20 Mistakes Everyone Makes in Their Twenties

1. Not getting enough sleep. “But Anna,” you ask, “How can I sleep when there are so many mistakes to make?!” Don't worry, you have an entire decade's worth of days and evenings to irrevocably fuck up your life. (1.5. Not washing the pillowcases often enough. Once a week, or else your skin will suffer.)

2. Being addicted to social media. He liked that picture of your cat on Facebook, and then you retweeted his tweet, and then you trolled all of his friends’ Instagrams to try to find out if he was dating someone else, and then he posted a news article to your wall that related to this inside joke you guys have, and by the way, it is a beautiful day outside.

3. Washing your hair too much. Yes, too much, especially if it’s not stick-straight! By the time I was 24 my hair had the consistency of tree bark. Skip a few shampoos and just condition, or use dry shampoo! I use Rene Furturer, that stuff in the dark green spray bottle.

4. Wasting money on restaurant meals. I spent the first 5 years of my twenties dragging my hungover ass out of bed and feeding a $14 artisanal omelet to my mouth. If only I had skipped maybe one of these a week, I’d have $60 extra for grocery money, or for one GIANT artisanal omelet that we could all share.

5. Being health-bipolar. During the day we’re drinking green juice and going to yoga. At night we’re out partying with friends and ending the night with 4 a.m. fast food. The former does not detract from the latter — your body is just confused as shit. :(

6. Trying to tan. Ack! Stop. Even outside of a tanning bed, UV rays are no good.

7. Spending all your time in a relationship. Friends of mine who were with the same guy all through their twenties are lamenting it now. Before you settle down, you gotta get some strange. To truly appreciate the good men, you have to road test the bad ones.

8. Or chasing after someone who is completely disinterested in you. Does he never ask you questions about yourself? Swoon. Does he take at least 24 hours to text you back? Nice. Are you in his phone as “Mike” so that the other girls he’s hooking up with don’t know? Yayyy! (No.)

9. Getting sloppy with birth control. It is a joke to try to pretend that it doesn’t feel better without a condom, but everyone's gotta. You gottttttta.

10. Get a long-term pet with a significant other. So you and your boyfriend decided to drop a few of your start-up paychecks on Chuckles the $1,200 cockapoo. If you don’t last as a couple, Chuckles is a child of divorce, which we all know is a gateway to drugs and juvenile delinquency.

11. Drunk texting/dialing. And rolling over in the morning dreading to look at your phone. Hoooo boy do I know what that's like.

12. Extreme diets. No matter how many lemon juice, cayenne pepper and holy water holistic cleanses you go on, you’ll end up at your normal weight ultimately.

13. Hoard $15 H&M trend pieces instead of saving for something expensive and timeless. A cheapo peplum top (last year) or pleather leggings (2007)ish are always bound to go out of style, like, tomorrow.

14. Splurging on beauty products that you know in your heart you won’t use. Sephora is in business because “If I just buy this $75 unicorn-horn face powder, everything in my life will immediately improve and I will know what the fuck I am doing” seems logical to us, briefly. It’s not true!!

15. Spending a lot of energy on envying someone you have decided is your nemesis.She is the 2.0 version of you, in possession of the career, boyfriend, wardrobe and apartment of your dreams. Or she is just an acquaintance whose superiority complex and complete lack of self-awareness annoyed the shit out of you. (Not that I’m writing this from experience or anything.) Take a breath, and let it go.

16. Letting harsh judgments of your friends’ boyfriends’ (or your friends’ harsh judgments of your boyfriend) tear apart close friendships. He’s a tool. Just let everyone figure it out on their own time.

17. Letting your office treat you like an intern when you haven't interned in years. Yes, your mom’s over-enthusiastic friends are right when they tell you “how lucky you are to have a job in this economy.” But being a full-fledged employee with a salary who is regularly told to get coffee for supervisors and carry heavy boxes is bullshit.

18. Hooking up (the “feelings” way, not just the “casual” way) with a friend’s sibling. If the sibling lives in the same town that you both do, this is the most awkward social decision you can possibly make, besides going to Jay-Z's 40/40 Club in a chicken suit or something.

