The 2026 midterm elections are just weeks away. And while there’s been plenty of attention on Gen Z voters since they swung right in 2024, there’s still a lot that’s misunderstood about this generation.

They’re not just a woke bloc — 2024 proved that. But they’re also not red-pilled MAGA hardliners. And there are core differences in political ideology between older and younger members of Gen Z.

What they’re saying…

To get a better sense of how young voters, including 8.5 million potential first-time voters, are feeling ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, we spoke to them. In a series of nine focus groups and a reality check — one of our qualitative, community surveys — we heard from more than 70 young people, ages 17 to 33 in 28 states and Washington D.C.

The results are laid out in our 2026 Gen Z voter roadmap.

READ THE FULL ROADMAP, THE EVERYDAY ISSUE ELECTION, HERE.

The crux of it is that every midterm election has its theme, and in 2026, it’s about everyday issues.

Since 2016, we’ve been living in the culture war — where our politics have been dominated by topics of race, gender and social issues. In 2020, as Gen Z voters came of age, the culture war was at its peak and it felt like every candidate, race and issue was a reflection of our values.

But today, young voters’ concerns are more material and far less ideological. There’s a common set of issues unifying Gen Zers across the political spectrum: the cost of living, inflation, AI, war, corruption.

They care a lot less about being woke and a lot more about being able to get a job and pay their rent — let alone buy a home. And they’re looking for candidates who get that.

Gen Z voters really just want their politicians to be good, honest people, who work hard for their community and country. That means tackling the cost of living, working on government programs like SNAP and WIC, embracing social policies when it comes to healthcare, jobs, education, and regulating AI. It’s not that complicated. And it’s party agnostic.

Our findings are grouped into five sections:

1. Post culture war and post gender war. Identity politics are a luxury that most people don’t have these days. Instead of divisive social issues, nearly everyone agrees that thE top issues are the economy, AI, war, inflation, and corruption.

2. Socialism isn’t the point, social policies are. When young voters support socialist candidates or say they favor socialism writ large, it’s really because the status quo isn’t working. Life feels totally unaffordable, but young people believe that it doesn’t have to be this way. They want the government to provide Americans with a social safety net and endorse policies like universal or at least affordable health care, affordable housing, a higher minimum wage, affordable education, paid family leave, taxes on corporations, etc.

3. Hopemaxxing is trending. There’s a hunger for forward looking policies. Voters want to hear what a candidates’ plan is to fix — rather than maintain — the status quo. And young people are looking for candidates to inspire. They’re tired of candidates who just blame the other side.

4. AI feels out of control… and voters want politicians to take it on. From labels on AI generated content to restrictions for minors and data center moratoriums, young voters on the left and right want AI regulated and see this as a necessary issue for any politician to have a stance on moving forward.

5. Pothole politics is mobilizing Gen Z. Don’t sleep on Gen Z’s appetite for local politics. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani popularized the term ‘pothole politics’ i.e. the idea that he’s responding to voters’ concerns, even when they’re simple things like fixing potholes. He’s made a habit of fielding these concerns on social media and then posting reply videos showing how he’s addressed them. That boils down to transparency. Issues like infrastructure, potholes, and other local nuisances impact young people’s day to day. At a time when national politics feel impossible to influence, local issues feel more tangible, impactful and moveable. We’re hearing young people talk about local issues and how politicians are — or are not — responding.

READ THE FULL ROADMAP — THE EVERYDAY ISSUE ELECTION — HERE.

A prediction

As part of the roadmap, I’m also making a prediction. There’s less energy than there was in 2022 or 2018. And *unfortunately* I think we could see lower youth voter turnout than other recent midterms as a result.

2018 saw a whole wave of new voters, coming of age amidst a backdrop of urgent social issues like Me Too and March for Our Lives, and was the first post-Trump election. 2022 galvanized young female voters around reproductive healthcare access post-Dobbs and was a referendum for Republicans after January 6. But the 2026 election doesn’t have a hallmark event that young voters are responding to.

How people vote in the midterms will be all about the cost of living, but if young people don’t believe that any of the candidates can make a difference, they may not even show up.

Want to discuss?

Come hang out in The Up and Up’s subscriber chat. I’m ready for your hottest takes and political predictions. You can ask me anything, and I’ll share behind the scenes tidbits from our focus groups that didn’t make the report.

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

Before traversing the media ecosystem like she does today, Yemisi served as Chief of Staff for the White House Press Office and as a legislative aide in the Senate. Today, she runs Podium Strategies and is a prominent voice in Democrats’ internal debate about where the party goes from here.

I sat down with Yemisi to get her point-of-view on where Democrats went wrong with young voters — and how to regain their trust.

Here’s our conversation, edited for clarity and brevity. You can also watch our full conversation on our YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe :)

I feel like you’re everywhere these days. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what’s informed your point of view over the past few years?

YE: The way that I view the world, I always tell people, is through the lens of having been raised in the bubble of southern Democrats. My parents moved to the states when I was in the fifth grade. We moved to Georgia, and I think the combination of maybe a Clinton heyday and this feeling for the Southeast region of being maybe the epicenter in some sense of energy of Democrats has been my guiding force and informed so much of what I believe in politics. Of — you have a party that takes care and provides for people, that protects its communities, that offers innovation and entrepreneurship lanes that put guardrails on business, but still allow businesses to flourish. So I felt like the America I lived in and what drove my politics was a very pro-capitalist, pro- business, tough-on-crime mentality, and that was a part of the community I come from. Because both of my parents are immigrants, and I would say that for a lot of immigrant communities, that’s your viewpoint. You want your kids to come here and just follow the rules, behave, and you want to do well.

What got you into politics in the first place?

YE: My awakening was with Barack Obama of like, ‘Who is this guy?,’ and ‘Why is he the most interesting thing I’ve seen out of anything that my parents have been playing on CNN?’ So I asked my dad, and mind you, this is like suburbs of Atlanta. This is, for those familiar with Georgia, this is like Paulding County, Cobb County area. Areas that might be looked at now as [Democratic] strongholds. But when when Barack Obama was running, it was just like nobody wanted to talk about Barack Hussein Obama. And I asked my dad if we could hop in the minivan, and if I could take these packets that I’d gotten from one of their regional offices, and if I could just knock on doors and hand out these packets. I mean, it was just like curiosity about door knocking. I’m so glad I did that when I was younger because I don’t think I have the resolve now to go up to people’s doors and knock.. we’re all in such insular environments. I mean, everybody’s got a ring camera, so nobody even comes to the door anymore. But that was really for me, just this like, ‘Wow, you can believe in something, and then you can tell people that you believe in it,’ and just go door to door, and it’s basically legal unless there’s no soliciting sign. But my dad, he’s from Nigeria, and has, I would say, aside from taking the citizenship test, limited knowledge of how government works, how many branches of government [there are], things like that. He was so excited that I was excited about being American and the possibilities that America had, that he drove me around door to door in all these neighborhoods. And people, I mean, they weren’t rude because I was a child, but they weren’t as enthusiastic back then as they might be now if you’re going and you’re door knocking for Jon Ossoff or something. Now that the tides have changed a little bit in Georgia.

That’s a great story. You’ve spent time on both sides of the political apparatus, so to speak, inside the White House — shaping messaging — and on the Hill, and now outside it as a commentator. How does your vantage point shape how you see this current political moment?

YE: It’s interesting now that doing the commentating, it’s like everybody everybody brings in their own perspective. I think everybody has a baseline understanding of government, and then when you layer it with your perspective, and for a lot of people, that perspective is where you grew up, how you see the world, and also where you’ve worked. So I find it such a great advantage having been in Congress and the White House because I tend to give more grace than other people. The hottest thing now is just to totally dump on Congress. But my first year working in Congress was also the first year that Donald Trump was president. I never got to work in the Barack Obama days that inspired me to work in politics.

I know what it’s like when you are that Democratic staffer in a minority in the House and in the Senate where I worked, so I think it ends up giving me a more well-rounded view of what they’re actually going through. And also, sometimes people talk about things. They’re like, ‘Why didn’t this pass?’ And I have to go, ‘Well, let me explain to you how a bill becomes a law and why things take time.’ So it’s helpful, especially in a world where everybody wants results now, I think getting to see it. And when I first worked in the White House, I worked in the Office of Legislative Affairs, so quite literally at the other end of the table of where I had been before. So I’ve gotten to see it from all the different angles of when you start the bill, and then when you’re trying to get the attention of the White House in order to pick up the bill and get the president to support it, all the way through to signing it.

When it comes to your commentary, you’re going anywhere that will listen. You’re willing to talk with people who are not just friendly outlets or who are going to agree with everything that you’re saying. So I’m curious, what is the biggest misconception that people have about what it actually takes to move persuadable voters. How are you having those conversations?

YE: I think Democrats biggest wins could come from the South if they wanted to invest in it, but it’s a lot of hard work to invest in states where you have this preconceived notion that most of the people in the state don’t support Democratic politics.

At one point, the South was a stronghold for the Democratic Party, and I think it could be again. But you have to meet these voters where they are, and that has honestly been one of the biggest blessings of constantly coming down south to do work is that when people are talking about certain things on TV. There is a way that pundits will talk about the south like everybody these is dumb. Like they don’t know what’s good for them.

And one of the things I learned, I learned this on on Fox especially, is I could have a disagreement about what President Trump was doing, but if I started it by saying, ‘Wow, this man’s a total and complete idiot,’ I lost the audience in the very in the very first few seconds when I was speaking. Because one, if I’m on Fox News, these people are not expecting somebody like me to be like the political expert that Fox News picks. Let’s be honest. I’m usually on a panel with men who are maybe a couple decades older, usually white. And so I’m offering a different perspective, but I just want to package it in a way that they will listen to it.

