Romantic Pop Idol

OK THIS IS GOING TO BE LONG FOLKS SO BUCKLE IN!

#1: College & Career Tropes

Realistically? Max and Lucas go to college in Indiana. Not California. Not the East Coast. Is it impossible? Of course not. But if they did, they'd be racking up extreme student debt for trivial reasons, which would be super OOC for a pair of pragmatic Gen X kids.

Now, I understand some fanfic writers aren't American. So maybe you don't know how our financial aid system works, which is another reason I feel called to do this. I'm advocating for quality, well-researched fanfics, and I want to help younger (or uninformed) writers make their fics the best they can be!

The Sinclair family are portrayed as solid middle class. They live near the Wheelers on Maple Street but it's pretty clear their socioeconomic circumstances aren't equal. The Wheelers live in a two story colonial with three kids, a finished basement, and a stay at home mom. They own a Mercury Grand Marquis, a car that would've been a "stretch" for the solid middle and unaffordable for the lower middle/working class or poor. Ted Wheeler works a boring yet "cushy" office job. If I were to guess, I'd say his yearly income was around 55-60k in 1989 based on data for Indiana during that time period. The Sinclairs on the other hand live in a raised ranch house and give off much more practical/grounded vibes. Charles is a Vietnam vet who likely works as a lower level manager and Lucas on the Line implies that Sue went to typing school so I'd imagine she's a secretary or something. When you then also factor in the wealth disparity between black and white families, I'd put the Sinclairs around 30-35k. That is the "too rich for aid, too poor to pay outrageous tuition" squeeze. At best, Lucas would go to one of the state flagships like IU Bloomington or Purdue, but I think Indiana State fits his practicality even better. Solid middle class families (unless they were status climbers, themselves a minority for this demographic even with the "black excellence" push which isn't the Sinclairs' vibe at all) didn't gamble their life savings to send their son out of state. Heck, like I said, regional campuses were even better for this fiscally-conscious group, hence ISU.

Now Max's situation is even more precarious. She went from lower middle/working class to trailer park poor when her stepdad left (and took his assholery with him!) She would receive the full Pell Grant and the Frank O'Bannon grant (then known as the Higher Education Award). That would cover her tuition and at least part of her housing at a school like ISU but if she went out of state? She's looking at massive debt. Massive.

The USC dream in 1989 carried a sticker price around $18k/year. Even with a Pell Grant maxed at $2,300 and a $2,625 Stafford loan, she'd be looking at almost a $13,000 gap. Every. Single. Year. For a girl whose family has $0 in expected contribution, that's not a dream; it's a debt trap. Staying in-state where her grants cover the full bill at ISU isn't just my headcanon; it's the only way a survivor like Max ensures her future independence.

Because of these points, I find it very unlikely Lucas or Max would go further than a bachelor's degree. Max because of her financial situation and also because her canon personality screams "I'm good at school but I hate it" and Lucas because he's practical. He wouldn't want to waste a huge chunk of his 20s paying for a fancy degree when he could get a decent paying job right away to provide for the family he and Max are building. By the year 2000, only 5% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 had earned a master's degree or higher (source).

#2. Marriage & Parenthood Timeline

In 1993 (the year Lumax would graduate college), the US Census Bureau recorded that the median age at first marriage was 24.5 years for women and 26.5 for men. However, this includes people who hadn't found "their person" yet. It was a nationwide average (including HCOL coastal areas). For middle school sweethearts in suburban/sub-rural Indiana? It would be much lower.

The average age of first-time mothers in the same year was between 24.4 and 26.2, again including women who weren't in relationships and/or who lived in HCOL areas.

Considering Max and Lucas would've been a couple (or at least in love if you count their break during season 4) for almost a decade, not to mention their insane trauma forcing them to mature faster than their peers, it's far more realistic than not they'd start having children in their early 20s.

These headcanons that have them (a couple of middle school sweethearts) choosing to wait until their 30s to welcome kids into the world make them extreme outliers for their birth cohort and geographic location.

