A reader asked "Ask Amy" why young people in college or graduate school continue to refer to themselves as "girls" and "boys." Chicago Tribune columnist Amy Dickinson consulted Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor at Temple and author of the forthcoming You and Your Adolescent, revised edition: The Essential Guide for Ages 10-25. Steinberg said, "People in their early to mid-20s are in a new stage of life we haven't seen before. Some people call this hazy stage 'emerging adulthood,' because they are still developing socially, culturally and emotionally." Dickinson and Steinberg agreed that young adults who refer to themselves as "boys" or "girls" may be doing so because they don't want to sound too pompous and lack another term to describe themselves.