Miley Cyrus has announced her engagement to boyfriend of three years Liam Hemsworth, but at just 19 years old, is Miley too young to get married?
When the news broke that Miley Cyrus was engaged to her boyfriend of three years Liam Hemsworth, most online chatter centred on her stunning 3.5 carat diamond antique rock, when the wedding will be and Billy Ray Cyrus's thoughts on the matter (for the record, he hopes the engagement "will be very long" according to Radar online).
But other (clearly more serious) types were voicing their concerns. At just 19 years old, should Miley be getting married at all?
We're betting one such voice was Jennifer Nagy, a US public relations professional who penned an article for The Huffington Post earlier this month titled "Why I Believe Marriage Shouldn't Be Allowed Before Age 25". The controversial piece outlined why Nagy thinks you should not be able to don a white, obscenely puffy dress, saunter down the aisle and dance raunchily into the night in front of distant relatives until you've had your 25th birthday.
The article is based on Nagy's own experiences (she met her now ex-husband when she was 19, married him when she was 24 and divorced him after less than three years of marriage). And while it paints an extreme picture, she does make some fair points in her argument.
For example, she said that before the age of 25, getting married is far too big a commitment for someone in their teens or early twenties to comprehend the magnitude of.
"People under the age of 25 are still discovering themselves; they are figuring out what is most important in their lives," Nagy writes. "[My ex-husband] was marrying someone who had absolutely no idea who she was and what she wanted in her life. In short, it was a recipe for divorce."
Psychologist Louise Adams (self.net.au) agrees that making a lifelong commitment at 25 years old or younger is risky business.
"Your brain is still developing. Your frontal lobe, which is all about long-term planning and logical reasoning, isn't fully developed until you're 25 years old," Adams explains.
She also says that young people are more likely to act on impulse, which can affect the longevity of a marriage.
"You can get that knee-jerk reaction of 'I'm out of here' when things aren't going well, which is a frontal lobe thing," Adams explains.
Societal expectations and pressures can also mean a teen or early twenty-something who gets married is suddenly fast-tracked to a different life-stage to that of their friends or similar-aged workmates.
"[At that age] you're probably at uni or are getting your first full-time job, so you're in an environment where everyone is being extremely social ... you can't just decide to go out clubbing all night on the spur of the moment or go on a Contiki tour with friends, because you're in a partnership. Everyone else is enjoying that 'selfish' lifestyle which we do in our twenties and you can't," Adams points out.
But 21-year-old Jessica who married her 24-year-old husband two years ago, says it's too easy to make generalisations about whether a marriage will survive or not based on age.
"Some people won't be mature enough to get married under 25, but some won't be ready under 30," Jessica argues.
"The point at which people are going to be ready to be in a mature and committed relationship is going to vary due to their personality, lifestyle, values and past experiences. Just because you get married young doesn't mean you have to give up life experiences or have children right away, you get to experience and grow together."
According to the National Center for Health Statistics in the States, about 60 percent of couples who marry between the ages of 20 and 25 are destined for divorce.
If you are yet to hit your quarter-century birthday and are considering tying the knot, Adams says it's important to only make the commitment if you want to, not because of pressure from family or friends.
"After a celebrity couple is together for a certain period of time, everyone starts talking about when the wedding is. And that often happens to everyday people too."
Case in point? Kim Kardashian, who ended her marriage to Kris Humphries after just 72 days of marriage. Kim said: "I got caught up with the hoopla and the filming of the TV show that when I probably should have ended my relationship, I didn't know how to." She also cited the pressure saying she "didn't want to disappoint a lot of people."
What's that saying about fools rush in?
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