I recently won a copy of Kate Kennedy's One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls & Fitting In. The cover image of the book is of a decorated CD, so if that doesn't bring back memories for you, then you are not the target audience for this book.
This book resonated with me on many levels, bringing up my own memories of sleepovers, Backstreet Boys concerts, "popular girl" handwriting, and so much more. However, the topics Kennedy writes about are not experiences shared by every millennial. She writes that this book isn't a memoir, but because it focuses solely on her own experiences growing up in the 90s and early 00s, it kind of is.
That's not to say that I didn't relate. But I also didn't join a sorority, so all of those pages were kind of boring to me. I also don't remember anyone telling me that the Spice Girls weren't cool. My friends and I liked the Spice Girls all the way until they broke up! (I used to listen to their second album when falling asleep at night. I was obsessed.) I did have an American Girl doll and a second fridge in the basement, but I've never gone through IVF or experienced a miscarriage.
Just because I don't share the exact same experiences as Kate doesn't mean I didn't like the book. It does mean that the book wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be. It's divided up into three parts: 1990s, 2000s, and Today. I guess I felt like the book would be solely focused on our childhood years, especially because there's a lot to unpack about those years! Dial-up, Nickelodeon being three channels in one, jelly shoes, scrunchies tied around our T-shirts, hanging out at the mall and buying lip gloss at Claire's, etc. I enjoyed the 1990s section, but the book started to lose me in the 2000s. The Today section has some good commentary on things that are happening in today's society and how it affects women.
There were a few passages that I highlighted while reading:
"Now, I think it's incredibly odd I was told to dream about and save myself and make lists for my future husband, but not lust after him; I was to know that sex after marriage is awesome, but not allowed to think about it beforehand whatsoever, and told that men are in control while simultaneously being told that through my attire, I must control how they react to my body." - p. 92
"Love songs told me all the things I wasn't actually experiencing but desperately needed to believe to maintain faith that I could find a man who could rescue me from myself, and worship songs held me over in a church I often thought about leaving, but the songs were si entrancing I maintained faith that it could rescue me from hell." - p. 202
"I'm tired of my body and humanity being ignored on the floor of Congress, I'm tired of having our pain dismissed and our needs underresearched in medical settings, I'm tired of witnessing the invisibility of domestic and cognitive labor involved with motherhood, I'm tired of trying to remain a Polly Pocket-sized version of me, worrying about my body's size and my presence taking up too much space." p. 317
Same, girl, same.
If you are female, were born in the 1980s, and spent your formative years in the 1990s and early 2000s, then this book will take you on a trip down memory lane.
One in a Millennial is published by St. Martin's Press and is available to purchase now. I won a free copy of the book in a giveaway.
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