Latest news with #youngadults
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
4 Worst Pieces Of Career Advice Given To College Graduates
Graduates celebrate the future, but outdated advice could stall their career journey before it ... More begins. May and June are marked by college graduation speeches and a sea of caps soaring skyward. Each one is tossed by a hopeful graduate ready to chase a successful future. The ink on your diploma is barely dry before unsolicited advice rolls in from all directions. While some of it is helpful, a surprising amount is outdated. The worst thing you can do is follow the advice mindlessly. As of March, nearly 6% of recent graduates ages 22 to 27 who hold a bachelor's degree or higher were unemployed, reported by the Federal Reserve of New York. It's been reported that 25% of young adults are struggling to find jobs in their intended career fields, while 62% aren't employed in the career they intended to pursue after graduation. The job market is volatile. Following bad advice can lead new graduates down the wrong path, wasting opportunities they can't afford to lose. This advice screams fear. There is no long-term strategy behind this mindset. Yes, job hunting is hard. However, rushing to accept any offer is a formula for burnout. Worse yet, it establishes career detours that are hard to undo. The 'foot in the door' idea assumes that all experience is good experience, but that's not always true. A toxic workplace, for instance, stalls your growth. Don't panic-apply. Look for a role that builds momentum, not just fills space on your resume. Ask yourself, 'What will I learn in this role? Who will I become by doing this job?' It's okay to wait for something more aligned with your goals. There's still a stigma around job-hopping—older generations like the loyalty factor. Companies are now embracing the reality that candidates are pivoting multiple times within their careers. Staying in a dead-end job out of obligation helps no one. Without leadership development or growth opportunities, additional time in the role is unlikely to lead to meaningful progress. This doesn't mean you should resign at the first sign of discomfort; it does mean you should regularly evaluate the situation. Ask yourself, 'Am I developing new skills? Do I have mentorship? Is there an upward path at this company?' Higher education can be valuable, but it's also expensive and not always necessary. Many grads are pressured into applying for graduate programs simply because they don't know what else to do. In industries such as law, academia orclinical work, an additional degree is essential. However, in fields such as marketing, technology or entrepreneurship, hands-on experience often outweighs academic credentials. Work in the field first. It's better to test the waters in your industry, identify gaps in your knowledge and then decide if a graduate degree is worth the investment. Grad school is a powerful tool, not a default next step. The job market has changed. It's time for new grads to question old rules and build smarter ... More strategies. This one is the most damaging of all. The idea that you need a perfectly mapped-out 5-year plan before you even start working generates unnecessary pressure. Careers today are nonlinear. The average person changes careers up to eight times. What matters most is learning how to pivot and build relationships. Your first job isn't your forever job. Build skills that set you apart from your competition. It's more helpful to focus on the next right step rather than a rigid plan. Start where you are and stay open to what you discover. The early years of your career are about progression. Anyone who tells you that your career should be linear is selling a shortcut that most likely doesn't exist. The best way to navigate post-grad life is to ask yourself three questions consistently: These questions keep you aligned with your career identity. The rules that may have worked for previous generations no longer apply in a market now shaped by AI and remote work. What worked for your parents is now obsolete. You don't need to follow someone else's blueprint. You need your own strategy that evolves with your definition of success. Listen carefully to advice, but don't be afraid to question it. Your career isn't something you inherit—it's something you design.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Author John Green has advice for Gen Z to ‘shrink the empathy gap'
