Have you ever questioned why you experience such different stages in your young adult life? Have you wondered if your peers are also experiencing these changes? Alison James, an author based in New York City, addresses many of the concerns and stresses women aged 18 to 35 face in her new book, "The 10 Women You'll Be Before You're 35."
The book essentially examines the different experiences and stages women go through when trying to sort out who they are and what they want to be. It begins by narrating the predicaments of a college graduate and ends when the puzzled graduate has become a savvy 35-year-old. The book explores 10 distinct personalities a woman encounters: the New Graduate, the Dollarless Diva, the Worker Bee, the Party Girl, the Body-Conscious Babe, the Chameleon, the Crisis Chick, Ms. Independence, Wirl (half woman/half girl) and the True You. In describing all the troubles and worries this young, fictionalized woman faces, James provides tips and pointers to help all women conquer their misfortunes, laugh at them and learn from them. James' primary objective for writing the book was to help other women who are going through the troubles she experienced.
"Hopefully, other young women who are just starting out will read this and get some perspective," James said.
After graduating college, James was uncertain about what she wanted to do in the future. She opted to enter the financial world of business and leave her desire to become a writer, in fear that it would not adequately support her financially. However, she felt an overwhelming desire to share all of her life experiences and the hard lessons she learned during her years of transition from college to the working world.
"The things we go through in our twenties are tough, and I feel like I get a lot of positive feedback from women who read my advice," James said.
Personal experience is not the only source James relies on for information. The advice compiled in her book also comes from answers to the thousands of surveys that women took pertaining to relationship issues.
"The advice given in the book is based on my own experiences and from women I do and do not know," she said.
When informed of the general message of the book, second-year College student Lindsay Robinson said, "It sounds like more of an entertaining book than something you would read for advice. Even if you haven't been through one of these stages, I'm sure you know of someone else who has. Therefore, the information in the book is not anything new."
To an extent, making the book entertaining was James' primary intention.
"I wanted to bridge the gap between self-help and entertainment," she said.
Second-year College student Kira Mayo read the book and said she highly enjoyed it, primarily because it "teemed with a lot of great advice, but at the same time, used simple language."
Thomas Howe, James' fiancé and manager, said the book "is fresh and honest and does not contain any overtly psychological rhetoric that might be difficult to relate to," which allows for it to be a quick, humorous, educational and entertaining read.
Second-year College student Rachel Smith said she slightly disagrees with the format of the book and said it suggests that all women, after graduating from college, experience these 10 stages in their exact order and at the precise age the book infers.
This, however, was not James' intention. She realizes that no woman goes through all the stages in sequential order.
"It's not like you go through them in this nice, sequential way, and when you reach 35, you're set for life," she said.
James added that her intent was to address the act that "we may go through one stage one day, and another on another day, and when you look back and reflect on it, you realize that you really did learn something."
Although the book was written predominantly for a female audience, men may also find some helpful tips.
"Being that I am a female, I can only write with a female perspective," James said. "However, I did talk to a guy who reviewed the book, who said he connected with the first character."
She added that "men don't have as much stress as [women] do when they are 18 to 35. Stress seems to hit them the hardest when they reach the age of around 30 or older."
This reasoning led her to give advice mainly to women.
In about a year, James will publish her third book, which is yet to be named. Her next book will once again advise women and will explore how far women should go to make a relationship work. This may prove an area many women will be interested in learning more about, and James said she hopes that"women will learn from [her] pain"
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