What does the modern 30-year-old woman look like? The answer is: everything.
To mark ELLE’s 30th anniversary, we assembled 35 of the world’s most accomplished 30-year-old women for an epic, bicoastal production shot by legendary photographer Mark Seliger at five New York City locations—the Lower East Side, Minetta Tavern, Central Park, The Staten Island Ferry, and Seliger’s own West Village studio loft—and on the West Coast, at Malibu’s Paradise Cove Beach and, ironically, at Universal Studios’ old New York-themed back lots.
Accomplished dreamers all, they see 30 as we do: It’s no longer a deadline, it’s the starting line. So what does the modern 30-year-old look like? To what does she aspire? To paraphrase Freud, what does she want? As this group of outstanding musicians, comedians, politicians, artists, activists, novelists, athletes, and actors—all of whom are 30 this year—prove, the answer is: everything. This. Is. 30. Show us your 30 on Instagram by hashtagging a picture #Thisis30.
Kate McKinnon, Comedian, Saturday Night Live
“In one’s twenties, one feels as though there is somehow unlimited time to make decisions that are wrong for you and also experiment with things that are wrong for you. But when the decade turned, it suddenly felt as though there was no more time to waste.”