I swear, all I’ve been seeing lately are couples getting married. But not any sort of couples – young couples. Like, couples under 24 young.
Between Bailey Mcknight and Asa Howard, Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin, Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, and that mess between Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson that we’ve all tried to forget, all I see on my For You page are weddings and engagements. Heck, there seems to be a new maternity photoshoot from the people I went to high school with every week. While on my end I still struggle to make doctors appointments on my own. But hey, that’s for another discussion.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that all of these couples have gotten their happily ever after. You’ll probably see me in the back of a wedding with a box of tissues, sobbing over love. But it can’t just be me who notices all of this. What is with all of these (practically) teenage marriages? Why so young? Right when you’re finally starting to get your professional life started and beginning to discover who you are. We were all in algebra class three years ago. What’s the rush?
Here’s a little recap for you, in case you need it:
Hailey Bieber married our teen heartthrob, Justin Bieber, at 21-years-old. In an interview with Elle Magazine, she admits how crazy that is when you say it out loud. “I was married when I was 21, two months before I turned 22, which is insanely young. And sounds almost ridiculous when you say it out loud.” They secretly got married at a courthouse in 2018 and have been together since, despite both publicly talking about how difficult marriage is.
Five months ago “Duck Dynasty” star Bella Robertson (who you might know as the little sister of Sadie Robertson, who also tied the knot young), married her boyfriend of six months, Jacob Mayo, at 18-years-old. In response to the critics who say she’s too young, Robertson told ET “my parents got married at 18, my brother got married at 18, my grandparents married at 18. It’s very common around here so it didn’t really shock me too much about my age.”
Of course, I can’t forget about the world’s sweetheart: Bindi Irwin, daughter of Steve Irwin, AKA ‘The Crocodile Hunter.’ In March 2021, Irwin, 22, married her boyfriend of six years, Chandler Powell, 24, in an incredibly intimate ceremony. They have my favorite wedding pictures of all time. Hint: snakes are involved.
At this point, I’m 21 and feel like I should be a mother of three, married for four years, and be a homeowner.
MILLENNIALS, GEN Z, AND MARRIAGE IN 2021
Facts don’t lie – studies show if you marry at 25 or older, you’re more than 50 percent less likely to get divorced than someone who gets married at age 20.
Oddly enough, research is showing that couples are starting to get married the older they are, not the younger they are. In 1920, the typical woman married at only 21.2 years and men married a few years older at 24.6 years. A century later, that age gap is decreasing and the average age of couples getting married is increasing. According to 2018 statistics, women typically get married at 27.8 years, and men typically get married at the average age of 29.8 years. This is the highest the average age of getting married has ever been in recorded history.
But most Gen Z and millennials still want to say “I do”, no doubt about that. A recent study from The Knot discovered that out of the 1,000 Gen Z and millennials surveyed, 80 percent have already thought about their future wedding details. And because gender roles have changed over the last century, almost half of the participants stated they desire to be financially independent and have a stable career before tying the knot. Women today are more independent because of the better career opportunities and the fact that we don’t need a man to financially support us. To many, marriages are no longer seen as the stay-at-home mother and the breadwinning father.
So maybe it is just the young quarantine couples getting married all at once now that restrictions are lifting. Either way, millennials and Gen Z are definitely leaving their mark on the world, and love.