Emily in Paris Heard Your Complaints About Emily’s Age

Emily in Paris has been a controversial show since it first premiered on Netflix in 2020. The Internet has argued about Emily’s Carrie Bradshaw-on-acid wardrobe, the depictions of Parisian life, and even the pronunciation of the title itself (Paris is apparently supposed to be said in a French accent so that it rhymes with Emily). One of the biggest debates, however, came last year when Emily’s star, Lily Collins, was asked how old she believes the titular character is on the show. At the time, Collins, who is currently 32 herself, clearly hadn’t put much thought into it, and whipped out an answer in the middle of the interview.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever given her a specific ‘number’ for her age, but I believe that she’s pretty fresh out of college,” Collins said, landing on “22-ish.” Once again, an uproar ensued as Twitter expressed their disbelief that Emily could be this young. In the show, Emily does seem fairly naive, yes, but she has a mid-level job at a marketing firm in Chicago, a job she got after completing her master’s degree. Plus, she is respected enough to take her boss’ place in Paris when her boss can’t go. The idea that this would happen to a young woman just months out of college was unbelievable to most.

Following the initial interview, Collins clearly saw the responses to her estimation of Emily’s age and took some more time to think about it. She later posted a photo on her Instagram Story of her character looking very confused. “Emily looking at me when I get her age wrong,” she wrote. “Sorry girl. You might not be 22, but I gotta say—you do act like it sometimes!”

Well, apparently, the show’s writers heard the noise surrounding Emily’s age because in the third episode of the second season, when Emily is celebrating her birthday with her new Parisian friends, they finally reveal that magic number. Throughout the birthday episode, no one asks how old she is, and she never tells anyone, but as she is looking through birthday messages on social media, one gives away her age. “29 years Jeune! Happy birthday, @emilyinparis,” the message says. There it is. She is 29 years young. This age will most likely be more accepted by Twitter, but now they’ll probably just find something else to be mad about.