Right now, Merriam-Webster Dictionary counts "adulting" among its "words we're watching," or words up for inclusion in the actual dictionary. On Twitter, the #adulting hashtag is used near-incessantlyeven Starbucks replies to tweets with "Adulting WIN!" and a trophy emoji. There's even an "Adulting School" in Portland, Maine., offering crash courses in the basics of life managementfor a monthly "subscription fee" of $19.99. Adulting School students can soon test for their own "Adulting Quotient," or AQ. The AQ, just like an IQ, is a score measuring just how good you are at life-planning, task management, and more. Students are usually youngerbut co-founder Katie Brunelle says they've heard from wannabe "adults" as old as 40.

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In March, YouTube personality Arden Rose published Almost Adulting: All You Need to Know to Get it Together (Sort Of). Rose's book features actual checklists for readers to record milestones and important lessons about how things cost money. In the self-help section in any bookstore, you'll find Adulting: How to Be a Grown-Up in 468 Easyish Steps, published in 2013, and new Gracious: A Practical Primer on Charm, Tact and Unsinkable Strength, or titles like Adulting 101 and Why Didn't They Teach Me This in School?

The word is now so ubiquitous, it's hard to tell exactly where its quasi-ironic, quasi-earnest usage began, but the most logical point of origin is with a playful hashtag popularized by Kelly Williams Brown's AdultingBlog.com. In 2013, Brown offered tips on cleaning your house, making a grocery list, saving money, and other hallmarks of the genre. "I think of adulting as best practices for getting your little corner of the world in order," Brown told me in an interview. "Like buying toilet paper in bulkit's not a moral judgment, if you do or if you don't, and sometimes you won't be able to. But when you can do that, it makes all of your life easier, because then you don't run out of toilet paper."

In the years since the word first prominently appeared, it's taken on a new life: part humblebrag and part self-deprecation. When we joke about "adulting""I cleaned out the fridge! #adulting" or "Working on my taxes and ugh, I hate adulting"we're poking holes in the idea that it's a process with an end goal: a dreamy vision of prepared adulthood, always out of reach. You post a photo of a Luna bar captioned"balanced dinner #adultingfail"to roll your eyes at the idea of ever reaching that picture-perfect stage of adulthood promised to us in sponsored content.

Part of the term's popularity, of course, lies with social media: the new world where people can present curated versions of their lives, with #adultingwin posts on full display for others to envy.

But there's something else to its recent rise, tooin acknowledged #adulting fails we're also reminding ourselves that despite our differences in age or background, we all still feel like children sometimes.

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And like any catchphrase, much of its prominence can be attributed to market forces; commercial interests saw a buzzword with monetary appeal, and an ad campaign was born. According to Digiday, companies selling everything from coffee to candy have used "adulting" in advertising. Nestl went so far as to set up an "adult help line" for Nescaf Canada, mocking younger generations' reliance on YouTube videos and wikiHow tutorials for basic help. Their "common adulting situations" include: "Dryer Sheets: Friend or Foe?" and "Big Trouble with Small Appliances." "Adulthood is hard, but we think we can help Nestl make it easier on millennials," Nestle's agency partner told Shopify. "We want to let millennials know we get it, that life can be complicated, but that we have a product that's easy and helpful to them in their transition."

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Anatomy of the "Adulting" Trend - ELLE.com