John Green is best known for his tear-jerking young adult novels. But beyond the emotionally charged lives of two teens bound by more than their illnesses in his bestseller, The Fault in Our Stars, Green has become widely recognized for giving his curious audience a crash course in everything from history and philosophy to science and current events. He's known to his over two million social media followers as an expert in centuries-old historical events, global health, and our modern technological landscape. Green is able to connect with a broad audience because of his uncanny ability to understand the dark and complex realities of people—particularly young ones. And he has a message for them. 'I worry a lot that young people are affected by the terrible disease of loneliness at a scale that we haven't seen before,' he tells Fortune. With the rise in social media came a decline in mental health, and a global pandemic that shut down schools and isolated kids as they were coming of age only worsened things. In one recent analysis, a fourth of people aged 15 to 18 reported feeling lonely, which can exacerbate mental health issues. Dubbed the 'anxious generation' by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, young adults today may be the loneliest group of all. With looming uncertainty about the future of work, AI, and the economy, Green has a simple lesson for young people. 'I think they should be reading more books,' Green says. 'But I'm biased. That's like asking a musician if people should listen to music.' Nonetheless, he sees reading as the most significant character development tool for young people. 'My case for books is that they shrink the empathy gap,' Green says, 'because when I read Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield isn't my friend or my spouse or my anything, [but] he is as close as I can come to being someone else.' Being socially isolated can block people from feeling empathy for others. In the latest annual World Happiness Report, a ranking of happiest countries in the world, the U.S. dropped out of the top 20, largely because of young Americans' discontent due to social isolation and worsening mental health. A key marker of happiness, per the report, is believing in the good of others. Lacking valuable social connections can make believing in the goodwill of others more challenging. Finding a way to bridge the empathy gap, as Green says, could encourage us to reach out to people, beyond the pages of a book. 'Through the process of imagining with clarity and sophistication what it's like to be someone else, we both learn what it's like to be ourselves, but we also learn what it's like to be one of the 8 billion other people on this planet,' Green says. This story was originally featured on
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Adults review – Friends for the TikTok generation sitcom is a try-hard misfire
Adults, FX's new twenty-something comedy implicitly pitched as the Friends or Girls for the TikTok and location-sharing generation, opens with a studiously replicated scene of codependent young adulthood: five friends tangled together on a New York subway, their belongings and in-group references strewn between each other. In barely a minute, the characters gab in the way you'd imagine adult-adults imagine young-adults speak, breezing through exposition, getting high, being broke and not having enough hot water to shower. This being New York, there's also a subway masturbator, which Issa (Amita Rao), the loudest and bawdiest of a loud and bawdy group, handles by over-engaging, attempting to out-masturbate the creep. 'Is this the world you want?!' she shouts, to the horror of everyone else on the train. To my horror, as well – there's a fine line between cringe comedy and just cringe, and Adults, created by ex-Tonight Show writers Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw and executive produced by coming-of-age comedian extraordinaire Nick Kroll, is often on the wrong side of it. The barnstormer of an entrance – cue a joke about the progress of feminism – succeeds in setting the tone for the rest of the series (or at least, the six of eight episodes made available to critics): aggressively profane, a little off-putting, onto something but overdone, altogether doing too much. The television equivalent of the friend champing at the bit for inside jokes – Overcompensating, one could say, to borrow the title of another recent twenty-something comedy, albeit one set at US college, that has a better handle on its tone of heightened hijinks and egocentrism during a formative time. Which is a shame, because the viewing public is starved for a good show about one's miserable and magical twenties in post-pandemic New York – or, believably for a group of genuinely broke post-grads, an hour-plus train ride away from Manhattan in outer Queens (as played by Toronto). The archetypically messy group living for free-ish in Samir's (Malik Elassal) childhood home inhabit a recognizable world of post-Covid precarity and interconnectedness. Samir is chronically unemployed and struggling to assert himself. (His parents are off on a post-retirement jaunt.) His childhood best friend Billie (Lucy Freyer), the go-getter of the group, works at a cartoonishly bad media company with no health insurance. Even Anton (Owen Thiele), the house's resident charismatic gay and admitted 'friend slut', doesn't know what his job is besides chiming in 'uh-huh' on Zoom (an update on the Friends bit about Chandler's job). Issa appears to have made a career on hijacking social justice protests for personal gain. Her boyfriend, Canadian transplant Paul Baker (Jack Innanen) – always Paul Baker, never just Paul — is the group's resident softboy, the enthusiastic golden retriever to the over-contrived scheme of the day, such as