And if you are not giving your opinion or speaking about politics in a way that is digestible to a large audience, I don’t know that anybody’s ever going to actually accept your message. And frankly, having worked in the Biden White House, this was one of our big blinders. We actually had a rule where, like, we didn’t really put a lot of our senior advisors on Fox News because we kind of thought, ‘Well, what’s the point?’ None of these people are going to listen. But now, having been [going] on Fox for more than a year, I can actually say people do listen, and they are actually just as frustrated sometimes as you are. It is really just about how you talk to them about those frustrations.

When I’m thinking about politics, I’m thinking about Gen Z voters. You’re talking about how frustrating it can feel as a voter when you’re basically being talked down to from the moment someone opens their mouths. That happens a lot with young voters. And this is a very swingy generation who does not want to be boxed in by traditional party labels. Do you see moderation in Gen Z’s politics that doesn’t get much airtime, and why do you think it gets overlooked?

YE: It’s easy to say that the younger a generation is, the more left that they are, and that you get more conservative as you get older. But Gen Z is the most fascinating because they really are different on each issue. It used to be you could just be like check, check, check, check, check down the line, down the ticket, and it really didn’t matter. So the format of who a voter was, you didn’t have to get down into the weeds. And with Gen Z, you really have to take it, ‘Okay, do the piece on the economy, and then out of that, take housing,’ because there could be a difference of opinion there. And then even on cultural issues, we have this belief that just because people are younger, they believe anything and everything when it comes to the culture war stuff.

And I actually think that’s been one of the biggest blinders that a lot of Democrats have of like, ‘Oh of course they’re going to be on board with this.’ And it’s like, ‘Well no.’

Yes. And part of Gen Z’s rebuke of feeling boxed in and feeling like their politics were being dictated to them rather than decided on their own really took place when the Democratic Party leaned into identity politics, and it was like just because of someone’s age, or gender, or color of skin, or sexuality, or religion you were supposed to have certain politics. There’s been a real pushback to that. We saw that in 2024. And we’re certainly still seeing that today. You’ve been outspoken about your frustration with identity politics, and there’s a lot of debate right now about whether or not the Democratic Party has actually moved past that era. Have they?

I would love to believe that we have moved past, but then sometimes I’m online, and I’m thinking we’re switching out like names and and identifiers for these different litmus tests. That was to me, the whole part of the woke culture that spread, was we started making checks before we could even support a candidate or think through and it got so irritating when it became okay, ‘Well, do you believe that Black Lives Matter? Okay, well, since you believe that Black Lives Matter, do you believe in defunding the police?’ And you’d have you’d want to have conversations with people of, ‘Wow, let’s separate those two.’ A lot of Black people don’t actually believe in the messaging of defund, and a lot of Black people are actually concerned about how communities will look if if we take out law enforcement, and there’s this misunderstanding of how Black people actually engage with the police and what their beliefs are.

But a lot of damage was done. I mean, I’m incredibly frustrated that there were people who legitimately lost their jobs. I mean, there were award-winning chefs that apologized for making certain dishes because it was culturally insensitive that they made them because they didn’t reflect the historic and ethnic background of the dish. I mean, really, when I talk to people about this, I give these specific examples where I’m like, ‘This really happened to an adult, to a working professional,’ who really didn’t do anything of offense, but everybody got so swept up in this hive mind of who can who can truly outperform the next person, and I almost feel like we’re in that kind of spin cycle again with who can outperform again.

What does that look like now?

YE: I get so surprised where we are on, for instance public safety is one where I think, ‘Wow, we really are at a point where I think we’re coming back to it.’ I thought we were getting to a point where everybody could have conversations about the police, and it didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, okay, the police are racist, the police are pigs, and things like that.’ And I do feel like we’re getting back into that spiral, especially when we talk about our criminal justice system.

International conflict is one that I think gets people stuck, where I’m seeing people running for office in Iowa getting asked about what their position is on Israel and Gaza, and I’m like, we are once again diverting from the point and missing the plot.

Because what does everybody want to focus on? They want to capture those rural voters that Democrats lost, weren’t able to gain back after Barack Obama led the way when it came to places like Iowa, and we really want to capture young people. And I just think that a lot of people are more focused on what is happening here with this economy, and those are the conversations that are actually driving forces in how people vote.

Along those lines, what would it look like in practice for a campaign to build a coalition that doesn’t lead with identity but actually leads with ideas? And is that a message that you see any Democrats currently giving?

YE: If folks were in South Carolina right now, I would ask them, how do you capture the attention of the older Black voter? And the way that you do that is you talk about the hard work that they have done, the hard work in raising their families, in building their foundations and their communities, and how it feels so much harder every day to maintain that. I think if you go to people and you say, ‘Okay, you might not be at the bottom right now, because you don’t ever want to go to people and go look at this small town you live in, look at this rural area, it’s complete crap…’ That’s talking down to people, but, ‘Look at what you have built the pride that you have in building it, and how it feels every single day that the government is just telling you to survive, and at one point you were told that America is the country where people came and they thrived.’ And I’ve seen that with especially this particular demographic here, and also in Georgia, I’ve seen that moves people the most. And I’ll tell you there are a lot of people that have come down to the South and they’ve been able to really connect. People that I’ve actually been quite surprised by.

Rahm Emanuel was one who I’ve actually, speaking of commentating, I was critical of pretty heavily a year ago, and he had some really great interactions in the south, and his entire focus was just on education, remedial math, on getting test scores up, and there were so many moms who talked about him afterwards, and they were like, ‘Yes, I am concerned every day about the education of my child and them falling behind, and not only that, but then they’re not going to get scholarships to school. We’re going to go into debt with college.’ I mean, those kinds of issues are the perfect thing to catapult anyone above everybody else.

I saw when Andy Beshear came down to South Carolina, he did Jim Clyburn‘s fish fry, and openly talked about his faith, which I think a lot of Democrats have gotten away from, regardless what whatever their religious identity is, but the scarcity in talking about faith, I think, has really hampered us as Democrats, and it’s really ceded the ground to Republicans to to say that they are the party of of religion. And truly, I think, to me… I’m Anglican, and so as somebody with a Christian faith, when I think of Democrats, I think of people who not only have faith, but understand the underlying principles within that faith of compassion, of grace, of caring for others, I think more than Republicans.

If you had to name the single biggest thing that the Democratic Party still isn’t being honest with itself about heading into the midterms, what would it be?

YE: It’s a very hard thing to say you’re not the cool kid anymore, when you had Bill Clinton, Barack, you had you had all these names. You’re the party of JFK, of FDR. I get it. It’s very hard to say you’re not the cool kid anymore, especially when the other guy you look at him and you think, ‘Okay, but how is Trump, how is that the thing that’s bringing in this cool factor?’

If people are Democrats, they lessen the identity and tie to the national party brand in order to survive in their districts and their states, and I think that’s a real problem. I think it’s great that people are using whatever technique and tool they need in order to win. Shout out to Mary Peltola, Rob Sands, Josh Turek. Those are red states. Do what you got to do. But it sucks when you have to distance yourself from the very party you’re in because of where they’re standing, and it doesn’t seem like there’s a clear plan in order to increase the image.

I get it. Dems are harder on themselves than Republicans. Republicans accept a lot. Democrats, in my opinion, have always been harder to please because they’ve had higher standards. But at some point, especially when we’re looking at 2028, you can’t have a candidate that’s distancing himself from the national brand when he’s trying to run a country. So that is something I think there’s got to be a tough conversation about.

Noteworthy Reads

• The Generation That’s Never Had to Say ‘Hello?’, Alisha Haridasani Gupta for The New York Times

• Tennis Everyone?, Mary Julia Koch for The Wall Street Journal

• OnlyFans and AI training: why gen Z doesn’t care where our money comes from, Alice Lassman for The Guardian

Beyond the lines and the Love Island watch parties…

What I’ve noticed over the past few months is that this finally felt like the first summer Gen Z didn’t just talk about *or post* about living. They actually lived. And it felt really good. Perhaps so good, they’ll never look back.

As part of the research for our fall trend report, we asked our community for their take on the biggest trends of the summer and where they think that energy will shift as we move into fall.

READ OUR FULL FALL TREND REPORT, THE COUNTERCULTURE IS HUMAN, HERE.

I often think about Gen Z and how and if our generation really is that different from others.

What stood out most to me this summer is that things that have just been status quo for every other generation of young people — going to parties, watching sports with strangers, hanging with friends, finding new hobbies, going to concerts, or going to the movies — are now seen as trends because this is the first time our generation has genuinely experienced them.

So as it turns out, 2026 wasn’t just an IRL summer. It was the summer Gen Z embraced being social. Not just for the bit or for the post. Not because they felt like they had to, or because someone told them to. But because they wanted to.

Beyond the appetite for real, tactile hobbies and hanging out in person, I’m hearing a conscious untethering from the algorithms that our generation was raised on. Young people are no longer interested in having trends dictated to them by their for-you-page. Instead, they want to come to decide what’s cool on their own, or with people they actually know or have something in common with — and they’re hyper-aware of that.

Looking back, here are our community members’ biggest trends of the summer, and looking forward → what they’re excited for this fall.

🎂 P.S. My birthday is this weekend, and if The Up and Up speaks to you, the best gift you could give me is sharing the newsletter with a friend (or a few) who you think might enjoy it too :) I appreciate you!

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After a very IRL summer, young people are headed back to school, back to work, and soon, back to the ballot box. These past few months gave us plenty of shared moments. The country rallied around the Knicks who won in five and sent New Yorkers to take the streets. Americans packed bars and public spaces for the World Cup. There were block parties, Love Island watch parties, and Gen Z boom at movie theaters.

