UPDATE (March 31, 2022):
New information has come to light! Lorenz, who recently joined the Washington Post to do Chinese spyware advocacy and cultivate her personal brand, revealed on Twitter that she is 43 years old. The stunning announcement has called into question the results of our previous investigation, which determined that Lorenz was born Oct. 21, 1984, and is therefore 37½ years old.
It would also mean that Lorenz was at least 41 years old when Fortune magazine named her to its "40 Under 40" list in September 2020. Her recently updated Wikipedia page now states that Lorenz was "born c. 1978–1987." The Washington Free Beacon will not rest until we find the (long-form) birth certificate. Stay tuned!
Original text below (Dec. 13, 2020):
New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz is one of the most celebrated journalists of the 21st century. When she announced she was thinking about moving to Los Angeles, the L.A. Times wrote an entire article about it. Most recently, Curbed published a compilation of "Real-Estate Listings Tech Reporter Taylor Lorenz Likes to Stare At."
Lorenz's rise to internet stardom as the foremost purveyor of tween culture has not been without controversy. Some amateur researchers, for example, have raised questions about the journalist's true age, ultimately prompting a Free Beacon investigation into the matter.
How old is Taylor Lorenz?
The answer is complicated. According to Lorenz, she is "at the age where 25 year olds look like high schoolers to me" and would "prob throw out my back" going down a waterslide. In some of the many profiles for which she's been interviewed, she has made reference to being "in my 30s."
According to Google, as well as the website Famous Birthdays, which Lorenz has described as "a go-to database of teen culture," the celebrity journalist was born on Oct. 21, 1985. That would make her 35.
Reporting published in the New York Times, however, appears to contradict that assessment. Lorenz, who was interviewed for an August 2018 article on how egg-freezing clinics are aggressively courting millennial women, was identified as 31 years old at the time. That would mean she was born in 1986, and is currently 34.
Lorenz's unsurprising inclusion on Fortune magazine's most recent "40 Under 40" list—published Sept. 2, 2020—provides yet another possible answer to the question. Lorenz was listed as 35 years old at the time. That would make her 36 in October, meaning she was born in 1984.
Over the past few months, the Free Beacon conducted an investigation using one of Lorenz's favorite tools—the internet—and uncovered records and documents that support Fortune magazine's reporting and raise troubling questions about the New York Times fact-checking department.
Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, Taylor Lorenz was born Oct. 21, 1984, and is currently 36 years old.
Or is she?
A subsequent investigation revealed that Lorenz has repeatedly advocated for lying about one's true age to appear older in the hope of receiving compliments. "[T]he move is to always tell ppl ur older or make them think ur older than you are so they're constantly thinking 'wow, she looks great for her age!'" she wrote in September.
The investigation continues...