Thanks to Real Housewives, I no longer dread getting older. Honestly, it looks great | Katie Cunningham

As a woman in her 30s worried the pandemic is swallowing the last of my youth, it's a gift to see middle-aged women thrive

In a now legendary Real Housewives of New York scene, then 49-year-old Luann de Lesseps is hungover and unapologetic. On a girls trip to Turks and Caicos, a wild night of partying has ended with a naked man asleep in the group's rented villa, much to the dismay of castmate Heather Thompson. Be cool," an unbothered de Lesseps tells Thompson, strutting around their lavish accommodation dressed only in a bikini, robe and dark glasses. Don't be all like, uncool."

At home in Sydney, I gleefully watched this drama unfold while horizontal on my couch. Ten-odd weeks into another lockdown, there has not been much to do besides inhale episode after episode of reality television. Boredom and cabin fever has been a fixture of my Covid experience, as I'm sure it has for everyone else. But as a woman in her early 30s, I've also contended with the bubbling anxiety that the pandemic is swallowing the last of my youth, and with it the final gasps of both possibility and my relevance to society. (Yes, I am prone to dramatics.)