin' still. (while Whitey's on the moon)"
I may not know you, but I love you Nadia. Your comment is everything ❤
It saddens me how many people don't understand our system, hate on "the rich" who they again don't understand how it works and hate on space advancements that are needed for humans as a species to successfully leave this planet because earth is doomed. Being rich doesn't mean you have access to funds it means you're a smart business entrepreneur with many assets. Haven't you guys watch it's a wonderful life? "You're money is in his car and their house" that's how it works. Their money is tied up in things that give you jobs and services. Government getting involved in healthcare is a nightmare we have medicare and Medicade and veterans have the VA and they are all a nightmare. The government wastes money on dead systems building up debt (like the USPO) because it can. Most Americans understand how bad it is and how privatizing things makes for a more efficient system because competition is what makes services improve.
Your not getting the healthcare, but they will no doubt give you a night free in the space hotel for your complaints.
And, an end to child slave labour. And true equal rights. And... Not a hotel in space, thanks.
Oh not me, after seeing "protocols", I am good. Nothing at all wrong with me.
over heard at a gas station: "will you stf up! always worry'n about someone else. dayum!"
Our European dental is fine, thanks very much, and costs a fraction of US dental. Of course we are less obsessed with the perfect brilliantly white cookie cutter smile (though I can’t deny the Simon Cowell impact) and more with dental health. European health care is amazing (but varies from one country to another) and we are very thankful for it. Travelling in the US, I always take out serious travel insurance- just in case. I find it shocking that people who get sick can have their insurance cancelled by the company and can lose their home to pay for healthcare.
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...
Load More Replies...This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
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...