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Mainly, the more faddish and newer stages of life are really just marketing schemes. Tweenhood. The young old. The quarter-life crisis. You can sell a lot of junk to a lot of people by inventing a stage of life and giving it a name.

I think midlife crisis is just a point where people's careers have reached some plateau and they have to reflect on their personal relationships.

When the vast baby-boom generation exploded into adolescence in the 1960s, marketers exulted. Advertising consultants, always eager to coin a phrase, began happily explaining to corporations the difference between 'teenyboppers' and 'counterculture consumers.'

I think the dot-com boom and bust represented the end of the beginning. The industry is more mature today.

I don't like the term mid-life crisis.

Older consumers don't want to be treated like teenagers; what's more, they don't want to believe they fall into any niche at all.

Adolescence was only recognised as a life stage in the early 20th century, when psychologists got down to work. Today's generational battle obscures the fact that adulthood is happening later. A new transitional stage has emerged after adolescence: the twenties.

It's really difficult to maintain a credible career as you jump from age group to age group and suddenly you're not the flavor of the month anymore; you're not in demand.

The mid-life crisis is just those times when you're not so into the things you were when you were younger.