Women In Their 30s

On celebrating the most fabulous decade of life.

Finally, a TikTok trend I can fully endorse.

Have you swiped through the viral Beyoncé “Check On It” audio during your nightly scroll yet? I lost myself in videos of my fellow 30-something women flaunting their outfits, hair, makeup, perfectly imperfect bodies, and just peacefully living their lives wherever they are in the world. Some women are doing yoga on the porch in a painfully chic matching set while others are dancing around their living room in their rattiest sweats. No matter the situation, the vibes are high, and it makes my heart soar to watch every single one (as well as the reaction videos of people who admit they’d been sleeping on 30-something women until now). On an app that’s dominated primarily by the younger set, it’s restorative to see my age demo finally receive their flowers for simply existing. Because, yes, there is something innately magical about this particular decade of life and the women who are in the throes of it.

I’d always heard from friends and colleagues who had made it past the rollercoaster of your 20s before me that the next ten years would be so much better in basically every way. Granted, I turned 30 and five months later the pandemic hit, so I didn’t really have a chance to dive into the decade with much too excitement—I was, like everyone else on the planet, just trying to survive. Then, as the world opened back up, a long-term relationship fell apart, and a job I had started during Covid began to feel stifling in a way I hadn’t expected. My life, for all intents and purposes, needed a reboot. So I quit my job, tried dating, explored freelance, fell in love, and generally assumed that things were back on track.

This is what it looks like to thrive in your 30s

However, as I am now discovering about the 30s, my evolution was far from over. Less than two years later, I was back in the workforce with a new, much more demanding role, single once again, moving out of an apartment alone, and facing heavier personal life issues than I’d ever dealt with before. Is this what the 30s are all about? I wondered. Life is just going to get harder and harder?

I was both right and so very very wrong.