But the most interesting thing about this summer wasn’t any one cultural moment. It was where young people seemed to be finding them. After years of life increasingly shaped by feeds, platforms, and algorithms, young people seemed increasingly drawn to things they could choose and shape for themselves, from their hobbies and social lives to their local communities.

We wanted to see where young people are putting their time, energy, and money as we transition into the fall.

So we checked in with them through a series of focus groups and reality checks — our qualitative, community surveys. Overall, we heard from nearly 100 young people, ages 15-31, from 21 states and Washington, D.C.

As we move out of this IRL summer and back to school, work, and — yes — the upcoming midterm elections, we focused our research around three main buckets:

1. Their social lives

2. Their personal finances

3. And their top issues, across topics like politics and AI

Broadly, what we heard is that young people want more control over their own lives. After years of being told what to watch, buy, think and care about, they’re increasingly skeptical of anything that feels decided for them, whether by an algorithm, a tech company, a political institution or someone with a massive following. Instead, they’re gravitating toward the people, places and choices where they feel like they have a say.

Our findings break down into five core themes:

1. Community is culture. Everyone’s an expert in their own community. From restaurants to concerts and even politics, we’re underestimating Gen Z’s appetite for everything local. This fall, this is where the action will be. People still want belonging and shared experiences, but they’re not looking to recreate what everyone else already has.

2. It’s the anti-algorithm era. Analog energy continues. Tired of being fed everything from how to think to what to wear, young people are ditching the algorithm for their own sense of self, allowing offline and in-person energy to shape how they spend their time. In turn, there’s power in everything from run clubs to cook-book groups and mahjong nights. While posting with a niche influencer was a savvy political tactic in 2024, the opportunity now is the community itself — the run club, the salsa night, the neighborhood organization. In short, influence is shifting from people with audiences to people with communities.

3. Powerlessness is driving distrust. Distrust in institutions is really a frustration with who gets to make the decisions, as a small group of people, companies, or algorithms make choices that shape everyone else’s lives, and everyone is expected to accept them. AI is the clearest expression of that dynamic. Nobody asked for an AI future but it’s increasingly embedded in work, school, and everyday life. Gen Z is not anti-progress but they’re skeptical of progress that happens to them rather than with them.

4. We’re in a post-culture war period. The issues breaking through with young Americans are increasingly material (inflation, war, cost of living, AI, corruption) vs symbolic (culture wars, pronouns, civil rights). Many of the politicians breaking through are speaking directly to those concerns (e.g. Zohran Mamdani, James Talarico, Jon Ossoff, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Marco Rubio).

5. And there’s a hunger for people-driven politics. All of this boils down to a central theme. Young Americans are rediscovering community as a source of power. And when it comes to their politics, they’re deliberately routing civic energy offline. When national politics feels impossible to influence, the places where people can actually see their impact become more important.

READ OUR FULL REPORT, THE COUNTERCULTURE IS HUMAN, HERE.

Many thanks to The Up and Up’s summer interns, Abbey Locker and Emilia Kim, for their instrumental work on this report.

Noteworthy reads

• The Real Political Divide Isn’t Between Boomers and Gen Z, Rep. Maxwell Frost, Rolling Stone

• The Myth of Workplace Readiness, Amanda Hoover for Business Insider

• Shocking number of Gen Z shut-ins report zero face-to-face human interactions per day after COVID, Anthony Blair for The New York Post

And a watch/listen

I joined Vox’s Astead Herndon on America, Actually to break down some of the biggest trends in Gen Z politics. We dug into their top issues, why their politics are so swingy, and what’s on the other side of the gender divide. Check it out:

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

The world’s changing before our eyes, and yet, for the most part, K-12 education has stayed the same. What that means for Gen Z is that while the rules of the proverbial game of life have evolved (thanks, in part, to their dedication to rewriting them), the training for adulthood hasn’t kept up, leaving the conventional K-12 education somewhat at odds with our current macroeconomic reality.

The result is that — according to new data from Gallup and The Walton Family Foundation’s ‘Voices of Gen Z’ Study — the current classroom experience is not meeting the moment.

Tl;dr: The K-12 experience would benefit from creativity.

Earlier this summer, in partnership with Gallup and The Walton Family Foundation, I convened focus groups with current high school students and recent high school grads. The focus groups piggyback Gallup and The Walton Family foundation’s new data showing that — despite some bright spots in K-12 education over the past decade — many students feel unprepared for their futures and are itching for innovation in what traditional “school” looks like.

It’s well-past time to think big about the role that school can and should play in young adults’ lives. There are bright spots of career-connected and experiential learning programs already leading the charge — those should be replicated.

By the numbers

According to the latest data:

• Less than half of Gen Z K-12 students “enjoy going to school every day” (just 11%) or “most days” (37%)

• 40% of Gen Z K-12 students do not feel prepared for their future (that share jumps 10 points to 50% amongst students who don’t plan to go to college)

• One third of students (33%) don’t feel like they belong at school

• Nearly half of Gen Z K-12 students (49%) don’t think school gives them the chance to “do what they do best every day” (a 14-point drop since 2023)

• Less than 20% of students say an adult has talked to them about “postsecondary options other than college”

Those with a bone to pick with *kids these days* may read these stats and say, ‘Ok, this has always been the case, school’s always been boring, and Gen Z doesn’t have it much different than anyone else.’ But think about how much has changed in the past six years alone, post-Covid and now with AI, and the massive paradigm shifts in the workplace (and really just life) as a result. Last I checked, the purpose of school is, in fact, to prepare kids for their futures, so shouldn’t we try to meet that goal?

As the function of work begins to look different and interpersonal skills become even more critical to success, schools need to — at least — arm students with confidence to thrive in the rest of their lives.

Right now, that’s not how they’re feeling. But they’re pretty blunt in explaining how to bridge those gaps.

Students may never feel “ready,” but they can feel prepared.

In short:

• Teachers and 1:1 connections with adults matter.

• Extracurriculars should be embraced, but often aren’t. Same goes for career-connected or experiential learning.

• As the ROI of a traditional college degree becomes more of a question, pathways other than those that involve a traditional college campus experience need to be supported by teachers and parents.

• And for a generation of late bloomers coming out the other side of an isolated, way-too-online childhood, human-to-human, social skills should be prioritized.

Here are some of their first-hand perspectives.

• “The structure of high school wasn’t very helpful to where I am now. I don’t really think most of my classes that I took in high school I have in my brain anymore. Like, I just don’t. But I would say certain people, specific teachers ... genuinely made an impact, and I still am able to go to them,” said a 20-year-old female from New York.

• “I wish that the school environment was more accepting of extracurriculars, because I think sometimes engaging in a club or an activity that you actually care about can feel like a punishment because it can set you back and give you less time for schoolwork. And I think teachers don’t really address that,” said a 17-year-old female from Pennsylvania.

• “I feel like in my high school, there wasn’t really a lot of pushing from the school or the teachers to try to get you [to] go out there and experience a lot of things. A lot of the kids that were more successful coming out of high school kind of had to do those things on their own and kind of had to find programs or places to go to that would really suit their interests. There wasn’t really a lot of that available, at least in my school. So, I feel like if there was a more widespread focus on that, that would be extremely beneficial,” said a 19-year-old male from Ohio.

• “Everyone wants to do different stuff when they’re older. I wish some schools could maybe have different types of classes that could benefit a wider range of people than just, like, your ordinary math, science and histories and stuff like that,” said a 15-year-old male from Massachusetts.

• “I think maybe it has to do with post-pandemic and everything, but people in school nowadays are kind of lacking social skills and sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes lack the tools to be able to just relate with each other. And I’ve been in a lot of situations where in the beginning of the year, the teacher will say, ‘Hey, don’t worry. We’re going to do a lot of hands-on work, a lot of talking-to-peer work,’ and it just devolves into paper packets and busy work,” said a 17-year-old male from Arizona.

• “When most adults talk about the future, the first thing they think is going to college and getting a degree. ... At least at my school, I also feel like when people mention like, ‘Oh I want to go to like the Marines or the Army or the military when I’m older,’ or if they want to go to a trade school or do something of that sort, I feel like sometimes teachers get a little bit self-defensive of college. ... I feel like there should be more representation that teachers show to other career paths. ... If I heard of other paths after high school, like trade and stuff like that when I was younger, I feel like what would have been my interest would have changed,” said a 15-year-old male from Massachusetts.

This survey data comes alongside the ongoing ‘Voices of Gen Z’ Study with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. Data from this series has been crucial for making sense of Gen Z’s AI anxiety, how they feel about their futures and present, especially when it comes to school and work, and shed light on Gen Z’s rightward shift well before the 2024 election. The Walton Family Foundation has also supported my work on these topics.

In a provocative campaign that signals where public sentiment is on AI, the former NFL center and Garage Beer co-owner suggested consumers drink the brands’ beer and sparkling water, then send their pee to “cool these data centers.”

Take a peek:

The brand collab is the latest in a recent slate of both subtle and obvious anti-AI marketing. Other companies have employed tactics like using messy handwriting to show anti-perfection authenticity or have explicitly stated that a visual was made by humans.

This comes as Americans are increasingly anxious about AI.

We know Gen Z has a love hate relationship with AI, but lately, we’re sensing more hate than love.

*Read our related piece, A chorus of Gen Z graduation boos*

According to Pew Research data released last week, for the first time since they’ve been tracking AI sentiment, “a majority of adults under 30 (55%) now say they’re more concerned than excited about AI.” That’s a 24-point jump since 2021.

That data tracks with what we’ve been hearing about AI lately from members of The Up and Up’s Gen Z community.

Asked how and if their feelings on AI and relationship to the technology had changed in recent months, more than a few young adults told us they’ve soured on it altogether.

