The Millennial Monologues: Maggie, the Biz-Whiz Extraordinaire

People may know her as Margarette Ann. But I know her as Maggie.

She's sitting in sweats, watching The Office when I get to her apartment for the interview, and she dashes into her room to change when she sees my camera. We share a laugh about always getting out of our work clothes when we first get home.

While I wait, I see a half-eaten packet of tuna on the coffee table and ask her about it. She laughs and says it's part of her night-time ritual: every day after work, she comes home, changes into comfy clothes, eats a packet of tuna before heading to the gym, and finish the night off with some light reading about investing. She takes me to her kitchen and shows me all the packets of tuna.

"They even come with a little spoon (she laughs)."

I laugh, too, because that's such Maggie thing to do.

We settle on the couch and get down to business.

Millennial Monologues: How do you feel, being a millennial woman?

Maggie Ann: I wouldn't want to be a woman ten years ago. I wouldn't want to be a woman twenty years ago. I would want to be a woman in fifty years, but we're gonna take what we have. You can only ever want to be as progressive as you actually can.

MM: What are the trip-ups/challenges that frustrate you about being a young woman in this world?

MA: The biggest thing was around the table at dinner, we all finished dinner and we're sitting there and its expected for the women to clear the table but the men can sit and chat for as long as they want. Why do the men have to sit around and the women have to get up? Or when we have dinner and the men are drinking scotch and the women go to the kitchen.

One of the awesome things about being a woman now is that we've broken through the barrier in the last 15 years: things like the Feminist Movement and Pussy Riot--and we're still in that movement, which is cool! We're living in this trendy, very protest-heavy, female rights driven time--and people are catching onto it. People are right on the brink of change. I mean, don't get me wrong--we're still experiencing the shitty aspects of being a woman in the 21st century, but we're pushing through it and getting the recognition we deserve.

MA con't: We're still in the age where we're not expected or allowed to do certain things that men do--like make a hobby of investing. All day, what I do at my internship is place people in executive roles in private companies and it's all white men. [she huffs] But I'm finding that the boards of these companies want minorities to fill executive positions--whether that's a POC or a woman. And I go, "Oh shit, in today's day and age it might be a little sneaky if you're a woman in the corporate world." But then the double-edged sword is that the only reason we got there is because we're so unequally treated.

MM: Did your upbringing, at all, shape your perception of being a woman?

MA: I grew up in Massachusetts. I went to a liberal boarding school. I moved to Atlanta--which is in the South but not the South. I was basically pushed by my parents into the feminist movement; there was never a question of gender.

MM: In your opinion, what’s the most taboo thing about being a millennial woman?

MA: I know I'm fully competent to do everything a man can do and I'm totally fine with proving someone wrong. But when it becomes systematic, and I'm actually visibly not presented with an opportunity to prove myself--because I'm already judged as a female--is when it becomes an issue for me. And I feel like we're not allowed to talk about it.

MM: So, you're into investing?

MA: I tried day-trading for the first time today. What's the point of working your ass off if you don't get to reap the benefits? It's the importance of financial freedom and being able to do what you want to do. If you play the market right, you can experience [that] freedom before anyone else. Women are so timid of entering into a man's world, thanks to societal norms.

MM: How do you empower yourself? Tell us your secret.

MA: I educate myself, that's really it. I have belief in my abilities. It's a practice of building up your confidence and developing yourself with certain skills so you can 'hang with the boys' so to speak.

MM: Before I go, what's your favorite thing in your apartment? Can you tell us about it?

MA: Favorite thing? Oh that's easy. Last year, my roommate was having a particularly hard day, and I suggested we go to a ceramics shop and make something. I picked out a board and some letters to make a sign for our new apartment. I didn't know until we paid that the board was thirty-five dollars and each individual letter was five dollars. "Manchego Mansion" has fourteen letters. This whole thing cost me one-hundred and five dollars. It's my favorite thing in the apartment because it has to be.