air-tagging a man as a potential solution to Anton's dry spell. Over 20-ish minute episodes – Adults at least keeps it short and snappy – the crew flail about in ways both relatable and obnoxious. The gags are always a notch or two above necessary, such as an over-emphasis on a lack of physical boundaries (don't you remember letting your best friend pee through your legs?) or Issa and Anton convincing themselves that they annoyed their therapist to the point of suicide. (Issa, in particular, is a too-grating parody of narcissism, as if Marnie Michaels had negative shame and was also a socialist.) The show hits all the expected bases – a go-around on sex-positive app Feeld, an inadvertent and exorbitant hospital bill, the phrase 'defund the police and all, but…' – and some unexpected ones, including guest turns from an admirably game Charlie Cox as Billie's former teacher/older paramour and Julia Fox as her bleached eyebrow self. From house rules to a disastrous attempt at a roast chicken dinner party, all of it tastes overcooked, invoking the classic paradox that the harder one tries to make things look natural, the more contrived it seems. It's not that Adults doesn't have its moments, particularly as the season goes on and distances itself from a turkey of an opener. The cast, a mix of stand-up comedians, internet personalities and screen actors, eventually settles into a more level-headed groove, with Elassal and Freyer in particular demonstrating some emotional texture to their characters. (Thiele gets the award for comic timing). The less the writers strain for ego-centric, no-boundaries twenty-something-ness, the better; the funniest long-running bit is a simple gag about the gang referencing movies they haven't seen. But these are too few and far between, and likely too late after the overkill of the first episode to win over its target audience, though if Adults shares one thing with today's young people, it's a formless, ambient sense of anxiety. Perhaps that will diffuse if the show is given time to grow, and these young adults learn what most twenty-somethings do: in the game of winning friends and influencing people, one needn't try so hard. Adults starts on FX and Hulu in the US on 28 May and Disney+ elsewhere on 29 May
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Millions of Britons putting teeth at risk by bingeing on sugary treats after dinner and failing to brush before bed, dentists warn
Millions of Britons are putting their teeth at risk by bingeing on sugary treats after dinner and failing to brush before bed, dentists warn. One in three adults (33 per cent) admit to snacking every night, with more than two in three (68 per cent) opting for the likes of chocolates, sweets and biscuits. Meanwhile, almost half (47 per cent) go to sleep without brushing their teeth at least once a week, allowing sugar and bacteria to damage their gnashers overnight. The Oral Health Foundation said this 'dangerous double habit' could lead to a rise in tooth decay and gum disease. Dr Nigel Carter, chief executive of the charity, said: 'These figures are a real wake-up call – the UK is becoming a nation of late-night snackers, and it's our teeth that are paying the price. 'Snacking on sugary treats every night and then skipping brushing before bed is a recipe for disaster. 'When you don't brush, sugar and bacteria stay on your teeth all night, producing acids that eat away at the enamel. 'Over time, this can lead to tooth decay, gum disease and tooth loss. 'Essentially, you're giving harmful bacteria free rein to damage your mouth while you sleep.' The Foundation's study suggests up to 26 million British adults are tucking into sugary treats after dinner at least three times a week. And it is young adults who are the worst offenders. More than four-in-five (86 per cent) 18-to-24-year-olds admit to snacking at night, with most (81 per cent) reaching for sugar-packed treats. Young people are also the most likely to skip brushing their teeth before bed. Nearly half (43 per cent) say they miss the night time brush a few times a week – well above the national average of around one-in-three (36 per cent). Dr Carter suggests patients should avoid snacking after an evening meal whenever possible. He added: 'If you do choose to snack, pick options that won't harm your teeth. 'Savoury choices like cheese, nuts, or breadsticks are much better for your oral health. 'Save sugary treats for mealtimes and always remember – brushing your teeth before bed is essential. It's your last line of defence against tooth decay.' The Oral Health Foundation, which describes itself as the the leading national charity working to improve oral health, advises cleaning with fluoride toothpaste for two minutes twice a day and cutting down on sugary food and drinks. It comes as public satisfaction with NHS dentistry is at an all-time low, with many people struggling to secure an appointment and having to resort to pulling out their own teeth at home.
The Sun
24-05-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Global cancer cases rise at alarmingly high rate – why are so many young women getting deadly disease?
