#TheStruggle is real for millennials: Actress and writer Samantha Jayne on her book 'Quarter Life Poetry'
Millennials are lazy.
Los Angeles-based author and actress Samantha Jayne talks about her book, her thoughts on life for millennials today and advice she has for her generation and even her former self.
Millennials are lazy. Millennials are narcissistic. Millennials are entitled. There are many negative adjectives used to describe the Millennial Generation and dozens of think pieces written to somehow describe the group that is over 80 million strong.
However, actress, writer and millennial Samantha Jayne managed to chronicle the trials of her underemployed and overstimulated brethren in her book, “Quarter Life Poetry: Poems for the Young, Broke & Hangry.”The raw humor of “Quarter Life Poetry,” which Jayne first started on her Tumblr and Instagram accounts, maps out deferred dreams, hopes and woes in 10 chapters that every millennial can relate to. Witty illustrations, also drawn by Jayne, accompany each poem below on every page.
In the first sentence of the introduction to Jayne’s book, she writes, “I’ve been told this is a good bathroom book.” Perhaps it is and that is also why “Quarter Life Poetry” is a charming read. Millennials have had, and continue, to endure the residue of left behind by Baby Boomers
READ SOME OF "QUARTER LIFE POETRY" ON INSTAGRAMAND SAMANTHA JAYNE'S WEBSITE
Page Views had an exclusive talk with the Los Angeles-based author about her book, her thoughts on life for millennials today and advice she has for her generation and even her former self.
Page Views: What or who is the inspiration behind “Quarter Life Poetry”? Was there a specific life event that was the catalyst behind this book?
Samantha Jayne : It (“Quarter Life Poetry”) is inspired by the humiliation of my experiences. I wanted it to be a way to connect with other people in their 20s. I feel like on social media we say that we are fine and that everything is great. But then we get together and start talking, and find out that we are pretty much going through all the same issues. I wanted to start to a conversation about this and make it OK to talk about these things.
“Quarter Life Poetry: Poems for the Young, Broke & Hangry” is out now from Grand Central Publishing.
I was having a difficult time a few years ago figuring out what I wanted to do. I just graduated from college in 2011 and I started working in New York at ad agencies. I thought “OK this is my lifestyle and this is how it’s going to be! I’m going to live in New York and go through this very specific path.” Then a few years into it I started feeling very restless and stuck, and I realized there were other things I wanted to start pursuing. This threw me into an existential crisis. I started turning to friends and thought I was alone and found out that I actually was not.
I moved to the West Coast with all of these feelings intact, and I started to write humorous poetry because this is the way I heal… with humor. It’s cathartic therapy for me.
Moving to the West Coast was a lifestyle change for me. I went to San Francisco first and thought this would make everything settled for me. What I really wanted to do was what I was most scared to do (acting). I soon moved to L.A.
Do you feel you made the right decision in moving to the West Coast to pursue acting and writing?
I feel like I absolutely made the right decision. I think that when you’re following your passion, the money and numbers and all of those things doesn’t matter so much if you’re doing what you love. I also love the flexibility of being able to freelance. I’ve been able to freelance at different ad agencies to be able to get on my feet while I was pursuing acting.