Bored Panda got in touch with Peter and Chloe, the pair behind “I Am Thirty AF” and they were kind enough to answer some of our questions. We wanted to hear how they balanced humor and relatability in their content. “Humor is absolutely a big part of what we're going for, but I'd say the biggest thing that engages and connects our following of millennials/30-somethings is relatability. That relatability can and often does come through something we all find to be funny, but can also be anything from shared anxieties to commentary on what it is like being in your 30s to nostalgic experiences we all have in common from growing up in the 90s/00s.”
“The Internet is FILLED with things that are pulling us apart, creating division, and making us feel alone. We are trying to be a space that is the opposite of that. When feeling down and overwhelmed after perusing the comments section of a news article, you can come on over to our page and connect with people about how weird it was that so many 90s toys had a feature that allowed said toy to piss itself or wondering how we all knew how to draw that weird S thing when the internet really didn't exist yet (truly- this one is so bizarre- followers from all over the world have commented saying they grew up drawing it too... where did it come from?!).“
“You can laugh over the shared experience of being 30-something and suddenly finding the idea of going to a loud bar at 11 PM to be the LAST thing you'd like to spend your night doing when only 5 years ago it sounded like a fun night out. You can bond with absolute strangers over the shared experience of our parents straight up lying to us as kids about how turning on the overhead light in the car was ILLEGAL at night (turns out it very much is not),” they shared. For those interested in bonding over more millennial humor, feel free to peruse Bored Panda’s other articles getting older.
“Do you have a moment of panic that your identity will be stolen if you forget to take your receipt at the gas pump? Turns out you're not alone! These tiny bits of life that maybe you've never really put much thought into before are things we love to bring to the forefront on our page and get people talking about shared experiences and fun things that connect us rather than pull us apart.” These days, as millennials age a bit more, their concerns have expanded, with the average US thirty-something being $28,000 in debt.
Some readers may know that “I Am Thirty AF” graces Bored Panda’s Funny section pretty frequently. The page has been around for a while. That’s why we wanted to know how Peter and Chloe handle challenges in maintaining the page and coming up with new content. “Social Media is constantly evolving and how people engage with these platforms and the types of content we post changes too.”
“The types of content that really resonated with our following in 2020 probably won't have the same impact today. We were very much a covid born brand and so much of what we were focusing on back then was centered around the fact that a lot of us were suddenly spending a lot more time at home and on our phones than we had previously. We collaborated a lot with small businesses to try to help them reach people since they had to shut the doors of their shops for so long.” This is, incidentally, quite in line with research that suggests that Millennials are and probably will be digital natives.
“We also spent a ton of time creating interactive content and games for people to spend their time on while stuck at home. For example, we bracketed every NOW! That's What I Call Music album from NOW 1 through NOW 20 and then faced off the winning track from each NOW bracket in an all-stars round to determine the greatest bop of all time (Baby One More Time, of course). This process spanned over a year and a half and people got really into it! By the time we did our final round, we had over 200K people voting every day.“
