New York Journalist Reveals the ‘Scariest’ Age for Women

Are you (or someone you know) going through The Swerve?

That's the term New York-based journalist Rachel Syme learned shortly after the morning of her 36th birthday, when she she threw this out there on Twitter: "I feel like 33-38 is a really tough age for a lot of women I know; feels like so many big decisions and future plans have to be squeezed into this lil window; just me?" The comments cascaded in.

There were thousands of responses, retweets and likes.

"I felt like somewhere in my youth," she tweeted, "I decided that 36 was my 'scary age' but now it feels like I'm here and while things are coalescing both in good ways professionally and personally, it's also in a scary way."

Many respondents said they were "going through 'the swerve' so that's what I'm now calling it."

Syme is now writing a book on women in their 30s throughout history. It's often a time of seemingly unlimited potential, but filled with question marks and caveats.

Syme said she heard from women who had "changed jobs, changed partners, frozen eggs, had kids, didn't have kids, adopted, moved cities, cared for sick parents, completely started over."

Apparently, these folks are not alone. Are you feeling The Swerve? What IS the scariest age?