Generation Z Shares Insights About What Influences Them — In Their Own Words
Fatigued by research and news reports about Generation Z in which they’re essentially portrayed as “passive participants in their own narrative,” the founders of Irregular Labs decided to compile firsthand insights about this demographic by having a research report entirely created “by girls and gender non-conforming Gen Zs around the world.”
The result is “The Irregular Report,” a 400-plus page publication (with lists, essays, links to videos, data and case studies) that “explores the topic of influence for this generation,” noted Irregular Labs, which describes itself as a company “that connects the ideas, opinions and insights of girl and gender non-conforming Gen Zs.” Generation Z are those aged 13 to 24 years old.
Gen Zer and Irregular Labs cofounder Grey Jones described the Irregular Report as the only document “that portrays us accurately” and said that Gen Z is “the largest generation, and we are going to have a huge impact on this world and we don’t want to do it alone.”
Contributors to the report include activist and founder of #MeToo Tarana Burke, poet and author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Google X’s Ivy Ross and poet and author of @SoSadToday Melissa Broder as well as casting director and fair treatment of models in fashion advocate James Scully. The report also includes insights from over 1,200 girl and gender non-conforming Gen Zers such as U.S. Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, environmental activist Glacier Girl, musician Dounia Tazi and author Nicolaia Rips as well as artist Priyanka Paul, Elise by Olsen, actress and model Barbie Ferreira, @ArtHoeCollective curator Gabrielle Richardson, and trans youth activist and model Hunter Schafer.
Irregular Labs cofounder Molly Logan said, “We were tired of seeing articles, reports and research about Gen Z that relegated them to passive participants in their own narrative. Therefore, we decided it was time for an unfiltered, uncensored and unapologetic look at Gen Z by Gen Z.”
Logan said given the current political, economic, environmental and social challenges facing people today, “Irregular Labs firmly believes that substantial progress and innovation will only happen if adults start listening to and championing the opinions and ideas of this extraordinary generation. In other words, it is time to help the future build the future.”
The report’s content includes the top 75 global “people, brands, experiences and systems of influence” as well as the “Irregular Zictionary” and Gen Z authored opinion columns with topics such as “how to reach the youth of India, why Elon Musk needs to support girls in space, the commercialization of mental health and its impact on Gen Z, and how this next generation of young Republicans plans to disrupt the party.”
The report is also laced with direct quotes from Gen Zers, such as Grace, 18, from Portland, Ore., who said, “Brands like Urban Outfitters allow me to feel creative and edgy without feeling too out there.” Or Delia, 18, from Miami, who said she loved pop-up shops, “and pretty much anything arty and experimental.”
“I think Gen Z is fluid because, besides the restriction of gender labels are constantly progressing to allow a more fluid world — we are also fluid in every aspect because we no longer ascribe ourselves [to any one label] and [don’t] judge each other strictly,” said Nicolaia, 19, from New York City. “For instance, I am not a writer, or a poet, or a photographer; I am creative. To me, being a ‘creative’ is a fluid word that continues to allow the owner of the label to define it for themselves.”
Irregular Labs said its mission is to “change the way girl and gender nonconforming Gen Zs value themselves and their ideas; its vision is a world where they are taken seriously, and its goal is to promote and protect their economic independence.” The founders said Irregular Labs “pays our community the same as adults and reserves 5 percent of our profits to invest in the business ideas of Gen Z.”
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