Welcome
I’m Meg Jay, a developmental clinical psychologist, and for twenty-five years, I’ve specialized in twentysomethings. Why? Because that’s where all the action is. That’s not just my opinion. These are the facts:
80% of life’s defining moments take place by age 35.
Your lifetime earning potential is largely decided by 30.
The average age of first marriage is 30.
The average age of having a first baby is 30.
Your brain goes through its last growth spurt in your 20s.
Your personality changes more in your 20s than at any other time.
Your mental health takes a turn downward—and then upward—in your 20s.
My job—as a therapist and author and speaker—is to help you get in front of these defining moments and lead a more intentional life, one you’ll still be happy about in your thirties and forties and beyond. It will never be easier to change than it is right now.
Not sure how to start? Have the courage to imagine your life going well. Then face up to what you need to do today.
Professional Bio
Meg Jay PhD is a developmental clinical psychologist who specializes in twentysomethings. She is the author of the seminal book on modern young adulthood, The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now, The Twentysomething Treatment: A Revolutionary Remedy for an Uncertain Age, and Supernormal: The Secret World of the Family Hero. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and on NPR and BBC.
A recent New York Times profile called Dr. Jay “the patron saint of striving youth, a prophetlike figure for a generation of young people buried under mixed messaging.” Her TED talk “Why 30 Is Not the New 20” is among the most watched to date. Dr. Jay earned a doctorate in clinical psychology, and in gender studies, from the University of California, Berkeley. She is on faculty at the University of Virginia and maintains a private practice in Charlottesville. Dr. Jay spent her own early twentysomething years as an Outward Bound instructor.
