Don't let old, close-minded people fool you with statements such as "your generation is ruining society," we're actually (kind of) the best.

To start off, here is a map of what time period members of each generation were born. Millennials were born between the years 1982-2000 and are between the ages of 34 and 14 years in 2016.

Why We’re So Great

We are the most accepting and open-minded generation.

Millennials are much more tolerant of LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and feminism, banning solitary confinement, and discussing issues of race and religion in terms of politics and law. This compliance has changed the way millennials think in terms of race, as nine in 10 young adults under the age of 30 say they approve of interracial dating and marriage, compared with 73 percent of adults between the ages of 30 and 49, according to a study done by The Daily Beast. As a generation we value the thoughts and lives of other people and wish to include everyone in our working society, and that is profound.

We are the greenest and most environmentally friendly generation.

The Pew Research Center observed that millennials preferred harsher environmental laws, both believed in global warming and attributed climate change to human activity, and supported sustainable policies such as environmentally friendly energy development and tax incentives for hybrid vehicles. We are also most likely to wish for eco-friendly products and consciously attempt to recycle and reuse everything we can. The millennial generation is working to create a better environment we never experienced due to the inability of other generations to act and stop climate change and pollution.

Psychologists label us as exuberant and confident, ready to take on the challenges we face as a society.

We possess the want to help uplift our community and exert positive change on the world around us. Sixty-one percent of young adults polled in a 2011 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT survey preferred working for a company that gives back to its community and allows for volunteer opportunities. This trend predicts that fewer of us will undergo the dreaded ‘mid-life crisis’ because of our relative comfort and happiness. We also report more optimism than older adults when discussing America’s future, as 49 percent of Millennials feel that the country’s best years are ahead, a view upheld by only 42 percent of Gen Xers, 44 percent of Boomers and 39 percent of Silents. The relative optimism of today’s young adults stands in contrast to the views of Boomers when they were about the same age as Millennials are now (Pew Research Center).

We may be young, but don’t call us uneducated.

In the United States, one-third of millennials have already earned a bachelor’s degree and many are moving on to earn graduate degrees, making us the best-educated group of young people in US history (Pew Research Center). People of all races and genders are adding their perspectives and knowledge to the global cesspool of ideas. Women and men are now equally likely to earn degrees and move on to high-paying jobs. According to the Pew Research Center study, women and men under 29 both cite ‘career’ as one of their top priorities, and both genders aim for high-position jobs like CEO in equal proportions.

We are the most diverse generation yet.

Forty-three percent of millennials in the US are nonwhite,

the largest proportion of any generation according to the Pew Research Center, and one-fourth of millennials in the US can communicate in a language besides English (US Census Bureau). Furthermore, the increased blending of cultures and rise of multi-racial or multi-ethnic peoples can help fight disease and spread genetic diversity (which makes our children stronger and healthier).

Speaking of multicultural, here I am with my grandparents from my mother's side of the family.

Excitement is the defining mark of our generation, as we all have both a large motivation to fulfill our dreams and a global society filled with hundreds of cultures and places to explore. With slogans such as "Keep Calm and Carry On" and "YOLO," we prove that we can move forward with self-assurance and while having some fun.

So to all of our haters: stay classy!