Letter from the Editor

If anybody is going to out-think, out-feel and out-maneuver you, it might as well be your future. Molly Logan.

So, once again, Gen Z has stolen my thunder. If you skipped Amanda Gorman’s Editor Letter, stop, turn back, and let the current U.S. Youth Poet Laureate, future POTUS and the person I want to be when I grow up, introduce you to our first Irregular Report.

As I have come to expect from this extraordinary generation, Amanda, unprompted and unprepped, said it all: this Irregular Report is not about the “what” of influence; it is about the “why.” It is about the shared qualities of the people, brands, experiences and systems that are relevant to girl and gender nonconforming Gen Zs around the world. And, most importantly, it is about the influence that this generation of 13–24-year-olds will have on our world — from political systems and pop stars to retail and religion. Ultimately, that is what we really need to understand. Not who or what is currently filling Gen Zs’ feeds (because like them, that list is fluid) but why they are making certain choices.

Influence is not passive and as Amanda astutely observed, it is not just a noun either. Influence is also a verb that, you guessed it, is fluid, flowing in two directions with its authority in a constant state of negotiation. Gen Zs are not mindlessly absorbing these particles of influence. They s are deliberately selecting them according to what makes them tick. As the trans youth human rights activist and model, Hunter Schafer, says, Gen Zs are “curating our own existence” both online and off. So if you think that you are controlling Gen Z, well, I am here to tell you, that they are controlling you. As frustrating and destabilizing as that might feel to the world of old, we recommend that you just give in and listen (really, really listen) to what they have to say. Because they will tell you everything you need to know — even if that involves a few dents to your ego along the way.

Four years ago, I had my first (humbling) four-hour Facetime session with a then 15-year-old girl in London. It totally blew my mind. And since that call, I have spent every day being reminded by this teen and her global cohorts of how little I know … and how much they do. One would think that, at this point, I would be neither surprised nor impressed by their intelligence, sophistication and heart. But when I read things like Bryn Flanigan’s call for Elon Musk to support girls and women in space and Priyal Thakkar’s op-ed on how to reach the 300 million girl/gnc Gen Zs in India or Mimi McMillan’s conversation with Google X’s Ivy Ross on women, art and STEM and Zoe Rabbani’s (aka the 15-year-old girl) critique of pop culture’s commercialization of mental heath, I am thrown back to that first call and its cocktail of irritation (for my ignorance), inspiration (for their intellect) and optimism (for our future).

So buckle up and read on. It is our greatest hope that after you finish The Irregular Report, you too, will feel slightly thunderless but with a healthy does of ahas. And let’s face it, if anybody is going to out-think, out-feel and out-maneuver you, it might as well be your future. Welcome to the world according to Gen Z.

Molly Logan

(Not a Gen Z)