A popular social media trend called “Wasting Your Twenties” is alive and well on TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube.

At its heart, this trend promotes one idea: you are not wasting your 20s if you are not married and don’t have children. That in fact, your twenties is the time for you to build your career, to travel, and to explore your sexuality and “have fun” before engaging in any type of serious commitment.

Let me be clear: I am not in any way advocating for the idea that your life does not start until you get married or have children.

You, as a young woman or a young man in your 20s, are fully capable of glorifying God as you are right now. You do not need to wait for “someday” to be a full Christian.

This idea of “wasting your twenties” has been largely strengthened by the most popular podcast for women in America today: Call Her Daddy, hosted by Alex Cooper.

If you don’t know what this podcast is, I am envious of you. Unfortunately, it is the most listened podcast by women in America today and the sole purpose of this podcast is to coach women who are in their twenties their idea of what it means to “live.”

According to Alex Cooper, true fulfillment in life is “living in your twenties” and then, if you want, you can settle down, get married, and have kids in your thirties.

Alex Cooper’s own life has largely looked exactly like this. Being extremely sexually promiscuous in her twenties, she married her husband Matt Klapan in 2024, and recently announced their pregnancy with their first baby.

And unsurprisingly, Cooper’s advice for women has remained unchanged. While Cooper’s fame and money have largely helped her achieve marriage and family in her thirties, for most young women who follow Cooper’s life advice, their life will look nothing like Cooper’s.

For the average woman who engages in sexual promiscuity in their twenties, their thirties will largely be comprised of regrets, loneliness, childlessness, and STDs.

So, to push back on this damaging narrative of “wasting your twenties,” I want to tell how I am choosing to “waste” my twenties.

Less than a month after I turned twenty, I married my husband and less than two years later, we welcomed the arrival of our daughter in 2025.

My twenties have basically only consisted of marriage and family, and you know what? I would venture to say that I am a happier and more fulfilled woman than the women who are in engaging in the endless hookups and parties.

Instead of a series of uncommitted relationships that leave women feeling used and broken, I am blessed to have a man who comes home to only me and who is committed to only me. The emotional security in that is unmatched.

Instead of late nights of endless parties and drinking, my nights are filled with quality time with my husband while our daughter sleeps peacefully upstairs.

Yes, my days are much less free.

Sleeping in is a never at this point, I am always cleaning my floors, and saying “no” has become part of my every minute vocabulary.

Nevertheless, my days are filled with purpose and fulfillment because I am right where God wants me to be– loving my husband and raising our daughter.

Young woman, please do not fall for the culture’s lie that marriage and family will waste your twenties.

If anything, marriage and family will make your twenties beautiful and fulfilling.

To learn more about the beautiful benefits of marriage, listen to Illinois Family Institute’s 2025 Worldview Conference featuring leading family sociologist, Professor Brad Wilcox.