Katie Couric has tackled just about every topic imaginable in her 40-year-career, and now she’s taking on marriage — or society’s expectations of it — in her new docuseries Timelines, created in partnership with SK-II.

In the series, she speaks to four young women from New York, Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai who are not moving through life how or as quickly their families imagined they would. “My parents are expecting me to get married and have a traditional wedding, but I want to decide who and when to marry,” says one young woman. “I am torn between staying true to what my family expects and living on my own terms. All my friends seem to have more options than I do in this respect.”

Despite the pressure these young women face, they each know that marriage doesn’t necessarily equal happiness, and they don’t view being single as a burden — letting them hit life’s expected milestones when and if they choose. To illustrate the difference between what they want and what society and their families want, Couric’s series shows two timelines for each woman: one representing their “traditional,” expected journey and the other representing their own.

When their families see these timelines in physical form, their reactions range from sadness and surprise to pride and joy. “It looks like she was born at the right time to be free and confident in what she wants to do,” says the mother of Nara from Seoul.

Check out highlights from the series above, and view the whole series here.

Video courtesy of SK-II.