What Makes Tweens Different from Their Alpha & Gen Z Peers?

“In terms of being online, where their younger Gen Alpha peers are about learning, and older teens are all about socialising, the tween phase is specifically about self-exploration and gaining independence,” says Heather Dretsch, assistant professor of marketing at NC State University (US)

Code Tween: ‘Brain Rot’ Memes, Surreal Slang & Gaming Motifs

The unserious memes, perplexing slang, and gaming-inspired content delighting tweens reflect their efforts to pull away from younger Alpha’s preferred softer, childhood-facing content while still choosing playfulness over teen angst. From anti-earnest brain rot memes (and anti-brain rot) to insiderdom-signalling lingo and gaming-meme crossovers, we decode how tweens connect and communicate.

Role Model Roll Call for Tween Boys & Girls

As young women get more progressive and young men more illiberal (see Look Ahead 2025), investigating the content creators tweens admire and emulate illuminates their developing (and vulnerable) identities, and where brand encouragement or caretaking would be beneficial. Notable categories include aspiring tweenfluencers, creative crews of Gen Z men, gamer girls fronting YouTube and troublingly persuasive ‘manosphere’ voices.

Asserting Aesthetics: Fashion Forays, Beauty Pressures & Brand Backing

As they begin to explore beauty and fashion, tweens are inheriting a complicated social media-stoked mix of fun aesthetic trends and magnified anxieties. While they balance self-expression with online pressures, they’re looking for tween-specific forms of guided self-care and inspiration, representing a key moment for brands to win trust and positively shape how they view themselves.