(🚨 Spoiler alert! There were plenty more replies like these, stay tuned for a full breakdown in our Fall 2026 Back to Reality report, coming out next week 🚨)

• “I hate it, burn it down,” said a 23–year-old New Yorker.

• “I always had a bad feeling about it but I don’t want to fuel using this type of tech because it makes me feel dumber and like I’m contributing to a system that is taking jobs,” said another 22-year-old New Yorker.

• “My community and hometowns are plagued by data centers, and that only strains my relations with AI,” said a 19-year-old from Texas.

• “It is a plague on society,” said a 21-year-old from Maryland.

• “I am still very against generative AI. There is only one Earth we can survive on,” said a 17-year-old from Arizona.

So it seems that Kelce’s ad is well-timed, and strikes a nerve, at least with Gen Z. At a time when it feels like all the adults in the room are talking about how necessary AI is and how young people will be left behind if they don’t get on board the AI train, the Liquid Death x Garage Beer campaign demonstrates smart, counter-cultural messaging — and it’s something I suspect we’re about to see a lot more.

Relatedly, I spoke to The New York Times’ Callie Holtermann for her recent report on ‘The Teens Taking on Data Centers.’ Read it here.

More noteworthy reads

• Why Do Rich Kids Love Socialism?, Tyler Austin Harper for The Atlantic

• Gen-Z wants to text at the speed of carrier pigeon, Molly Liebergall for Morning Brew

• Television’s Hottest Genre is Today’s Job Market, Olivia Hau for The Wall Street Journal

• For Gen Z, Building Wealth is in the Stock Market, Not the Housing Market, Sophie June for The New York Times

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

All summer, I’ve held weekly political focus groups with potential Gen Z voters.

We’ve covered a lot of ground:

• Their swingy politics and how their perspectives have shifted since 2024

• What they *actually* want from politicians

• Their economic anxiety

• What liberals really mean when they say they like socialism

• And why they’re “not asking for too much” by demanding social services

In each of these conversations, there’s been a common, often understated through line — one that’s now shining me right in the face.

I really can’t stress enough how rational most young people are — and their politics reflect that.

My generation’s politics have been sensationalized since the oldest amongst us became eligible to vote in 2016. First we were seen as harbingers of change that would help elect the first woman president, then we were revered as champions for racial and social justice that would save democracy — and later, once the younger half of Gen Z entered the picture, studied ad nauseam for shifting right and rebuking woke-ism while embracing the manosphere and trad-wife culture. Today, we’re all seen as socialists.

From my point-of-view, these trends are each worth examining with a fine-tooth comb. But when I zoom out and really listen to what Gen Zers have been telling me about their politics for years, it’s actually kind of… simple.

Across the country, Gen Z Americans really just want their politicians to be good, honest people, who do good for their community and country. That means tackling the high cost of living, working to fund government programs like SNAP and WIC, embracing social policies like affordable healthcare, housing, and education, and — today — regulating AI. It’s not that complicated. And it’s party agnostic.

Don’t believe me? Here’s what I heard this week.

Read more

The drinking rate 🍸

Hey babe, wake up. Gen Z’s drinking 🤯. After years of headlines indicating that Gen Z was drinking less than prior generations of young people, and as more Gen Zers actually hit the age where they’re *legally allowed* to drink, data shows they’re making up for lost time.

According to an IWSR report from July, 74% of Gen Z said they drank alcohol in March 2026, which tracks with 76% of boomers who said the same. The research shows that our generation’s drinking to socialize, not to unwind. Maybe we’re just late bloomers after all.

Hobbies-based dating 🥰

After years of living perpetually-online, more and more young people are craving in-person connection. They’re also looking for romance. The result: our generation’s looking for love in unexpected places. Call it a side effect of Gen Z’s in-person renaissance, or IRL Summer, as I’ve been writing. According to an Eventbrite study which reviewed postings with phrases like “singles,” “come solo,” and “find your people,” activity-based gatherings meant for a “meet-cute” are surging.

Trivia nights jumped 403% in popularity since last year, along with Mahjong nights (which saw a 235% spike), and plant swaps and terrarium workshops (up 117%). Even birdwatching is popular (up 131%).

The entire cast of Sterling Point 🌲

Move over Love Island. There’s officially a new winner for Gen Z’s show of the summer. Similar to last year’s obsession with Summer I Turned Pretty and this winter’s fixation with Off Campus, Sterling Point is the hot teen drama everyone’s now talking about, and its cast is having a moment as a result. The cast feels weirdly familiar and yet also refreshingly different. I’m obsessed. Read the show’s writer-director Megan Park on “how she gave ‘misunderstood’ young people the show they deserve,” in Rolling Stone.

Jon Ossoff

The Georgia Senator isn’t just all over the internet. His name keeps popping up in our Gen Z focus groups, too. This week, the 39-year-old Democrat (the youngest sitting Senator) is going viral for suggesting during a campaign rally that President Donald Trump is cozying up with his aide Natalie Harp rather than doing the job of president. The clip of the remark is the latest made-for-social moment from the senator, who’s gained traction for turning rally moments into social media phenomena. And just today, he was called out by Axios as one of the Democrats’ hottest “thirst trap” candidates.

Sadie Sink (and red hair 🔥)

Last summer, Sink stunned in the Broadway sensation John Proctor Is The Villain. This summer, she entered the Marvel universe. From her Spider Man debut to upcoming roles in X-Men and Avengers, she’s all over the place. And, apparently, with her fiery locks, she’s encouraging Gen Z to go red as a result.

Since last year, according to Allure, Google Trends saw a 5000% jump in queries for “Sadie Sink Hair Color,” and colorists are allegedly seeing a bump in requests for her signature hue.

For a generation obsessed with individuality and being “different,” this tracks. I have to say, I’m all for it.

Buddymoons 👯‍♀️👯‍♂️

Why go solo when you can go with friends? After all, we know Gen Z is prioritizing spending on shared experiences over time alone. Meanwhile, the economy isn’t getting any better, and weddings are getting more and more expensive — and more and more of a group affair. A ‘buddymoon’ — i.e. a post-wedding trip with friends — keeps the vibes up after the big day. Plus sharing costs of travel can make a post-wedding trip more doable, and even more fun. It’s not necessarily brand new (The Cut wrote about the trend last year), but it sure seems like honeymooning with friends is officially a hot thing to do. Foratravel, the travel agency that democratizes who can plan luxury trips, posted earlier this summer about “the rise of the buddymoon,” and these trips are all over social media. I have a friend who did one after getting married earlier this summer, too.

💌 Let me know if you like this format, and I’ll make it a regular thing every once in a while 💌

Noteworthy reads

• Is the Death of Millennial Wedding Culture Upon Us?, Rowan Beaird for Elle

• Gen Z Can’t Afford a First Date, Troy Closson for The New York Times

• Young Men are Abandoning the Workforce, Mary Julia Koch for The Wall Street Journal

• Is the grid dead? How young people are changing the feed, Isabel Bekele for Dazed

• Here’s What’s Cool on College Campuses for 2026-2027, According to Undergrads, Sophie Dweck for Town and Country

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

Losing my Yondr virginity

A dispatch from Emilia Kim

In true Gen Z fashion, I’m addicted to my phone. But this summer, I’m trying to break that cycle: screen time goals, app limits, deleting Tiktok. This week, I was forced to spend a night without it. It was the most fun I’ve had all summer.

On Sunday, I went to The Port Comedy Club in Baltimore. The Port requires every guest to lock their phone in a Yondr pouch at the door. You keep the pouch on you, but you can’t open it again until the show is over. My friends and I were the first ones there, which meant thirty minutes of... sitting. No phone to check, no group chat to scroll, nothing to do but talk.

Digital detox isn’t niche

The Port isn’t unique here. Yondr, the company behind the pouches, has been around for about a decade, but 2026 is the year they went mainstream. The technique has been used by Madonna, Childish Gambino, and Justin Timberlake, is deployed in over a thousand US schools, and hit The West End theater district in London.

Artists’ stated reason for Yondr-ing their audience is usually IP protection: comedians don’t want half-finished jokes leaking online, musicians don’t want unreleased songs bootlegged before an album drops.

“Going analog” is bigger than a vibe

I suppose it would be easy to write off the summer’s hottest accessory (or lack thereof) as a TikTok trend, but the numbers behind IRL summer show it’s not. A recent survey by Talker Research found that Americans want distance from their screens. In the survey of 2,000 Americans, “50% said they’ve made a point to disconnect digitally and spend less time on screens for their well-being.” Gen Z was leading the charge at about 63% saying they’re trying to disconnect — compared to 57% of millennials and 42% of Gen Xers.

IRL summer is everywhere

It’s truly not just me. This summer, we asked more than 50 Gen Zers how they are spending their free time. Here’s what we heard.

Read more

With more than a decade of experience, Rachel has a knack for spotting what’s coming before it hits your algorithm. In Link in Bio, she breaks down the strategies behind the internet’s stickiest campaigns, talks to the people who created them, and makes sense of the trends shaping how we communicate online. She’s consulted for brands including CAVA, Google, and West Elm, helping them figure out how to show up in feeds in ways that actually resonate.

I spoke with Rachel about why the best marketing feels like entertainment, which platforms we’re overlooking, what brands still get wrong about Gen Z, and where she thinks the internet is headed next.

Here’s our conversation, edited for clarity and brevity.

You’ve been writing Link in Bio for five years now, congrats. How has your read on what good social media looks like changed since you started?

RK: That’s a big question. When I think about the algorithm, I think about it as a dial. The algorithm was turned down a little bit more, and it felt like brands could sort of show up as their full selves on social media, and still reach their audience and reach their followers. When I think about the biggest change from when I started writing about it to now, it’s just how much brands have had to essentially become entertainment companies with how they’re showing up. You’re not guaranteed that your followers are going to see your posts, and it’s very much almost starting from scratch as to how to reach people. A lot of brands are continuing to struggle with how to do that.

