They may have most of their lives in front of them but now it's the turn of the twentysomethings to have second thoughts about their choices. JENNY SCOTT investigates. . .

OVERNIGHT, they seem to have become the terrible twenties -- the age at which women are suddenly overwhelmed with insecurities about the direction their lives are taking.

And this crisis in confidence has hardly been helped by an e-mail that's currently circulating among young professionals which throws a brutal spotlight upon the worst obsessions of 20-something women and terms this catalogue of confusions the Quarter Life Crisis.

"It's when you start realising there are lots of things about yourself you didn't know and may not even like," says the e-mail. "You start feeling insecure and wonder where you'll be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

"You realise the friends you've lost touch with are some of the most important ones. Then, you look at your job. It's not even close to what you thought you'd be doing. You miss the comforts of college, of groups, of socialising with the same people."

But is this really how 20-something women feel?

"Only some of the time," laughed Holly Bevan, 27, a high school teacher from Chorley. "Obviously, it can be difficult when you leave university and step out into the big, bad world. But that's real life, isn't it? You get on with it."

Holly admits to having friends who have lurched through a succession of jobs, trying to find the one that's right for them.

"I think your 20s is the time to experiment -- before you get tied down," she said.

"I have found the social side of things a bit tricky because so many of my mates have cleared off to London. But you make other friends and things soon pick up again. And you've got the rest of your life ahead of you. That can be scary or exciting, depending on which way you look at it."

Holly's fellow 20-something, Charlotte Maudsley, from Lammack, Blackburn, is definitely one of those who sees the twenties as the time of your life.

Since graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University with a degree in geography and politics, Charlotte, 25, has left teaching to move into museum work at Manchester's Urbis Centre and in November will set off on a trip to Peru and Mexico.

She puts her career side-steps and leaps into the unknown down to a surge in confidence rather than any sort of crisis.

"It's not a case of having a quarter life crisis," she said. "It's a case of realising you don't want to settle down now and be in the same job for the rest of your life. There has been a huge surge of confidence among women coming out of university and going, 'Hang on. Maybe I can see a bit of the world or take up another career'. There are female pop singers and explorers and athletes giving my age group a big boost of confidence.

"Watching the Olympics and seeing people like Kelly Holmes winning her gold medals was amazing. She's such a huge inspiration to people of my age group."

And being a modern-day twenty-something, according to Charlotte, means you can grasp at opportunities your parents could only dream about.

"Originally I thought I was going to stay in teaching for a fair amount of time," she said. "Then I realised I wasn't too keen on doing that, so I decided to take a different direction and work in museums and galleries. It's very different to my mum, who decided to become a nurse and went into that for life.

"When I was younger, I probably envisaged myself married with children. But now, I know the world is my oyster and I'm determined to make the most of it."