19. Pick the wrong-ass roommates. Sure, she was a good nightlife friend in college. But do you want her walking through your room of the railroad apartment at 3 a.m. dragging some douchey party promoter for a one-night stand? #nope

20. Slow down. Adulthood doesn’t happen overnight. Enjoy the decade — appreciate your wide-open future and perky boobs while you still can.

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Photo Credit: Big Machine Records

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6 Sunscreen Mistakes You Could Be Making

Not an avid sunscreen wearer? Maybe you should think about changing your skin-protecting ways.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and the most common cancer for 25- to 29-year-olds.

And since May is melanoma month, we thought it was fitting to raise awareness of this deadly disease (and prevent getting burned) by asking Debra Jaliman, M.D., a cosmetic dermatologist in NYC and author of Skin Rules: Trade Secrets from a Top New York Dermatologist, for her thoughts on the six sunscreen mistakes (c/o La Roche-Posay) you could be making without even knowing it:

1. You think you're exempt from sunscreen because you have dark or olive skin. "Even with dark skin you can burn and get sun damage. People with blue eyes and fair skin tones are more prone to skin cancer, but we're all susceptible to it. No matter what skin color you are, you're not exempt from skin cancer or from using sunscreen." 

2. You don't apply sunblock often enough. "A lot of people never reapply their sunscreen after putting it on the first time. Also, they tend to wear water-resistant formulas because they think it will stay on through a day of swimming and sweating, but that isn't true. Your SPF should be reapplied every two hours and you should always do the old shot glass trick. Filling up a shot glass with sunscreen and then applying that amount from the neck down will cover and protect you properly."

3. You neglect to wear sunscreen while driving or working indoors. "Through window glass, UVA light comes in and causes premature aging, skin damage, and possibly skin cancer, which means anywhere there are windows you're exposed. Even when you're simply walking from the parking lot to work or to the mall, etc., you're atill at risk of incidental exposure. Five minutes a day of exposure to the sun throughout the course of a lifetime adds up."

4. You use a sunscreen that blocks only UVB rays. "UVB rays are the ones that cause you to burn, while UVA rays are the very deeply penetrating ones that are even more dangerous because they cause damage without you even knowing it. They alter your DNA, eventually bringing on brown and white spots, early aging, broken blood vessels, and uneven texture."

5. You're using a sunscreen that has expired. "What happens, I've noticed, is that the expiration wears off as the sunscreen gets older. You'd never pour a glass of milk without checking the expiration date, right? So why would you use sunscreen that is supposed to protect your skin without checking if it's still good? If the date on the bottle has worn off, or you can't remember when you purchased it, toss it. It won't be effective if you slather it on and it's old, since the molecules decompose and deactivate over time."

6. You miss spots. "People end up getting badly burned on the tip of their nose, the tops of their eyelids, on their ankles, and the back of their knees. Why? They don't apply it in the nude. I always tell my patients to put their sunscreen on before their bathing suit, that way they're more apt to cover their entire body. Especially since some of these beautiful swimsuits have cutouts and straps everywhere—if you miss a spot applying SPF at the beach you're going to get burned."

Are you guilty of making any (or all) of these sunscreen mistakes? If so, we encourage you to take Dr. Jaliman's advice seriously and start practicing safe skin!

Photo: Getty Images

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<i>Ready for Love's</i> Tracy McMillan: The Five Biggest Dating Mistakes You Don't Even Realize You're Making

I write relationship books. I’m also a matchmaker on a reality dating show. If I’ve learned anything in my job, I’ve learned this: WHEN IT COMES TO DATING, EVERYBODY WANTS TO KNOW THE TOP FIVE BIGGEST DATING MISTAKES. Not the Top Four or Top Seven. They want the Top Five most obviously questionable things people do in dating– like having sex on the first date or drinking too much at dinner—and they want to know now, dammit.

Until you tell them.

