New York Times Magazine

Older people have lamented how long it's taking our generation to grow up since, at least, the day after I graduated from college. Are we somehow different than previous generations, or do the traditional markers that once signaled adulthood no longer work?

A preview of this Sunday's New York Times Magazine says the latter, suggesting the time has come to do for 20-somethings what the early 20th century did for adolescents. Create a distinct developmental period.

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University, has coined the period "emerging adulthood," which is a nicer way of saying extended adolescence. There used to be five milestones that were said to be passed on the way to adulthood: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying, and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had achieved all five by age 30; but in 2000, just under half of women and one-third of 30-year-old men had.

Find out more after the jump.

Taylor Swift is on the cover of this weekend's T Magazine style issue. The multiple-Grammy nominee is currently in LA bonding with her Valentine's Day costar Taylor Lautner, but she had time to do a screen test for the New York Times — check out the video. Taylor also opened up in an accompanying interview about what her classmates thought of her music, being an outsider, and using real people's names in her songs. She said:

• On what her classmates thought of her music: "I didn't really have that many friends at school. Kids would heckle me: 'Go sing that country beep.' It just dawned on me that I had to love being different or else I was going to end up being dark and angry and frustrated by school. Sometimes I felt like I was some sort of spy because I would go to school during the day, and then, after school, I had this life that was completely different. I definitely was more nervous walking into my first day of freshman year in high school than I was walking up to record labels and handing them my CD. In school, I learned to stop talking about music because they didn't like it when I did. I led a double life. I kind of started to live in fear when I would sing the national anthem at the 76ers game. If there was a write-up about it the next day in our local paper, I knew it was gonna be a bad day at school for me."
• On her music as a response to being an outsider: "I would sit on the edge of class and watch people interact with each other. I'd watch guys flirt with cool girls and I would watch best friends talk, and I would go home and write about it. If you listen to my albums, it's like reading my diary."
• On using people's real names: "I don't hesitate — people who have no idea that I have a crush on them won't find out through me telling them, but they will find out when they hear their name in a song. There was this guy who opened a couple of shows for me on tour and I talked to him a couple of times, but he never knew that I liked him. So I wrote this song called "Hey Stephen," and when my album came out, I sent him a text message: 'Hey, Track 5.' It was so funny. He sent me back a long email saying, 'Oh, my God!'"