On top of that, Max is a girl from a working class background with several adverse childhood experiences under her belt by the time she woke up from a coma at 16. Studies show that exposure to ACEs such as domestic violence, parental separation, and poverty (all of which Max experienced) is a strong predictor of early marriage and childbearing. Lucas isn't just her boyfriend. He's the first person who's ever made her feel safe and secure. For a girl who spent her entire life in survival mode, Max isn't looking to "find herself" (which is a luxury she couldn't afford anyway and very much a millennial/Gen Z concept in terms of traveling the world, getting multiple degrees, etc), she wants to build the stable family she was robbed of as a child. A safe nest.

To put it into perspective: In 1993, while the coastal elites might have been pushing the marriage age up, the Hoosier reality remained grounded. For a girl in sub-rural Indiana, being unmarried at 30 wasn't just a choice; it was a social anomaly. Most of Max's peers would have been dropping their toddlers off at preschool by the time these modern headcanons even have her thinking about a wedding. Heck, even San Diego where she was born and raised was basically "the midwest of California" back then, so a 13-year-old Max in 1984 would've found the Hawkins culture more familiar than if her family had moved them north within the same state to San Francisco, for example.

I also think it's important to note that "healing yourself" or going to therapy to resolve your trauma before bringing kids into the world is, in itself, an anachronism for Gen X. So if you headcanon them waiting because of that, I'll debunk it for you right here, right now: In the early 90s, therapy wasn't a wellness tool. It was a last resort and carried a certain stigma. The Gen X attitude was "suck it up and get on with it." For them, "healing" meant getting a job, starting a family, and doing it better than their parents. The idea that either Max or Lucas would take a year to sit on a couch and talk through their feelings with some shrink before deeming themselves ready for a baby is, quite frankly, a Gen Z projection. Not to mention, much of their specific trauma was supernatural so it's not like they could tell anyone that. And access to specialized therapy was almost non-existent outside of major metro areas.

#3. The Tomboy Archetype & "Queer Coding"

Finally, I think it's necessary to remember that, for girls in the 80s, being a tomboy was a standard, widespread experience. If you want to headcanon Max as some flavor of LGBTQA+, you're welcome to it, but her tomboy status isn't evidence in itself.

I see so many people interpreting her as unfeminine or even masc/Butch when, canonically, she liked bright colors, wore her hair long, read her mom's Cosmo, and fantasized about kissing Ralph Macchio! She didn't want the boys to gatekeep all the "cool" hobbies, but she had a blast trying on clothes with El when they went on their Starcourt Mall shopping spree! Skirts and dresses aren't practical for skating, but unfussy + low maintenance ≠ masculine. She's just a sporty, California skater girl. If she is queer, I'm willing to bet it's not because of the way she dressed/presented herself.

Y'all are viewing a Gen X girl through a Gen Z lens, very different times.

Oookay, deep breaths, that was a lot I know! So now maybe you're thinking, "it's just fanfic, why does it matter?" Well, it matters because immersion is the soul of a good story. When you take characters born in 1971 and force them into a 2026 life path, you're stripping away the very things that make them who they are. The 80s and 90s weren't just a vibe or an aesthetic, but a specific set of economic and social circumstances that shaped the Lucas and Max we know and love in canon.

So when a fic has them waiting until they're 30 to have kids because they want to "travel the world" or earn a PhD, it stops feeling like Stranger Things and more like a modern AU disguised with 1980s "vibes." You lose the grit, the pragmatism, and the very soul of the Gen X experience. As someone whose primary draw to the fandom in the first place was to experience a decade I never got to live through myself, modern projections have no business claiming canon-compliance or historical/sociological accuracy. If I wanted to read about Millennial or Gen Z struggles, I'd look at my own life or read contemporary YA stuff. When history is ignored or dismissed as unimportant, the immersion is broken. And once it's gone? The story loses all traces of authenticity. People lose interest and older readers (who do exist) may even be confused or offended.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and certain factors could delay life milestones, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm saying when younger writers have the characters choose to delay traditional adulthood to "find themselves" that's where it becomes anachronistic. And therefore out of character.

So by all means, keep your headcanons, write your fics however you like. But if you want them to truly resonate within the Stranger Things universe? Respect the era. Respect the characters within their original setting and according to their canon personalities. Or tag it as an AU.

Research is important folks and if you don't want, or aren't willing, to expend the effort, that's what this account is for ;)