You touched on the fact that brands are now basically media companies. When do you think that really started in earnest? Because one could argue that’s always been a thing. The medium was just different. When do you think this current iteration of brands-as-entertainment really took off? And what’s pushing brands to operate that way?

RK: When I think about in the past, when it would be brands as media companies, I think it was more in a commercial sense where they would create an ad campaign, and it was to go on television, and it was to entertain a broader sort of new audience. Whereas they could use social to continue to build “community” with existing followers, super fans. In the past few years we’ve seen the shift where, again, you’re not guaranteed that your followers will see your content, so every post is coming from a place of that commercial mindset because how a non-follower reacts to seeing your post is going to determine how your post performs in today’s algorithm. So you’re coming in with an assumption that nobody’s heard of your brand, whereas social media used to come from a place of everyone who’s following me has heard of my brand, and that’s a very different place to market from. In the past few years, you’ve seen that posts need to entertain on this more universal plane than ever before. And of course, then there’s algorithmic or platform features that play into that. You have Instagram creating an area for series and launching a TV app, which hints to brands of, hey, we really like this more sort of serialized, my show is on, mentality to social media, and I think that brands haven’t always been used to creating from that place.

If all brands are media companies, would you say that all of social is now like traditional QVC? It feels like we’re moving in the direction where the thing that comes after short form content is live streams. I just saw that Gruns, the fiber gummy, is hiring a live stream host. Is this where you see the energy going?

RK: I think that there will be sort of a bifurcation of social media in some ways. [Gruns’] hiring a live stream person, I believe, to run their TikTok shop. TikTok shop is a very powerful selling tool for a lot of brands, but when I talk to brands, they think of it as being different than even their brand. It’s a lever they can pull, but I don’t think it’s where a lot of brands want to be known for. They’re still going to do their big campaigns. I think Gruns did a campaign with Lisa Rinna, and it was like this big campaign, and they’re going to keep their TikTok shop strategy feeling very sales forward, and clearly are hiring a person to run it and invest in it. And so, I think that it’s not going to necessarily move into just being live streams, but we’re going to see teams and marketing teams sort of structure themselves to be the lower funnel of sales-driven social media, and then that upper funnel, really entertaining, big swings, campaign driven. What I feel like I’m noticing is that it’s a lot harder for brands to show up in that sort of evergreen way, always on, like posting five times a week, and they all do well type of way. If I think about Gap, who has one of my favorite social strategies right now, it’s them showing up once a month with a big campaign, and the posts in between do well, but it’s not like those have the same fandom around them.

Okay, so Gap is one of your favorite commercial brands right now. If you had to name three, what are the best brands understanding and reaching Gen Z right now?

RK: I mean, I just saw something about Rhode’s numbers of their latest campaign, and I think they’re doing a good job of reaching Gen Z. I think that a lot of brands want to replicate what Rhode has, but they don’t have Hailey Bieber, so it’s not that helpful of an example to give. Gap is another that I would name.

They also have the Hailey Bieber effect (she was in their latest campaign).

RK: Oh gosh, there’s a through line. And then for the final brand, I think that Topicals is doing a really good job, and I think their social is really fun.

(FWIW, we often ask our Gen Z community to name brands doing a good job reaching them right now, and Rhode, Gap, and Topicals have all been mentioned more than once.)

What platform is most underrated for brands right now?

RK: I think something is in the water at Instagram, Facebook right now… which Facebook, I can’t believe I’m even saying, but I think that they are using their own ability to pull the lever on the algorithm to incentivize people posting there. I don’t know if you read Kyle Tharp’s newsletter.

I do. He’s great.

RK: He reported on just how it’s so good [for] political influencers. One made almost $300,000 in a month on Facebook with payouts. So I’m paying attention to those platforms because I’m seeing accounts that have zero followers gain followings really quickly. I think they’re doing something to their algorithm that feels juiced in some way, and so I’m particularly curious about that. I think you used to sort of hear like, “Oh, I’m going to see it on Reels like a month later.” Like I don’t hear that anymore, right?

Agreed. You wrote a definitive list of brands with great social, according to you, which was according to your readers who filled out the survey. To you, what was most surprising on that list?

RK: Fishwife being at the top is surprising to me. I would sometimes think that the biggest brands would rise to the top of a list like that. So, seeing a Dunkin in there, that doesn’t surprise me. But Fishwife, Merit, some of the smaller brands. Another thing that surprised me was just how many brands that were known for their Threads presence showed up. Threads is a very interesting platform to me that I still can’t totally get a grasp on. But there are like a dozen brands that show up very prominently there, let’s say in a sort of “speaking like a human” type of way, and people like it. And I think that was surprising to me to see brands specifically called out for their strategy on that platform.

I was struck by New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani being on that list, because you wouldn’t typically think of a mayor as a “brand,” but part of why he’s so noteworthy to people is because he’s built a brand. Along those lines, what’s the #1 thing politicians or campaigns can borrow from successful brands right now?

RK: This is a very bad analogy that I need to work on, but something I’ve been talking a lot about is like when you are giving your dog a pill, you’ll wrap it in peanut butter or like a treat, right? You’ll hide it in there. And I think what the best politicians are doing on social media right now is taking their message, but finding [their] peanut butter, interesting way in.

I think about like the Abdul El-Sayed video where he’s doing Blue’s Clues, and that that was the way in to something about voter registration. Or Zohran did a take on Chef’s Table, but it was announcing something else about small businesses. And so, what’s that entertaining way in that you’re going to capture people’s attention to then deliver whatever sort of policy information you want.

I talk a lot about ‘The Two Gen Zs,’ and the idea that this generation was split down the middle by a variety of factors, but mainly COVID and tech, like TikTok or now AI. Older Gen Zers have a different relationship to a whole range of things — from politics to tech to authority — than younger Gen Zers, and there are really different ways of resonating with older and younger Gen Zers. I’m curious if you see that split showing up in how brands are talking to this massive generation online?

RK: I don’t think that they’re as good about it as you would probably advise them to be. When I hear from marketing leadership and at places like Cannes Lions, it’s still very much ‘Gen Z as a monolith’ to them. Or a big thing I hear is like marketing leaders who use their kids as the barometer of like ‘my kid told me we should work with this person,’ and so not that that can’t be effective, but that’s that’s one person.

What’s one trend that you think brands will over-index on this fall versus one trend that you think is underplayed?

RK: As the conversation comes around to serialized content, you know, creating a niche, I think brands are going to create more shows on social media, and I think it’ll happen to varying success. I think they’re going to over-index on that, and I’m worried about performance a little bit. If you are going to go in that direction, you have to let go of a lot of the messaging that I think you would typically want to put into a traditional sort of advertisement. And so I will be curious to watch that rollout. In terms of underrated, I think there’s still an overemphasis on volume, and I would love to see brands think about impact per post and not posting as much for you know trying to keep up with the algorithm and more for only sort of like speaking when they have something to say.

I’ve written a lot about a shift to in-person activity this summer. And the appetite for constantly being online is dwindling. How do you see brands meeting the moment online amid a hunger for anything in-person?

RK: Something that I wrote about a while back was this idea of Mister Rogers marketing. This idea that basically understanding the mindset that you’re meeting people at in their scroll right now. And so I don’t think that means talking about analog on your social media, you know, as a way to meet that moment. But more understanding that people are showing up to their scrolls a little bit more exhausted and skeptical, and what type of content might make them feel good in that moment. A lot of times brands would go in that more rage bait sort of like chaotic way, and I think that will not be met in a nice way in this current moment. And so, how can you make people feel good? How can you speak slower and just feel like you’re providing value and joy in their scroll instead of chaos.

Do you see this showing up for individuals online? We did a summer trend prediction newsletter, and one of the trends that came up was more of a desire for following people who are like the girl next door, everyday people, and not influencers. How is that shift showing up in your research of brand marketing? You’ve written about UGC creators. But how are you seeing that shift show up from a brand point of view?

RK: Brands are understanding that their customer or a follower who might not have the biggest audience size is still somebody who you can engage with and have fun with online.I’ve seen examples of customer brand trips. I think that’s an interesting way to turn that on its head. I think that we’re seeing a lot of fatigue, obviously, around brand trips and sort of what they represent. And so, I think that people like seeing brands treat consumers as if they’re influencers. And so, I’m seeing more brands gifting consumers, reserving PR packages for more of those every day people, and so I have a feeling that we’ll see more brands lean into that side of things.

And what brands are getting the IRL plays right right now, bringing their online strategy offline?

RK: There’s multiple ways that I’m seeing that. On one hand, I thought that Ramp’s stunt with Brian Baumgartner live streaming it, having people show up in person, feeling like there’s a social currency to capturing it themselves, was really smart. And so there’s sort of this more stunty way of showing up in person. And then there’s the more sort of intimate ways of gathering community. I don’t remember it completely, but I know Alix Earle invited her consumers of her brand Reale Actives over to a hotel night, and I thought that that was really sweet. And it wasn’t about scale or volume of posts; it was more about intimacy. And I think that that was intriguing to me, especially for somebody with her sort of like scale.

And lastly, what is your weekly screen time?

RK: 6 hours 54 minutes.

Noteworthy reads

• Entrepreneurship is booming in the U.S. Gen Zers are leading the way., Mary Cunningham for CBS News

• Gen Z-ers Dress Like They’ve Never Worn Clothes Before, Thomas Morton for The New York Times

• When Mom and Dad Are a Little Too Involved in Gen Z’s Jobs, Celia Bernhardt for The Wall Street Journal

• Gen Z is Testing the Limits of How Weird Parties Can Get, Victoria Feng for The Atlantic

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

All summer long, young people have been hanging out together, watching basketball, Love Island, and celebrating America’s 250th. I wrote about the upside to all this socializing, what it signals, and where it could go from here. It’s a fun one.

