Definition: People reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century (there are other unrelated definitions too).

But what is ‘young adulthood’? And is the ‘early 21st century’ earlier than 4am?

I’m not the only one confused, am I?

A dedicated millennial marketing firm says that a ‘millennial’ is anyone born between 1977 and 2000 (gosh, ‘young adulthood’ might start at 1? And Rory’s a millennial? Ha!). But according to the definitive guide to the last 6 generations, it is people born between 1982 and 2004.

OK. Too many numbers. Plus, I’m still a millennial and I don’t like it.

Maybe we can explain this with letters instead? Let’s see… millennials are Generation Y, but they are slightly younger… Except Generation Y doesn’t exist. Never did. If you clicked that link above, you’d know that.

(But if you’re a millennial, you probably just scanned right past it.)

The internet at large seems to think being a millennial is less of an age thing and more of a state of mind. Superficially, it tells me that millennials eat a lot of avocado, want everything now and like to take photos of themselves…

(Maybe our 3-year old is a millennial too…!)

But dig deeper. You will find that millennials are entrepreneurs. They are starting more business than their parents’ generation. Except that they are actually starting less businesses. Just thinking and talking about it more. They are the most hardworking generation—except when accused of being the least. They earn more, but can afford less. Better with money, but in more debt. Passionate. Apathetic.

They sound like humans to me.

Can you even define a generation by the people in it? Or is it all about the things that happen to them?

So, who are these ‘millennials’? And is Rory one, or not?