Confessions of a Zillennial Ex–Party Girl

I was born in 1998. By all technicalities, I am Gen Z, although I often refer to myself as a “zillennial:” someone on the cusp of the Gen Z/Millennial cut-off who bridges the generational divide. I’m too old to participate in most Gen Z fashion trends, I don’t use TikTok, and only one year of my education was affected by the pandemic. I’m also too young to have my career path derailed by the Great Recession, and I eschew the nihilism and arrested development of Millennial culture. In all, I was engrossed in Hipster Runoff at age 12 and going to Vampire Weekend shows alone my freshman year of high school, and entered college in the heyday of “Bodak Yellow” as a frat party soundtrack staple dressed in a lace-up top and black skinny jeans.