Here’s a gift link to the full piece.

I hope you enjoy it!

I held a Gen Z focus group on Tuesday, right as the primary was underway in Michigan.

The group included three young women from Michigan who had all voted for Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive candidate who won the state’s Democratic Senate primary, defeating Rep. Haley Stevens, the more moderate candidate.

While I could spend time discussing the results in Michigan Tuesday in a vacuum, focusing on campaign finance and PAC money or Israel, which were central topics, the general theme of the focus group signals far more about where young Americans are at and the vibes they’re looking for ahead of November than any single issue.

Amid mounting economic anxiety, big broad social policies have become Gen Z voters’ table stakes — especially on the left.

As one 19-year-old put it, young voters are not “asking for too much” by demanding social services. From healthcare to tuition support, that’s what this boils down to.

I asked the voters in Tuesday’s group all my usual questions:

• The top issues impacting them

• The candidates doing a good job right now

• & what they’re looking for from politicians and government

Asked what they’re looking for from politicians, the voters described a mix of social policies and a social, be-where-the-people-are, kind of politics.

What is one thing you’re looking for from a political candidate right now?

These young voters are asking to be seen and heard. They described the way inflation has impacted their daily lives — from rising costs of education to equipment needed for their school and work and even gas — and they’re looking for someone who they feel gets where they’re coming from and who is willing to do something about it.

But it’s not just that. Here’s more of what I heard.

I asked the group what they see as the biggest misconception about their generation right now, and this same young woman, 19 and from Ann Arbor Michigan, said, plainly put:

Read more

It’s impossible to talk to a young person today without confronting their mounting job and AI anxiety.

Everyone is grappling with our fast-changing economy and workforce — from the high school senior weighing the ROI of college, to the community college student juggling part-time work and their slate of classes, to the four-year college student wondering if their degree really will pay off as they apply to dozens and dozens of jobs.

It’s within this context that the American Service Project — an initiative to inspire a new generation of national service — was conceived. The group is building with a hypothesis that three main factors — economic insecurity, dwindling institutional trust, and our current political moment — are the perfect storm of events making the moment ripe for a new vision of national service; one that centers Gen Z and its future.

“At pivotal moments in American history, our country has responded by bringing young people together in national service to address the country’s greatest challenges and most ambitious projects,” said Vicky Hausman, Founder & CEO of American Service Project. “Today we are on the cusp of an economic transformation driven by AI, while the traditional pathways into adulthood are breaking down for this generation. So we went straight to the source, asking young people themselves about their hopes, their anxieties, and what service would need to offer for them to say yes. What we heard confirms the opportunity: national service can meet this moment, giving young Americans the skills, relationships, and sense of purpose to launch their adult lives.”

To better understand how Gen Z feels about national service, and whether there’s a generational appetite for the kinds of programs they’re envisioning, I partnered with the group in May for two focus groups with more than two dozen participants — ages 15-24, across a range of geographical and educational backgrounds. We over-recruited for non-party affiliated and conservative young men, given that the service field is often dominated by young women.

Here’s the TL;DR:

Our research indicates that young adults are generally supportive of and interested in the concept of a national service program for a one to two-year period, so long as:

• It’s not mandatory

• It doesn’t set them back in their careers

• It serves as a launching pad giving them critical skills necessary for the workforce, mentorship, & purpose

Amid COVID and a digital revolution, today’s young adults have grown up questioning their sense of self and their place in the world. And at the end of the day, so much of our generation’s anxiety about the future is rooted in their sense of purpose. Service work, we found, is one possible place to foster it.

Read our findings

Key takeaways

There were many key takeaways from our qualitative research, but a few themes stand out. Read the full breakdown and key findings here.

1. The job market and pathways to adulthood feel broken, and young people are looking for a way in. We heard young adults describe an employment landscape that feels rigged against them before they even begin. From their POV today, many entry-level jobs demand years of experience, and graduate degrees a baseline. Meanwhile, while white-collar jobs demand years of experience, those looking for service oriented and retail-jobs (such as working at a grocery store, pharmacy, or even ice cream shop) describe an environment where they apply to plenty of job openings and never hear back.

As one 24-year-old in Pennsylvania put it: the job market is “a mess in general.”

And the credential arms race is real. An 18-year-old at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas described feeling that a bachelor’s degree is “a bare minimum requirement,” and that a master’s from a prestigious school is now what actually sets candidates apart.

National service could arm young adults with a structured, credible on-ramp into the workforce.

2. Success means stability, and the fear of falling behind is paralyzing. When asked what success looks like, participants consistently returned to the same themes: financial security, stability, and family. What stood out equally was the weight of not having a safety net and how that fear is constraining the choices young people feel able to make.

A 19-year-old woman at Morgan State University described it like this: “Opportunities that I feel like young people are missing out on today is the opportunity to really branch out and explore. I feel like people are always like, your early 20s and like going to college is a time to figure out what you want to do. But every time I talk to my friends who may want to change their major or even explore more about themselves, they’re crippled by the fear that they won’t be able to financially support it... So they’re not able to explore their own personal interests as much. And I feel like people are being pushed into things that they don’t want to do.”

National service could provide young people with a structured space to explore and deepen their horizons without financial strain.

3. Raised online, coming of age with AI, eager to get outside. Young adults’ pushback to the possibility of automation and their already perpetually-online lives is real.

When I asked about the type of work that may be most interesting to them, it was clear how young adults’ priorities are shifting to value hands-on, outdoor, and in-person labor.

“Especially as a college student, it’s important to touch grass,” said a 19-year-old man at Purdue. And a 21-year-old man in Texas said he would appreciate the opportunity to be “outdoors” rather than at a desk job where he couldn’t see the impact of his labor.

Plainly put he said: “I [would] just prefer to be somewhere outdoors where I know I can make an impact and where I’m not going to a job that I don’t want to go to every day.” Young men were especially interested in work in forestry, agriculture, construction, and public lands.

4. Local impact resonates most, in service of a shared national vision. Young adults’ trust issues generate skepticism in large-scale government programs. That said, when we narrowed the focus to local and community-based work or a smaller project as part of a larger coalition of projects, they were far more interested.

According to a 24-year-old from Pennsylvania, the idea of a New Deal style program that would pay “a wage you could live off” and promote a “broader national vision,” would be beneficial. He’s in favor of “building all of this infrastructure that’s going to get used by people that’s going to benefit all these different people,” rather than private smaller-scale projects.

But we heard a range of input, and participants didn’t all agree on the ranking in value of local vs. nationally focused service.

“I would probably be most interested if it stayed at a state level because I think then they’re better able to equip what their actual states’ needs are the most,” said a 20-year-old from Waco, Texas.

The most vocal proponents of a national coalition were high school students who emphasized the power of shared national goals to overcome the fear of, “What’s one person going to do?”

5. One major caveat. Importantly, our research proved that as long as national service reads as a gap year from the real world, it only recruits people who can afford detours.

Asked if they’d be interested in a year of service, a 21–year-old woman at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill worried about “feel[ing] behind compared to other people if they’re already starting their careers and already going into the working field.”

An 18-year-old man at Morgan State University said, “I think it’s a great opportunity, but if it interferes with… I guess… a better opportunity, say if I get a full ride scholarship or I have other job opportunities or intern opportunities, that would interfere.”

And a 19-year-old man at Purdue said: “I feel like that would only be beneficial for people who are already in some of the best circumstances possible... most people just aren’t in that boat.”

At the end of the day, our focus groups revealed that any national service program — and truly any initiative meant to reach Gen Z adults right now — must be designed with economic accessibility, incentives, and opportunity at its core.

And there’s a deeper opportunity. The young people we spoke with described service as something that could shape them: build character, teach skills, and give them a story about who they’re becoming. For a generation anxious about its place in the world, the most powerful pitch for national service may be the simplest one. It’s a chance to find meaning.

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

Post-COVID, dialogue around freedom of speech has changed. And campuses, a historic breeding ground for debate over speech, have once again entered the spotlight in a conversation about the first amendment.

In the past few years alone, we’ve witnessed:

• Intense campus protests over Israel, Gaza, and conflict in the Middle East

• Mixed with Trump-era threats and, actual cuts, to federal funding for higher education, as institutions grapple with legitimate pushback to political bias and ideological homogeneity on their campuses

• A vibrant counter-cultural movement to political correctness led by young men in particular and “the death of wokeness”

• The rise in tolerance of political violence and the public assassination of Charlie Kirk — who was speaking on a college campus when he was killed

• And, overall, a renewed emphasis on freedom of speech, and diversity of opinion, as a priority issue for young voters

That sets the scene for a new set of ‘Speech Code Ratings’ from FIRE, The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which provides a singular database to track campus free speech policies in the United States. FIRE’s 20th Spotlight on Speech Codes was released today and shared first with The Up and Up.

You can read the full report, along with their methodology, here.

The ratings identify schools as “green light,” “yellow light,” or “red light” according to “how much First Amendment-protected speech is restricted” — and this year, the number of “red light” schools hit a record low. To top that off, forty-seven schools have embraced “institutional neutrality,” i.e. a policy whereby an institution does not take positions on issues not directly related to the school, made famous by the 1967 Kalven Report at the University of Chicago.

Shifting ratings. This year, The University of Alabama, University of California, Davis, and University of West Florida joined the ranks on the “green light” list. While Bard College, Tulane University, and the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry moved down a peg from yellow to red. Ten schools, including Colgate, University of Washington, and Western Michigan University, moved from red to yellow.

