Quarterlife Crisis Advises Angsty Twentysomethings

When I moved to New York three years ago, I arrived with the managing editor of Vanity Fair's direct line, and a dream. Nine months later, after waiting weeks for a callback re my second interview for an assistant spot on Popular Mechanics, I was strung out in an alley behind Barnes & Noble, trying to score a copy of What Color Is Your Parachute. And that, in case you didn't recognize it, is the bottom.

I no longer cared if I "made it"; I just wanted someone to break down the door to my apartment, turn off Double Fantasy and tell me they understood. That's where the authors of Quarterlife Crisis, Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner, want to come in. Theoretically, Quarterlife's a book for people in their 20s who need career advice, general sympathy or just a straw to grasp at. You don't have to be the struggling actor/juggler/mime in L.A. to relate. Possibly you're contemplating running your own business. Or confused about going back to school. Or questioning that application to the Peace Corps. Getting high and watching Cops hasn't helped; maybe this book can.

Recently Mademoiselle threw a party to celebrate the publication of Quarterlife Crisis. Instead of taking the advice of a good friend to get my novel sold by "mingling my ass off" (what Floyd might call "ridin' the gravy train") during this industry mixer at Glass?a new, very "Nightcrawler" lounge on 10th Ave.?I decided to canvass the room and get some advice for other twentysomethings trying to survive in the competitive actor/juggler/mime world of NY, NY.

Mademoiselle editor-in-chief Mandi Norwood seemed like a good place to start, especially after two Wild Turkeys (when bourbon comes in pink, I'll try a "signature" cocktail). When I broached the subject of "quarterlife crisis," the word "intern" naturally came up. Lord knows there are a plenty of ambitious, hopeful twentysomethings lining up to take their turns on the revolving-door-internship-ride at glossies like Mademoiselle. Ms. Norwood said she noticed the average intern resents having to "pay her dues." After all, two weeks ago she was donning both monocle and cape at an ivy-covered college, studying philosophy and holding court at a coffeeshop called Vincent's Ear. Next she's Simonizing Plum Sykes' Volkswagen Jetta.

"I remember we were going out to do a photo shoot with George Michael," Norwood explained, "and one of the interns asked if she could come along. I was shocked! I would have never done it. But sometimes, that's what it takes. Just having the bloody cheek to say something like that." Besides "the bollocks," Norwood feels people who "make it" have had someone around encouraging them. "I often ask women who was the person that told them they could do anything they wanted...that they were different. Special. For me it was my mum. And I find, for most girls, not only was there someone like that in their lives, but usually, it was another woman."

Both Norwood, who at 37 has already edited four titles, and Mistrella Egan, Mademoiselle's 27-year-old p.r. director, agree that 90 percent of success is drive?though Norwood does advise today's warrior princesses to stop and smell the perfume samples. "Take your time, and enjoy yourself. If you're the boss at 25, where do you go from there?"

Allison Sobel, a 23-year-old editorial assistant at Quarterlife publisher Penguin Putnam, agrees. She's discovering that during this, her first year in the city, she isn't so much concerned with her writing (she finds sifting through piles of submissions at a publishing house somewhat disheartening), or her career in general, as she is with "meeting people and having fun." Still, Ms. Sobel did take time off the conga line to champion Quarterlife Crisis. "I told my bosses I believed in the book, and that a lot of other people my age would too. I told them we needed to buy this book. In the end, they said, 'Let Allison do it.'" It was the right choice commercially, as at the time of our conversation, Quarterlife Crisis' Amazon.com sales rank was 1066. (The Color Purple was 2816; The Sound and the Fury 6235 and Middlemarch 32,787.)

With Mademoiselle at the helm, there was a distinctly feminine vibe at Glass that night, where, in addition to the Daily News, New York Times, USA Today, USWeekly and lots of nervous-looking young women in camisoles, Oprah was in the house. Or rather two demure O magazine employees. How is it working for Steadman's better half? No comment. Er... Well, what has your experience working in the media been like overall? No comment. Mind awfully moving aside and letting someone else have a go at the oyster tray?... Nothing. One pictures them in therapy years from now, drawing pictures of children with no mouths. (O's Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills did, incidentally, chat for a moment off record about Rosie. It's anyone's guess who'll win in that grudge match, but as far as cult-following, cool cachet goes, Oprah may be an overeater, but Rosie, God bless her heart, knows oranges aren't the only fruit.)

Finally, following a failed attempt to (cringe) bum a smoke from the editor-in-chief of Mademoiselle (or was it only from her husband, Martin, although I do remember him having to go hunting for it, and then he didn't ever come back...), I met 25-year-old actress Dorothea "sorry it's a 100" Harahan. She attributes her ambition to the fact that her parents never told her, "You could put your eye out, kid," when she announced she was going into theater. "They didn't ever use the words 'fall back,'" she remarked. "After I graduated college, most of the people from my acting school moved to New York or L.A. I've noticed many of them have fallen away, not because they are giving up, but because they've decided there's something else they wanted to do. That hasn't happened to me."

Will she always want to be an actor, even if in 20 years the process still involves being kicked in the face by department store elves? "I don't think I have any illusions about this industry. I always knew what I was getting into. That it's a business. But I'll always want to act. And that's what I am going to do."

And that sentiment expresses the best advice for surviving any time in your life, no matter what you hope to accomplish. I defer again to Pink Floyd: "Did you exchange/a walk on part in the war/For a lead role in a cage?" Success is relative. So whatever it is, as Quarterlife Crisis would say, just go for it. Otherwise you could end up evil and frustrated, like Charlie Manson, or Louie Anderson. Finally, as far as your 20s go in particular, I will only add that this, too, shall pass.