Young people are often regarded as irresponsible, immature agents of chaos. Full of passion and wild ideas, people in their late teens or early twenties are often seen by society as a group of people who are generally unequipped to make any big life decisions.

As young adults, we feel like we have the green light to behave this way as it is what society seems to expect from us. Growing up in the West, we are taught that it’s okay to delay any major life decision and to “have fun while we still can.”

This is why it comes as quite a shock when I tell people that I was married at 18 and had my first child at 20. At first, some people tend to assume that I am the victim of the “oppressed Muslim woman forced into marriage young” stereotype.