Seven stories about women coming of age in their 30s and 40s

Emily J. Smith is a writer based in Brooklyn.

Her debut novel is Nothing Serious.

Smith discovered writing in her thirties, after a career in tech and nonprofits. She holds a B.S in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell, and an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She also founded Chorus, the matchmaking app where friends swipe for friends.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven stories that celebrate "women in their thirties and forties who, rather than conforming to the traditional paths of marriage and motherhood, embark on transformative journeys of self-discovery while choosing a life without children." One title on the list:

Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth

Jenny McLaine is an anxious 35-year-old, eager to please and always over-analyzing. The first page starts with her agonizing over captioning the photo of her morning croissant (settling on “CROISSANT, WOO! #CROISSANT”). But Emma Jane Unsworth’s unwavering humor does not distract from the poignancy in this laugh-out-loud novel. Jenny’s journalism career is floundering, and her personal relationships begin to unravel after a breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Art. Prone to extreme self-criticism as a result of her mother’s judgmental eye, Jenny feels like a failure at the very point in her life when she imagined it would all be coming together. She takes solace in a parasocial relationship with an online influencer that only serves to heighten her insecurities and self-doubt. The book follow Jenny as she learns to face her issues-head on, build her sense of self, and define, then trust, her own version of success.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue