You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without MTV.
In August 2011, Leah Carroll talked with MTV News anchor Kurt Loder on the network's 30th birthday.
You were born in July of 1982. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 4 times as old as you.
The year you were born, George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson wrote about the theory behind "broken windows" policing, and how the practice could make communities safer.
Around the time you were born, the International Whaling Commission decided to ban commercial whaling.
In May 1999, William Aron, William Burke, and Milton Freeman wrote about the politics and science of whaling activism.
Paramount
This is what Hollywood thought teenagers looked like the year you became one.
Clueless was released in 1995.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after the euro.
In December 2011, Jim Tankersley wrote about how the euro's failure could cause another American recession.
Around your 18th birthday, National Action Party candidate Vicente Fox was elected president of Mexico.
In April 2007, Matthew Quirk wrote about how remittances helped Mexico's economy.
Jason Redmond / AP
At 19 years old, you were part of the generation most shaped by 9/11.
The conflicts and displacements touched off around the world by the attacks have been reverberating for the majority of your life. “This ‘war’ [on terrorism] will never be over,” wrote James Fallows, a few years after the towers fell.
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
When you turned 28, you witnessed the revolutionary fervor that transformed the Arab world in 2010, a movement led by your generation.
When 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire, he ignited a tinderbox of protests that continue to roil the Middle East, and kindled the beginnings of democracy in Tunisia.
Seiko Corporation of America / AP
In 2015, Misty Copeland, who was born the same year as you, became the first African American performer to be appointed as a principal dancer for American Ballet Theatre.
In August 2015, Madison Mainwaring wrote about the death of the American dance critic.
By the time you turn 42, the World Bank predicts that the U.S. dollar will lose its global dominance.
In February 2012, Charles A. Kupchan wrote about the world's emerging economies, and how the world will look by 2050.
History is happening all around you, every day.
The Atlantic is here to help you process it, in stories like these:
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