Though our January #ReadwithMC pick ushers in the new year of 2024, most of Kate Kennedy’s One In a Millennial: On Friendships, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In compels us to look backward to look forward. In this book, Kennedy speaks to and on behalf of the millennial generation, encapsulating in 336 pages what it was (and is) like to grow up as a woman born between the years of 1981 to 1996 (and, even more granularly, those born in the mid- to late 1980s). Anyone can relate to something in this book, but if you know what Cucumber Melon is, debated fiercely over NSYNC versus Backstreet Boys, went to see teen movies in theaters like She’s All That, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Never Been Kissed on various Fridays in 1999—Kennedy is speaking directly to you. Yes, if you’re not a millennial, you’ll get something from this book, too—but if you are a millennial, you’ll find in Kennedy a mirror back to yourself.
Kennedy looks at the experience of being a millennial largely through the lens of pop culture, exploring the millennial zeitgeist and the life lessons learned (for better and for worse) of being a member of this generation. Kennedy has a stronghold on pop culture; she’s a pop culture commentator for a living and hosts the popular millennial-focused podcast “Be There In Five.” Through her own lived experience as a member of this generation—Kennedy was born in 1987—she was able to write a memoir that relates to a wide swath of us, and if you’re roughly her age, it’s stark how very seen and very exposed you feel throughout the pages. How does she know? I found myself asking. I don’t even know her, and yet, she gets it.
