{"id":1461,"date":"2017-01-26T16:00:13","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2017\/01\/26\/5-questions-julie-beck-and-when-are-you-really-an-adult\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T17:09:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T17:09:30","slug":"5-questions-julie-beck-and-when-are-you-really-an-adult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2017\/01\/26\/5-questions-julie-beck-and-when-are-you-really-an-adult\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Questions: Julie Beck and &#8220;When Are You Really an Adult?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">When I sat down to write this, I was a millennial about to tackle one of many adulthood markers \u2013 college graduation \u2013 and I struggled with the feeling of bouncing back and forth from being an adult one second and a child the next. Legally, I was an adult and had been since I was 18. My doctor said I had reached my maximum adult height. But I still called my parents on a weekly basis, and at one point I had planned to move back home after graduation.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Julie Beck\u2019s piece for The Atlantic in January 2016,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/archive\/2016\/01\/when-are-you-really-an-adult\/422487\/\">\u201cWhen Are You Really An Adult?\u201d<\/a>, dives into emerging adulthood, that moment when you\u2019ve maybe worn a college graduation cap and gown but at the same time feel like you\u2019re a little kid playing dress-up.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Initially, I was drawn to this piece hoping it might provide some answers to my own adulthood issues. But what kept me reading was Beck\u2019s thorough exploration of adulthood development research interwoven with her personal insights and vignettes from readers who have felt lost through the dips, bumps and curves on the road to adulthood.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Opening with a story of a boomerang child (who is later revealed to be far from a millennial), Beck brings a fresh voice to a topic that could otherwise be easily bogged down with dense research.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>After graduating with a major in journalism from Northwestern University in 2011, Beck freelanced for Popular Science and later landed her first job with the Chicago trade magazine InsideCounsel before becoming the associate editor for the health section of The Atlantic. With almost three years of work at The Atlantic behind her, Beck is now the senior associate editor and writes about health and psychology.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>She spoke by phone from The Atlantic\u2019s office in Washington, D.C., about the piece.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>How did you come up with this story idea about emerging adults? What was your inspiration?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>This piece initially came out of another piece that I did, which was about narrative psychology and the way that people tell the story of their lives to themselves. One of the researchers I was talking to for that piece mentioned that studying adult development is really difficult. More difficult than child development, because in childhood you have these markers that you hit at a prescribed time and you can track it, and it\u2019s very similar for everyone. But when you get to adulthood, the development is much more self-directed. People can come and go in any direction they want, and it makes it really difficult to study. So that was initially what the piece was going to be about, and when I was looking into that, I found that it\u2019s even harder to write about than I thought because the question was, \u201cWhat even&nbsp;<em>is<\/em>&nbsp;being an adult?\u201d So I ended up centering the whole piece around that question.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-image mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<figure class=\"alignright\" id=\"attachment_128476\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/thoreau-1-223x300.jpg\" alt=\"Henry David Thoreau, the original slacker?\" class=\"wp-image-128476\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Henry David Thoreau, the original slacker? <small>Associated Press<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>You open the piece with a character named Henry, who a few paragraphs later readers find out is Henry David Thoreau. Why did you open this way instead of finding a current person going through the emerging adulthood phase?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I think a lot of the articles about adulthood that have been written recently are about how people are taking longer to become adults and that today\u2019s young people are so aimless, and so you do see very similar kinds of ledes. One of the main points of the piece is that this sort of stumbling path to adulthood is not an anomaly; it\u2019s very common in the grand scheme of the history of our country. And so, to have someone from the past and write about [Thoreau] in the same style that you see people writing about millennials today, hopefully was to show that this happens all the time.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>Why did you decide to reach out to readers to provide their thoughts on when they became an adult? What do you think these insights brought to the piece?