The renewed emphasis on freedom of speech — both from fed-up students who spent years walking on egg shells in fear of saying the wrong thing and pissing off the wrong people and frustrated campus administrators, faculty members, parents, alumni, trustees, and donors — has, in fact, prompted schools to move in the direction of protecting students’ speech.

According to FIRE’s report, this year, there were a “record low” of “red light” campuses, i.e. “schools whose policies restrict free expression.”

What we’re seeing. One of the biggest shifts we’ve tracked in Gen Z’s politics is their collective emphasis on freedom of speech — which dovetails with universities’ shifting speech policies.

While older Gen Zers — Gen Z 1.0 — were raised on political correctness, younger Gen Zers — Gen Z 2.0 — have largely rejected the policing of language.

This tracks with other traits of Gen Z 2.0 — who grew resentful of authority during and after COVID, years of lockdowns, mask and vaccine mandates, and the intensity of movements such #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and the aftermath of October 7th on college campuses.

And what we’re hearing.

Since the 2024 election, free speech has become a top issue raised by Gen Z voters in our focus groups — so much so that “campus free speech clubs” were actually on our list of INs for 2025.

Fast forward, after President Donald Trump took office for the second time in 2025 we had a young voter share that free speech is the most underrated political issue for Gen Z — and, personally, the issue where she saw the biggest initial disappointment from the current administration.

“It’s been the biggest disappointment,” a 20-year-old young woman who voted for Trump shared at the time, “that this administration has not been friendly to free speech. And I kind of feel like people, when it comes to free speech, are getting tired because neither side is embracing a principled position on it.”

Last fall, the assassination of Charlie Kirk only magnified an already robust conversation about the responsibility of schools to adopt policies that encourage debate and dialogue — rather than suppress it. In a September 2025 listening session just weeks after he was killed, students from across the country advocated for urgent campus policies to increase dialogue across partisan divides, which is only possible in an environment where free speech is embraced.

The stakes.

Campus culture and policies around speech impact more than just the students already enrolled at the institution. According to The Up and Up’s Emilia Kim, a rising sophomore at Johns Hopkins, schools’ stances on speech actually impacted her college-decision making process.

“The ability to freely speak out on my college campus, especially with other students, was an important factor. I wanted to know that I could make my voice heard without fear,” she said.

Having grown up amid hyper-caution, wary to do or say the wrong thing, it’s evident that the younger half of Gen Z is acutely aware of the consequences of a lack of free speech and firmly asking their leaders and institutions to move in the other direction.

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

Yes, democratic socialists have racked up electoral victories in primaries in New York, Colorado, and New Jersey, and recent polling suggests that Gen Z has a more favorable view of socialism than older generations — and prefers socialism to capitalism. By the numbers: A Cato Institute poll ahead of America’s 250th found that more than half of Gen Z supports socialism (53%) compared to the 45% who support capitalism.

But I’ve been asking the young people in our summer focus groups to define socialism, and there’s not a real consensus on what it actually means.

Beyond that, I’ve yet to have a focus group participant tell me they’re a full-throttle democratic socialist (even if they like the policies they say democratic socialists are proposing). So assuming that all young voters are well-versed in socialism and embracing the ideology outright is false.

Most recently, I asked a focus group of left-leaning young voters between the ages of 19 and 33 what socialism means to them. While all eight participants said they had heard of it, only one defined it head on.

• “Democratic socialism is obviously a subsect of socialism which in itself is a theory that promotes the involvement of the state in public welfare,” said a 21-year-old from Miami, Florida. “Especially coming from a Hispanic background myself, you hear a lot about socialism being thrown around as something equivalent to like the devil. It’s the child of communism in a lot of Latin people’s brains and it’s something that, to them, has destroyed countries. You look at other cases of democratic socialism, you see that Norwegian countries tend to implement it quite well. And then also the US has a lot of cases of democratic socialism like [what] Zohran Mandani is doing for example or is vying to do welfare like healthcare, education, all of these things kind of encompass that and so I think it’s up to perception.”

I asked the group to share policies that come to mind when they think of democratic socialism. It’s becoming more and more clear that many progressive ideas that were central to the 2020 Democratic primary (like paid family leave and universal healthcare), are now broadly coded as socialist — and these are policies that young liberals widely embrace.

Here’s what some shared.

• “Universal healthcare,” said a 21-year-old from Boston, Massachusetts. “That’s just the first thing that comes to mind, is the government’s involvement in making sure that everybody is cared for and everyone’s health remains a priority despite their income. And I think that is something that makes me view socialism in more of a positive light because some people obviously don’t have the same financial situations as others. That doesn’t mean that they should be undervalued in society.”

• “When I think of democratic socialists, they’re trying to meet the needs of the people,” said a 23-year-old from Arizona. “Expanding access to healthcare. Making college or education more affordable. Raising the minimum wage. Investing in affordable housing. Expanding programs like paid family leave or for child care. And I think I also associate it with higher taxes on wealthier individuals or large corporations to help fund those kinds of public services.”

Asked to name candidates or politicians that are doing a good job right now, it’s obvious that DSA candidates are rising. But that’s not the full story.

Participants listed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and Melat Kiros — the DSA candidate in Colorado who’s likely to become the first Gen Z woman in Congress. But they also named Senators Jon Ossoff and Mark Kelly.

When I asked the group if they’d label themselves a democratic socialist or socialist, not one person raised their hand (at risk of sounding like a broken record, Gen Z hates labels). But some are starting to “lean” that way — and that matters.

• “I would say I lean towards it, but I haven’t completely been with that party,” said a 19-year-old from Colorado.

• “I would say I’m in between democrat and democratic socialist,” said the 23-year-old from Arizona.

• “I would definitely lean that way,” said the 21-year-old from Boston.

So what?

As the 2026 midterm elections come into focus, our research demonstrates that young liberals are still wary of outright embracing “socialism,” even as many support policies that increasingly read that way. Politicians who loudly advocate for bold, progressive policies will continue to capture attention and relevance, while those without a clear vision or an ability to articulate what they stand for will fall by the wayside — regardless of their party affiliation. And when it comes to Democrats, if traditional (i.e. establishment) candidates continue to cede ground by failing to illustrate what the America they want to live in actually looks like, they’ll continue to lose — not just in the 2026 midterms, but in gaining this generation’s loyalty.

Noteworthy reads

• Relatedly, this piece from the WSJ’s Future View titled ‘Socialism and the Young’ offers a great analysis from a number of young adults

• Gen Z Fell Out of Love With Work. I Don’t Blame Them., Emi Nietfeld for The New York Times

• Call Her Mommy. Gen Z women are paying for, and parenting, their boyfriends., Angelina Chapin for The Cut

• Young Adults are Letting AI Do Their Talking for Them – Even In Person, Natalie Kaufman for The Wall Street Journal

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

Last week, we covered a brewing generational phenomenon. As Gen Z emerges from its post-Covid social hangover, young adults are paying big bucks to hangout with friends, buying things like tickets to concerts, sporting events, or even group dinners — but they’re not always getting paid back. As we’ve covered extensively, IRL Summer comes with a hefty price tag and there are plenty of young adults spending money without thinking how they’re really going to pay it back. For a generation dealing with enough economic anxiety as it is, that’s not great.

Understanding all of this, we decided to dig deeper into the current finances of our generation.

And while yes — there are plenty of young people buying now and paying later, there’s also a growing trend in young people’s awareness of how they’re spending and saving their money and plenty of nuance in Gen Z’s money habits.

As summer winds down and fall planning begins, we wanted to know how young people rectify their itch for all things community with their need to save. So we asked them.

Our summer fellows hosted listening sessions in their own communities to break down trends in spending and saving.

I read through their dispatches, and here’s what I make of it:

1. Our generation is interested in short-term and long-term saving, given what we saw during COVID and how it affected the global economy. That includes saving on plans with friends

2. As much as we love to complain about our financial woes, we’re facing the same stressors as older adults

3. And having grown up on buy now, pay later and amid inflation that’s coincided with our entry to the real world, we’re still getting the hang of our finances

Read more

But I’m not the only one who’s been paying attention to the lines and what they signal.

Last week, rolled out a new cover story about this summer’s ‘humiliating’ and ‘exhilarating’ lines by the one-and-only Brock Colyar (who’s penned famous titles like ‘It Must Be Nice to Be a West Village Girl’ and ‘The Cultural Ascendancy of the New Young Right’).

I sat down with Brock to talk about the piece — and why we’re all waiting in line.

Here’s our conversation, edited for clarity and brevity. We’re also trying something new at The Up and Up, and you can watch our full conversation on our YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe :)

You’ve covered youth and nightlife culture in New York City for years. When did lines stop being something that people just tolerated and started being something that actively seek out?

BC: Coming out of the pandemic, there was such an explosion of young people hanging out and doing new things. We were all talking about Dimes Square, and I had a nightlife column at the time, and everybody was going out, and it felt like everybody was doing ketamine and going to the rave, and then I feel like we got just the right amount of years away from the pandemic, and over the last two summers, I feel like things started to change, and the youth culture started like gravitating more towards influencer culture. Not that that didn’t exist already, it did. [But] it felt like that started to be the predominant way we thought about young people and Gen Z in New York.

Last summer is the first time I started noticing the lines. I was writing my piece about the West Village Girls, and obviously all of them were standing in line for Swedish candy at the time. And then this summer, you know, it just felt like it got so much more intense. I live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and even in my neighborhood, which when I moved here, say six years ago, felt like a quiet kind of tony, waterside neighborhood. All of a sudden, there were lines everywhere. I live very close to Radio Bakery, and like there was a line there every morning, and then of course the West Village just got even more intense.

