BOOK JOURNAL: One in a Millennial by Kate Kennedy
Entry #2 - discussing an A++ read for anyone wanting to steep themselves in Millennial nostalgia
One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In, by Kate Kennedy
Rating: 5/5 stars
I’m not one to read a ton of nonfiction outside of my Substack subscriptions or one-off essays in The New Yorker. Every now and then, a collection of essays or memoir will pique my interest, especially if the author is a known entity.
Enter: Kate Kennedy of Be There in Five podcast fame. Kate is a wildly talented podcaster. I tell anyone who will listen about her podcast, which is a long-form and solo deep-dives (no wonder I like it, eh?) on pop culture with a lot of humor, analysis, and so much thought. Her bread and butter is the Millennial zeitgeist and how it plays into Millennials’ adulthood and experiences.
And then, she wrote a book about the topics she covers in her podcast. It is SO. GOOD. I alternated between reading my hard copy of the book and listening to the audio (which Kate reads herself)—either way you consume this book you will be satisfied. Her thoughts on friendship, feelings, fangirls, and fitting in are sharp, funny, and insightful. I audibly laughed in certain chapters and in others the bittersweet nostalgia elicited an ugly cry or two.
This book so perfectly captures the complexity of being a Millennial woman. But I wouldn’t just recommend this book to fellow Millennials. Any generation would enjoy this book, especially the Boomers in the crowd—who, after all, raised many Millennials. We are more than the “lazy generation” obsessed with avocado toast, and Kate’s essays perfectly explain some of this misconception and the “why” behind it.
Along with her astute pop culture commentary, she digs into more serious topics like how women’s interests are trivialized, dress codes in grade schools, post-religious trauma, and reproductive rights. And if I still haven’t convinced you, she’s a HUGE Swiftie. She makes several Taylor Swift references in her pod and book. On her Substack, she even published this wonderful Taylor Swift essay that didn’t quite make the cut for the book. In fact, I met some of my now dear friends in Seattle at “Track 5”—her live show, which was one part live podcast and five parts Taylor Swift dance party.
GO READ THIS BOOK NOW. Kate a gem and a brilliant writer, and this book was incredible.
Favorite quotes from One in a Millennial:
“Fortunately, Taylor Swift released the ‘All Too Well’ ten-minute version in her Red (Taylor’s Version) release, and I think I speak on behalf of countless women when I say that scream-singing about someone being so ‘casually cruel in the name of being honest’ healed a generation.”
“Millennials aren’t rife with contradictions and allegedly falling behind because we’re these entitled, spoiled creatures. We were raised in preparation for a world that no longer exists and are forever trying to navigate the terms.”
“Can I call myself skinny if I’m stretched too thin?”
“Looking back on my girlhood I’m both charmed by my earnest devotion to semisexist things and horrified that they represented a set of options that seemed so comprehensive of my worldview, I didn’t even notice it was narrow. But when I think about the ever-present misogynistic trivializing of women’s interests, I also feel frustrated by the hypocrisy and want to defend all of this behavior vehemently. How dare they criticize the way we’ve chosen to decorate the boxes they’ve put us in?”
“But enforcement of the dress code rarely examined intentions; it just sexualized you by subjectively policing (and thus often discriminating against) the way clothes fit people’s bodies, disproportionately affecting some students more than others.”
“Gauchos were like buying curtains you didn’t measure correctly and then wearing them on your thighs.”
Related content:
Listen to Be There In Five! A good episode to start is her interview with Amanda Montell (see more on her below)
Kate’s Substack, Up All Night Club
Marie Claire’s review of One in a Millennial
This Forbes piece with advice from Kate to businesses about keeping young workers
If you like Kate Kennedy, you would also like:
Amanda Montell: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism and The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality
Jia Tolentino: Trick Mirror
Millennial women have been working tirelessly to understand the world left to us. The part I’m proudest of is developing the community to support each other. I love this book, and Kate Kennedy and most of all Cassie , who are examples of Millennial women fighting for us all.
As a guy born (1957) firmly in the middle of the "Baby Boomer" generation, I am trying to come to terms with the world we have left to our younger generations. A quote comes to mind: “True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
― Kurt Vonnegut