Then you realize all anybody really wants to know is the top five mistakes other people are making. Because no one—and by no one I mean you—actually believes they’re doing anything wrong. That list of Top Five Biggest Dating Mistakes is really just a list of things you’re super-relieved you’re not doing and also it’s doubly great because now you feel superior to everyone who is doing those things.

Which is where I want you to slow your roll.

Because if you’re still single and you don’t want to be, it’s possible (actually, it’s probable) that there are some other dating mistakes you’re making. Ones you don’t even think of as mistakes, probably because you think of them as The Way Things Are. Since my goal is to help you have a great life, especially when it comes to dating—and hopefully avoid becoming a three-time divorcee like myself—here is my list of The Five Biggest Dating Mistakes No One Even Realizes They Are Making Because Everyone Is Doing Them.

1. Friends With Benefits. As far as I’m concerned, this is the mistakiest thing ladies are out there doing. Not because it’s wrong wrong, but because most of the time, it’s sooooo not working! The problem with FWB is that we tend to do it with guys we would be willing to have as our boyfriend–if he would just commit. But he can’t, or won’t, and since we still like him, we do FWB instead. I compare this to asking to volunteer at a company that doesn’t want to hire you. In other words, a bad idea.

2. Casual Sex. This is like Friends With Benefits, except with strangers. It’s a really great concept that would be so much better if it worked more than 13 percent of the time. Casual sex is, as I like to say, like recreational heroin. It doesn’t stay casual for long. Usually about three weeks, give or take. Then the drunk-dialing begins. The guy wonders who replaced the Cool Girl who was, like, totally Cool, with a passive-aggressive compulsive texter who wants to know why he’s not her boyfriend. I know a few girls who can have casual sex (lifetime ratio: 17 out of 1248 friends) and I’m sure you do, too–but if you’re not her (and you know if you are) do yourself a favor and don’t even start with it, unless of course you like stalking people on Twitter to find out why they’re not calling you tonight.

3. Taking Something Good Instead of Holding Out For Something Great. Or, Holding Out For Something Great When You Could Be Taking Something Good. Yes, I know this is confusing. How can both of these things be true? Here’s how: Because they’re never true at the same time. See, sometimes you’re in a phase of your life where you really need to stop dating like you’re on a game show where you’re blindfolded and given 30 seconds in the shoe department at Bloomingdale’s to pick out the one shoe you will wear for the rest of your life. Other times—and this tends to happen as you have more experiences in dating—you go overboard on your List of Wants and Don’t Wants and pretty soon, only Channing Tatum will work for you. But Channing is taken, so then what? And besides, you don’t want to be with a celebrity because they almost never stay together. Speaking of which—

4. Doing Relationships Like Celebrities Do. Celebrity culture is ubiquitous and unless you’ve never seen a tabloid, chances are you’ve been influenced by the way you see celebrities date and mate. Here’s the thing: You’re not on TV enough to make a sex tape and get a career out of it or get married to a guy you met ten minutes ago. So don’t. (When you become someone’s reality show sidekick, be my guest.) Console yourself with the fact that when Kim Kardashian is 43, that kind of reckless behavior won’t work for her either. Which brings me to my final point—

5. Dating Like You Have All The Time In The World. I know you are going to laugh in my face, but ladies, you are not going to be young forever. No one tells you this anymore because it’s considered old-fashioned and also because someone invented Botox, so now we all pretend our eggs will never age, just like our faces won’t. If at some point–not now, but AT SOME POINT—you think you want children and a long-term relationship (in whatever order, I don’t judge) you need to take your love life as seriously as you take your career. Okay, your hair. Condition it, keep it mostly clean (though, yes, sometimes it looks great dirty), and keep experimenting until you find what works best for you. Because what’s right for you is the first and last thing on that other dating list: Top One Most Important Thing You Must Do To Be Happy In Love.

Tracy McMillan is the author of Why You're Not Married... Yet and a matchmaker on NBC's new primetime reality show, Ready For Love, premiering Tuesday April 9. She's also the mother of a 16-year-old guy.

Every day this week, she'll be dropping (carnal) knowledge at Cosmopolitan.com.

Want more from sage love advice from Tracy? Follow her on Twitter.

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