A month before her 21st birthday, Amy Clark was given the earth-shattering news that she had stage four lung cancer. It was a moment Amy, now 26, describes as: 'Like having an out-of-body experience,' so shocking was the diagnosis. 5 5 'I couldn't really process what the nurse had told me. I had lung cancer that had spread to my rib and lymph nodes. It felt totally surreal,' she says. Five years on, thanks to ongoing treatment, Amy lives a full and relatively normal life, working in insurance in North Somerset. However, her experience of developing cancer at such a young age is, worryingly, no longer so unusual. Young people like Amy are being diagnosed with cancer at an alarmingly high rate. While it is a disease that typically strikes later in life, more and more young women and men are being diagnosed in their prime. Globally, diagnosis and deaths related to early-onset cancers – meaning those affecting people below the age of 50 – rose by 79% and 28% respectively, between 1990 and 2019.* And according to Cancer Research UK, the increase in cases among those aged 25-49 in the UK is more than double the rise in over-75s, with cancers of the digestive system, skin and breast most common in younger people. High-profile women, including the Princess of Wales, 43, Strictly's Amy Dowden, 34, and comedian Katherine Ryan, 41, have all been diagnosed with cancer in the past two years, and by bravely going public they've brought a lot of attention to the fact that, increasingly, age guarantees no protection against cancer. Before her death at the age of 40 in June 2022, bowel cancer campaigner and The Sun columnist, Dame Deborah James, worked tirelessly to highlight that cancer impacts younger people too, after her own symptoms were dismissed. 'Deborah was passionate about awareness of bowel cancer symptoms and early diagnosis, because being diagnosed in the earliest stages means you have a much better outcome,' says her mum Heather. 'You know your body better than anyone, so if something doesn't feel right, get it checked. She often said that if she could save one life, all the effort would be worth it.' For Amy, a diagnosis came completely unexpectedly, following investigations into an old injury. 'After a fall in 2016, I'd experienced lower-back pain on and off for a few years, and in May 2019 I saw an orthopaedic consultant about it. "An X-ray and PET scan revealed I had a badly healed old rib fracture, which explained the pain. But it also showed a 3mm lesion in my right lung,' says Amy. 'I was referred to a respiratory consultant, who said he didn't usually see this sort of lesion in someone my age – they were more associated with older people who'd been long-term smokers. "It was agreed I'd have another scan the following year, but he didn't seem concerned, so nor was I. Lung cancer never even crossed my mind.' In February 2020, a second scan showed that whatever was in Amy's lung was now also in her lymph nodes. She was referred for a bronchoscopy, which enables doctors to look at the lungs and air passages using a thin tube with a camera, and perform a biopsy. 'It wasn't until I was actually on the trolley, going into theatre in March 2020, that someone said the word 'cancer' to me. 5 5 "I was so shocked – it hadn't been on my radar at all. I was 20, in a happy relationship with my boyfriend Danny, 25, working and socialising, like any young woman. "I felt fit and well, with no symptoms of anything untoward.' The following month, Amy received her diagnosis. 'Not only did I have cancer, but it had spread, meaning it was now stage four. It was a devastating moment – my memories of it are hazy, because I was immediately plunged into a state of shock. "But I remember my mum Jan crying. I didn't think about myself, but about how this was going to impact my family and Danny. 'I didn't ask what my prognosis was, as I didn't want to hear my life reduced to a countdown.' Between April 2020 and May 2023, Amy – who went on to learn she had a relatively rare form of lung cancer called ALK positive, which affects 3-5% of lung cancer patients – began oral targeted therapy, as well as 20 rounds of radiotherapy to shrink her tumours. Tough to cope with 'Emotionally, it took a long time to come to terms with my diagnosis. It felt totally at odds with the fact I was just 21, with so many plans for my future. "I still felt like 'me' and I had no cancer symptoms, though I experienced side effects from the treatment, including highly sensitive skin and an internal burning sensation, which were tough to cope with. 'Danny, an engineer who I'd met on a night out with friends and started dating in 2018, was my rock, as were my family. "But nobody that age ever expects to have to tell the people they love that they have stage four cancer and be supported by them.' In January 2023, Amy, who lives with her parents, was told she'd had a 'complete response' to treatment, meaning there was no evidence of cancer in her body. She was able to return to work and get back to her passions of hiking, attending music festivals and seeing friends. However, that March, a scan revealed cancer in Amy's hip area, and she needed more radiotherapy. 'That was the hardest time, emotionally, even worse than receiving my diagnosis,' she says. 'I kept thinking – is this my life now, in and out of treatment, waiting for the cancer to appear in another part of my body?' Amy is now having regular scans, alongside medication, and she takes huge strength from her relationship. 5 'Danny has never wavered in his support, lifting my spirits on days when I've felt overwhelmed,' says Amy. 