Charlie Wells is the author of the new book What Happened to Millennials: In Defense of a Generation. He is a staff editor and reporter at Bloomberg News.
Q: What inspired you to write What Happened to Millennials?
A: I write a lot about our generation (I am a Millennial) in my day job and started picking up on a disconnect recently.
There is this old story about Millennials as being kind of behind, messy, even stuck in adolescence as we speed into midlife. What I was seeing in my reporting was that we’ve actually grown up a lot as a generation, almost as nobody was watching. I wanted to explore that growth.
Q: What do you think are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about millennials?
A: Two words: avocado toast. That brunch item encapsulates a misconception about Millennials. A columnist about 10 years ago decried our alleged tendency to splurge on discretionary goods (particularly avocado toast), rather than the typical markers of adulthood, such houses and cars.
We were a little behind on achieving these milestones, but that was because of some very serious economic challenges we faced as we were coming of age. We’re now reaching these milestones in a way a lot of doubters didn’t think we would.
Q: The book's subtitle is “In Defense of a Generation”--how was that subtitle chosen, and why?
A: The people I interviewed for this book really impressed me. Their stories make up a solid defense of the Millennial generation more broadly.
Challenges make people stronger, and it turns out that starting careers in the worst recession since the Great Depression, seeing peers die in the War on Terror, forming families during the pandemic, staying sane amidst a period of rising polarization, loneliness and anger… that has made many Millennials much stronger on the path to adulthood.
Q: What do you see looking ahead for your generation?
A: We’re a “bridge” generation. That idea came up a lot in my reporting: Millennials feel like they have a connection to a more optimistic past, but are also used to the ever-changing technological and economic landscape we face. That’s a pretty solid combination for navigating the future.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m about to head into the studio to record the audiobook for What Happened to Millennials, which is exciting because much of the research for this book was through audio interviews, on long phone calls. So I’m excited to be back in that medium.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Early readers have said that this book wasn’t necessarily what they expected. I think that comes from the character-driven reporting inside.
I tell the stories of five Americans from very different parts of the country over time, in addition to explaining the history of our generation on a macro-level. I think those micro-level stories surprised readers in a positive way, and I’m really happy to hear that.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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