Breakups, Lost Opportunities, & Bathtub Laundry: Here’s What Coming Of Age Looks Like In 2020

For nine months now, Sophie* has been doing her laundry in the bathtub — with minimal detergent, no less. 

At age 24, the videographer and creative director spent much of 2019 working primarily with touring musicians on music videos...so tub-laundry was hardly among the new skills she was hoping to acquire this year. Nonetheless, the universe had other plans for her in 2020 — namely, a breakup, a roster of thwarted creative opportunities, and stilted travel plans — alongside all of the fallout that continues to come with the COVID-19 pandemic, itself. “It’s not that 2020 got my order wrong, exactly,” she tells Refinery29, “it’s just that they definitely forgot my extra side of bacon.”

Sophie is not alone in this thinking. While fortunate enough to be safe and healthy right now, she's among a host of young women who were just arriving at pivotal moments in their lives, both professionally and personally, when 2020 galloped in at full force. And while they all continue to put their essential plans on hold, that doesn't mean that the process of "coming of age" is put on pause. It merely requires a re-framing of the very act of maturation.

That’s why we joined forces with Amazon Prime Video ahead of the December 11 release of The Wilds — a series about a group of teens learning to survive together, unexpectedly, on a remote island — to ask young women across the country how they’ve been adapting to life on their own proverbial desert islands as quarantine mandates continue. For some, it's a question of exploring new sexual identities while trapped at home. For others, it’s about finding space to make art, while plans to move out are pushed back. 

Watch the video above for a little look at what’s been lost — and what’s been gained — for four women who have had to rethink just what personal momentum looks like in 2020. Then, perhaps consider attempting a load of a tub laundry.  

Watch the first episode of The Wilds for free on December 11 for a limited time on Prime Video or YouTube.