'We don't shy away from talking about cancer, but we talk about our future, too, and are planning to move in together next year.' There are countless theories swirling among the medical community about why rates of early-onset cancer are on the rise. These range from people having more exposure to artificial light, modern diets of ultra-processed foods, red meat and alcohol, as well as obesity, poor gut health and microplastics in food and water supplies. Research published by Cancer Research UK last month pointed to a possible link between bowel cancer in under-50s and childhood exposure to a toxin produced by E. coli. Dr Rachel Orritt from the charity says that, although around nine in 10 cancer cases still happen in people over 50, early-onset cancers are a growing cause for concern. 'We don't know what's causing early onset cancer. Preventable factors like changing diets and higher rates of obesity, as well as improvements to early detection, could all be playing a part. "But it's vital we have more research to understand the causes, so we know how to prevent it,' she says. Like Amy, Ellie Stacey was left in shock after being diagnosed with a rare but extremely aggressive form of ovarian cancer at 32, in March 2023, after experiencing stomach pain, bloating and pain down one side of her chest. Tests revealed she had stage 3C ovarian carcinosarcoma, which typically affects women aged over 60. She was told by doctors that, although her cancer was incurable, it could be treated. 'I was convinced I was going to die, beside myself with anxiety. It was like a nightmare. "My boyfriend Andrew, 35, who's a radiographer, was with me and was able to hold it together, while I was a mess,' says Ellie, now 34 and an ecologist, from Glasgow. 'My grandmother died from ovarian cancer in her 80s, and the thought of having to tell my mum I had it, too – in my 30s – was so painful.' Ellie has now had her fallopian tubes and ovaries removed, undergone eight rounds of chemotherapy, a hysterectomy, and had a cancerous growth attached to her liver removed. Currently, she's having maintenance IV chemotherapy infusions and oral targeted therapy, along with regular scans. She's had to come to terms with the realisation that she will never carry a child. 'It wasn't possible to freeze my eggs before my ovaries were removed, because by then they were covered in tumours, and now I have no womb either. "I have felt angry – I'd worked so hard to get to the point I wanted to in my career, assuming I'd have children at some point in the future, never imagining the choice would be taken away from me.' Having cancer so young has meant Ellie's life in the last few years has been in stark contrast to that of friends the same age. 'They've been getting on with their lives – excelling in careers, starting families – and although they've been so supportive, it's hard when my life hasn't been 'normal' for two years.' Dr Zainab Noor, a specialist clinical psychologist at the Cancer Psychology Collective says: 'Receiving a cancer diagnosis at a young age not only interrupts the normal momentum of life, but also forces a confrontation with mortality at a time when life is meant to feel limitless. 'It's not uncommon to feel untethered: caught between a life you were expecting and the reality you're suddenly living in. I call this 'emotional whiplash.'' For Ellie, one of the hardest parts about being a young cancer patient has been the uncertainty about the future. 'My career has stalled,' she says. 'I'm only able to work 12 hours on a good week, due to fatigue, and my memory and concentration are poor now. 'I get incredibly frustrated, because I feel I should be living the hell out of life, but I can't manage more than one or two things socially in a week,' adds Ellie. High recurrence rate 'Andrew and I are lucky to have such great friends, some of whom can't have children, and it's been helpful to talk to them. "Well-meaning people have told us we could still have a family via adoption. But when one parent has incurable cancer and may die younger, is that fair on a child?' Ellie has forged connections with other young cancer patients via the charity Maggie's which, she says, has been invaluable. 'There are certain things that, no matter how understanding your friends are, people can't understand unless they've been where you are. "Throughout, Andrew has been incredibly supportive. He's had a lot to deal with and I do worry it will hit him one day. "But if I'm having a down day or feeling guilty about us not being able to have children, he reassures me it's me he wants to be with.' Ellie's cancer has a high recurrence rate, although her latest scans showed that her condition is stable. 'People think that with cancer you either die or get better, but that's always not the case,' she says. 'For me, it's always going to be there and I've just got to try and live my life the best I can.' Amy still encounters shock when she reveals to people her diagnosis, but she counters it with hope and belief in medicine. 'When I meet new people and they learn I have stage four cancer, they're so shocked, and I get that. "Nobody expects to hear that from a 20-something woman who looks completely well. Their mind turns to the absolute worst outcome,' she says. 'Last year, my mum co-founded the charity Oncogene Cancer Research, and she's thrown herself into not only understanding my condition, but supporting patients and fund-raising for research. 'Through her work, I know research is happening and medicine is always evolving, so I try to remain confident that treatment will keep working for me, so I can live a long and full life. 'To this day, I've never asked what my prognosis is and I have no plans to. I am looking to, and planning for, my future.'