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>We have a section called \u201cNotes\u201d that\u2019s very engaged with the readership and publishes a lot of comments. In that section I put out a call before the story was even done, to ask people to send me their stories about when they felt like they became an adult. When you write about these large societal things or psychological things, it often ends up being a very bird\u2019s-eye view with a lot of generalities. I wanted to include some more personal stories as well to give people little glimpses into people\u2019s personal processes of becoming an adult while I\u2019m talking about all these grand trends. It makes it a little more relatable, hopefully<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-pullquote mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>I think a lot of the articles about adulthood that have been written recently are about how people are taking longer to become adults and that today\u2019s young people are so aimless, and so you do see very similar kinds of ledes. One of the main points of the piece is that this sort of stumbling path to adulthood is not an anomaly; it\u2019s very common in the grand scheme of the history of our country.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>There\u2019s a lot of reporting in this piece about the \u201cmarkers\u201d of adulthood, like brain and body development, cultural ceremonies, maturity, marriage and parenthood. How did you know when you had reported this topic fully?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Oh, I\u2019m sure I didn\u2019t get all of them. My process is always like an extremely inefficient gathering of way too much stuff. (laughs) So you know, I usually have a Word doc of things that I\u2019ve copied and pasted from PDFs, and studies and notes from books or all my interviews. It\u2019s about 50,000 words of notes, so it could be better or it could be worse. I guess I just gather things and maybe you\u2019re never really done, but the point at which you decide you have to be done is when you start seeing things or reading things and you\u2019re like, \u201cOK, I already knew that.\u201d I printed my notes out and highlighted them and in my notebook made a bulleted list about things I wanted to talk about. And sometimes it\u2019s repetitive and you\u2019re like, \u201cOK, this thing and this thing can actually go together, or maybe this part is a separate story.\u201d It\u2019s helpful to have these different forms of organization, to have a list and be able to check things off. It\u2019s very patchwork.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>You inserted yourself into this piece by mentioning a professor you had in college who talked about how you will be flailing between ages 22 and 25, and also mentioning how one of your sources thought it was funny you mentioned<em>&nbsp;\u201c<\/em>Leave it to Beaver\u201d<em>&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;<\/em>What was your decision behind making yourself a character?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I feel like this one was less first-person than my other pieces have been. It\u2019s a choice everybody has to make. I feel like I tend to be a more casual writer, just in terms of style. If you\u2019re writing a very straightforward, serious news piece, that might not be appropriate. But especially with these sort of fuzzy, vague unanswerable topics that I usually like to write about, there\u2019s definitely no escaping that you have a perspective on it. I think it\u2019s more honest and more straightforward for me to just include that, rather than trying to pretend objectivity. And also hopefully by questioning my own thoughts about something or exposing my own thoughts, it can be more transparent and a more complete picture, because the reader can just decide whether they want to agree with me or not. I try not to do it too much. And this piece is one where I really didn\u2019t do it that much, except just in the beginning to be upfront about what the process was. And also because this is a 5,000- to 7,000-word piece, I\u2019m just going to tell you right now that if you get to the end of it, there\u2019s not going to be an answer.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><em>Kaitlynn Martin graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism in May 2016 with an emphasis in magazine writing. During her summer internship at The Dallas Morning News, she profiled a couple who attends an early-stage dementia program at the Dallas Museum of Art, three Dallas chefs participating in the city&#8217;s Okrapalooza and a band of teenage girls who reflected on the Dallas ambush shootings through music. She is currently the editorial intern at Feast Magazine, a food and beverage publication in St. Louis.<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In her Atlantic piece, the writer captures that moment when you\u2019ve worn a cap and gown but at the same time feel like a little kid playing dress-up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"topics":[],"authors":[237],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-1461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-questions","authors-kaitlynn-martin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>5 Questions: Julie Beck and &quot;When Are You Really an Adult?&quot; - Nieman Storyboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2017\/01\/26\/5-questions-julie-beck-and-when-are-you-really-an-adult\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Questions: Julie Beck and &quot;When Are You Really an Adult?&quot; 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