I don’t know about you, but I lived with the misconception that millennials are actually born with the new millennium, while in fact those born in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s are Generation Z. To be a millennial, your birth year should be roughly 1981 to 1996.

Also, if you are a millennial, you’re not the odd man out. Millennials represent a fair share of the world’s workforce. In world population numbers, they have just recently been outnumbered, still topping high at approx. 31% of the world population, but 1% short of representing the largest cohort, which now is proudly owned by Generation Z.

There are many myths and facts surrounding the Millennials and by the time of reading this article you must have heard your share of it: that they are tech-savvy to the point of being glued to smartphones, that they are self-centered and strongly reliant on their parents. That they ultimately are so empowered and well-represented across all scalables of the society that they drive a lot of (positive) change in the world.

What you might have not known is that they are also the first and best educated workforce of the world, taking in the previous decades’ efforts to provide free education in an always growing array of topics. Like most educated people, they are more prone to angst (ok, the self-centered bit also plays a part here). They killed the fun in some products (one internet claim is that Millennials killed mayo. I’m not joking) but also are fairly conservative otherwise. They like to read more in print than in digital format, which sounds weird until you realize a digital book still costs the same as a printed one, even if it doesn’t use any paper, requires no storage and no dispatching. But that’s a different story. Millennials are less the home owner type and also are known to marry late (but paradoxically still manage to lead in divorce demographics).

What for sure is known only by few – millennials have just recently been philatelically validated. Yes, they get their own stamps. And I don’t mean this in an underground, secret society kind of way, but out in the open: a whole minisheet of stamps that unveils to you, distrusting philatelist, nothing more and nothing less than The Anatomy of a Millennial.

It’s not a phantasy product, but a real minisheet issued on 17.06.2019 by the Belgian post. It is designed by Chrostin and sums up what being a millennial is in 5 stamps: conscious do-gooder, passion=work, contemporary romanticist, no place like home, digital native.

It actually looks pretty impressive, don’t you think?

Contest time!

I am offering one minisheet in mint for free. If you want to get it, here’s what you want to do:

Write a comment in the post below about the first time you heard the word millennial. The comment should be here and not on social media (although the post is going to be made available elsewhere, I just take into account the comments posted under this blogpost.

Ask your friends to vote up your comment.

I will check this post until 15.09.2020 and award the minisheet to the commenter gathering the most likes.

Good to know:

Use a real email address when you comment, otherwise I won’t be able to get in touch with you.

If you win, you will need to provide a real name and a real address to send to (it’s an obvious one, but last years on the internet taught me to not consider anything obvious anymore).

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