You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without Pokémon.
In July 2016, David Sims described the path from Pokémon Red and Blue to Pokémon Go.
Around the time you were born, China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule.
In April 2013, Matt Schiavenza wrote about how Thatcher attempted to maintain British rule of Hong Kong.
You were born in September of 1997. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 8 times as old as you.
The year you were born, Robert D. Kaplan wrote about the troubling long-term prospects for democracy in a post-Cold War world.
Jason Redmond / AP
At 4 years old, you were part of the generation most shaped by 9/11.
The conflicts and displacements touched off around the world by the attacks have been reverberating for the majority of your life. “This ‘war’ [on terrorism] will never be over,” wrote James Fallows, a few years after the towers fell.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after Twitter.
In August 2015, Kalev H. Leetaru considered whether Twitter was living up to its lofty aspirations.
Freeform
This is what Hollywood thought teenagers looked like the year you became one.
Pretty Little Liars premiered in 2010.
Kevin Parry / Invision / AP
In 2010, Max Burkholder, who was born the same year as you, began starring in the TV show Parenthood as a child with Asperger syndrome.
In December 2014, Emma Bryce wrote about her brother's use of technology to cope with his autism.
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
When you turned 13, you witnessed the revolutionary fervor that transformed the Arab world in 2010, a movement led by your generation.
When 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire, he ignited a tinderbox of protests that continue to roil the Middle East, and kindled the beginnings of democracy in Tunisia.
Around your 18th birthday, the United States bombed a civilian Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan.
In October 2015, Krishnadev Calamur wrote about Doctors Without Borders demanding an investigation into the U.S. airstrike that killed 22 people.
By the time you turn 23, scientists estimate it will no longer be possible to keep global temperatures from rising at least 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In December 2015, Robinson Meyer wrote about why scientists had accepted this fact.
History is happening all around you, every day.
The Atlantic is here to help you process it, in stories like these:
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