How Gen Alpha Overtook Tween Media
Goodbye youth monoculture, hello Princess Ayesha ...
Welcome to PRZM Deep Dive — our bi-monthly essay series where we zoom in (and out) on a major topic that’s shaping next-gen culture and behaviors.
Deep Dive
If you’re as chronically online as us, or if you recently watched Sabrina Carpenter on SNL, you’re probably now aware of Princess Ayesha (Ayesha Hasan) — a “Dubai/Beverly Hills”-based self-described “IT-Girl & 16 years old ✦” creator— who has generated buzz for her head scratching motivational speeches doled out through a mic in her hot pink podcast studio.
Hasan is similar to other teen creators whose young ages contrast with their highly professional podcast set up. Take the MD Foodie Boyz, a vodcast featuring a group of Gen Alpha boys who debate everything from vegetable preferences to their favorite Drake tracks. The MD Foodie Boyz have gotten love from Barstool Sports, did a collab with The Ravens, and have carved a real lane among Gen Alpha (born after 2010) online.
These voices are all firmly in their teens and their collective rise comes amidst changing winds in “teen media.” Just this week it was announced that Teen Vogue is being folded into Vogue.com, causing an outcry from those who nostalgically remembered flipping through its glossy pages as teens themselves.
More generally, there has been chatter about the death of “tween media,” with creator Ari Thee Architect making the point that Twitch streamers and influencers have replaced Disney Channel and teen mags for young consumers.
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It’s clear: young people don’t rely on magazine editors or TV shows to show them what’s “cool.” Instead, they turn to their peers, be they IRL or URL. The tween fashion influencer showing you their fav skincare for middle school is one version. Now a Gen Z/Gen Alpha teen with a microphone and a podcast set up is a new (and growing) model, too.
Creators like Hasan and the Boyz may not be true radio pros (yet), but they were raised in a time when the likes of Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper were already mainstream, and are thus deeply familiar with the vodcast format — and its cultural influence. And they know intuitively that saying your opinion among friends is one thing, but saying it with a mic in a podcast studio can elevate the noise into true media (and performs well on socials, too).
The future of this format is up for grabs. Hasan and the Boyz are mainly sticking to funny and frivolous topics, but as the genre of teen vodcasts expands, we imagine other young creators will delve into choppier waters. We can expect teens and tweens to start making their own shows featuring hot takes, political opinions and maybe even high school gossip.
Our future of ubiquitous teen vodcasts is sure to be messy, chaotic, and hopefully, entertaining. But in these early days of the format, we’re just reveling in the unique philosophical offerings of tweens taking the mic for themselves — literally and figuratively.
Client Spotlight
As seen on the cover of Vogue: Urban Jürgensen spotted on the wrist of Timothée Chalamet for an editorial that is out of this world! Congratulations to the entire Urban Jürgensen team.