From my perspective (and I write about this), there’s a social aspect to lines — of people wanting to be around other people, wanting to be where the people are. We’re in this moment post-Knicks victory in New York City, the World Cup really popped off. To what extent is there a social aspect to the line-waiting culture, and how does that fit into the narrative of summer 2026?

BC: When I started on this story, I had read a few pieces and seen a few comments online, kind of suggesting that the interest in line waiting had something to do with a third space or people getting to spend time with each other, and I will say two things.

So, I think to some extent it’s about community, but I don’t think it’s about community as much as some people want it to be. You know what it reminds me of? There’s something quite innocent about it. It’s like when I was in high school and I couldn’t drink yet, and so the only thing to do with friends in your spare time was go (I’m from Tennessee), so in our case, go to Sonic or go hang out in a parking lot with our Sonic drinks. It feels like that, kind of just an innocent, non-alcoholic way to spend time with friends.

Gen Z is used to instant gratification. You can literally have fro-yo delivered to your apartment in five minutes from Pinkberry. So why is it that people are going and waiting in line at Mimi’s, Culture, Myka, or Birdie’s and not either going to Pinkberry, which has no line, or ordering it to their apartment.

BC: There’s something very conducive about the lines to conversation, right? Because you’re waiting and you’re wondering how long it’s gonna be, and you’re wondering if it’s worth it. I feel like that is a conversation starter. I mean, I was having to ask people these questions because I was writing a story about it, but I think naturally people were starting conversations with each other by just being like, ‘Hey, how long have you been waiting?’ And that gets people talking.

I also think there’s something about all of this, the way that TikTok has affected the city. TikTok has allowed all of us to kind of be tourists of our own city every night. I look at TikTok in bed, and I’m seeing things that are in my neighborhood. I learned of a restaurant opening in my neighborhood because of TikTok this week, and I might not have noticed it for months just walking past it. But the internet [is] encouraging us to get out and be tourists in our own city or something, which I think is kind of fun.

In the piece, you cite a quote from June of 1981. What’s the through line between that era’s line culture and this one? And do you think that what’s happening is now something new, or it’s just the same thing that’s always happened, but with a new TikTok flavor?

BC: This piece from 1981 in New York Magazine, which is so great, is about line culture. It’s really funny to go back and read it because, I mean, it’s just a completely different era of the city, and you see how charmed our lives are now. Because the writer is talking about lines, but it’s the ‘80s, and I think there was a sense that the city was overcrowded, and so he’s talking about waiting in line at the bank, waiting in line at the post office, waiting in line to get through the Holland Tunnel. And now, the things that we wait on, are these kind of frivolous, small luxuries.

You also talk about the herd mentality that people caught themselves in. Did you find that most people were self aware about being manufactured from their For You Page into a line? Or were people in denial about it?

BC: People knew the reason that they were there. They knew that they were trying to kind of do what everybody else was doing. People knew that they were joining the masses and standing in these lines. People were very self aware about that, and in fact, a lot of times when I was talking to people, they would kind of distance themselves. It’s like they didn’t want to be known as one of the line people.

But I don’t know if I really think that there’s anything wrong about this herd mentality. When I was writing about the West Village girls last year, there was something a little bit queasy or uncomfortable to me about the ways in which they kind of fetishized homogeneity. They kind of wanted to look like each other. They wanted to go to the same places as one another. They were all trying to fit this very specific type, which I found, again, a bit disturbing. In this case, I don’t know if I felt that. People would talk as if they were like detectives or sleuths. Like, of course, if you’ve seen something 1000 times on your iPhone, it’s not so much that you’re doing what everybody else is doing. A lot of people were going to try to form their own opinion, like they wanted to decide for themselves if it was worth it. And that’s like a human instinct… of course people want to do that.

Do you think people were resentful if they went and there wasn’t a line? Are people actually are craving the experience of being in the line?

BC: I don’t think people are craving the experience of being in a line. I do think it’s kind of a nice time killer. Again, people would say things to me like, ‘Oh, I’m just not ready to go home.’ Like, ‘I don’t want to go sit at a bar or pay $70 for dinner right now.’ So it’s a nice way to kill time with your friends. But I don’t know if anybody was looking for it. In fact, I think a lot of people are kind of looking for ways to cheat the line. Personally, I’m in Greenpoint, so all these places with lines, I know what times of day they’re not busy, and so I purposely go at those times. And I think a lot of people are doing that. I mean, Radio Bakery. If I see that there’s not a line, I will just go in and buy something, even if I’m not hungry, and save it for later. It just feels like a small miracle. Like, oh, there’s not a line today, so I want to go.

You brought up another point about how people don’t want to pay $70 for dinner. But at lot of these places, the fro-yo, or the sweet treat, or whatever it is, is relatively expensive compared to the same version of it that you can get at the supermarket. So I’m curious, at a time when economic anxiety is really high, when the New York mayor just won a campaign running on the fact that the city’s unaffordable, how do you square that circle? Why are people willing to spend this type of money on treats?

BC: Some of the stuff is expensive. A $9.50 PB&J croissant. I think I paid $14 the last time I went to Myka, and that was with one little serving of soft serve and I think one or two toppings. However, I think that that is just the reality of what things cost in New York right now. And at the end of the day, my $14 yogurt is cheaper than pretty much every cocktail I’ve had in the last two years. It’s cheaper than any lunch I could buy, even at Chopped, where I get my salads during the work week.

It also reminds me of that statistic that gets thrown around like the lipstick effect in fashion. Which is when there’s times of economic anxiety, people spend their money on small goods. They don’t buy the Chanel jacket, they buy the Chanel lipstick which costs $70. So, I think there’s some level of that happening here. Also these are kids who have a ton of disposable income. These are well-to-do New York City kids. Everybody works in marketing and is making fine money.

From your point of view, what lines are worth it, and what would you wait in line for?

BC: It’s funny because you know that SNL skit, the Big Dumb Line, that came out last year. The kind of joke of it is that you get to the end of the line and you get a shitty dollar slice of pizza. I think one interesting thing that’s happening in terms of the places I was writing about is, it’s all pretty great. Like these are small businesses, all kind of like artisanal items. I didn’t really discuss this in the piece, but you see plenty of pop ups on the weekends in a neighborhood like Soho, where people are standing around waiting for a long time for free shit, and it’s usually you know just something awful. But in these cases, I think it’s all pretty great. I think Caffè Panna is delicious. Again, I live near Radio Bakery. I go all the time. L’industrie is great. I can’t really get on board with most of the trendy bagel places because I’d rather just go to Tompkins Square, where there’s also usually a line.

The yogurt is the most mystifying because again, like, how good can fro-yo be? But I have to say, I had Myka, it was pretty damn delicious. I hate to be too excited about this chain of frozen yogurt, but it’s really good.

If you had to bet, what’s the next thing that people will line up for?

BC: We’ve hit so many of the basics. It’s funny how so many of these, the critique that people make is that they’re things that you can get anywhere in New York, or things that New York is known for. So I feel like we’ve done the pizza, and we’ve done the bagels, and the like weird Frankenstein, only-can-get-it-in-New-York pastries.

Like a new lobster roll place just opened in Greenpoint. It was a pop up. A lot of these places I wrote about also were pop-ups at one time that turned into brick and mortars. It was a pop-up that has turned into a brick and mortar. They’re selling lobster rolls with a full pound of lobster topped with caviar and uni. Of course, you can’t see the prices online, but it just opened like last week, and it did kind of make me think, I wonder if we’ll start getting slightly more upscale versions of these things. I walked past The Mark Hotel recently, and they were doing kind of luxury, caviar-topped hot dogs. So I kind of wonder if this is something creeping up.

Noteworthy Reads

• ‘Don’t Forget About Us’: 10 Young Trump Voters Score Trump’s Second Term, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Adrian J. Rivera for The New York Times

• Moving Back Home Used to Be a Sign of Failure. Now It Shows Financial Savvy., Rebecca Picciotto and Nicholas G. Miller for the Wall Street Journal

• Is After Midnight the New Peak Hour for Gen Z Shoppers?, Roy Stephen Canivel for Women’s Wear Daily

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

A few weeks ago, I unpacked Gen Z’s obsession with Love Island. Two weeks later, the season’s wrapped, Trinity Tatum and Bryce Dettloff have been crowned Season 8’s winners, and group chats are starting to move on.

But on to what, exactly?

Tomorrow, long-awaited films like Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and Alice Oseman’s “Heartstopper” will be released, but will they sweep our generation the way Love Island, or even this summer’s hit movies “Backrooms” and “Obsession” have? Perhaps become a new generational favorite?

To learn what makes a TV show or movie a “favorite,” I hosted a listening session with The Up and Up’s summer fellows. Here’s what they told me.

Spoiler alert, depth isn’t dead. It’s just not in your living room. And relatability goes a long way — that can include leaning into my generation’s collective skepticism and distrust.

Read more

Nature is healing, and IRL summer is bringing Gen Z out of its digital socially isolated cocoon. But for many, that comes with a hefty price tag.

As young adults gravitate toward spending on things like concerts, sporting events, and trips — i.e. shared, in-person experiences — they’re fronting large purchases on behalf of their friends. But they’re not always getting paid back.

By the numbers

According to a recent report from Zelle, the digital payment platform:

• 76% of Gen Z consumers “who have fronted money for a group trip say they were not fully repaid”

• 20% “have canceled plans, muted or ignored group chats to avoid repayment”

• 55% “say it created tension or negatively affected a relationship,” and 14% “say they have ended a friendship or relationship because of repayment disputes”

So while it might finally feel like this generation is healing from its loneliness era (and it really seems like they are, because according to the report, Gen Z is starting to spend the most on group travel and events), there can be a steep cost associated with hanging out the way they have been.

And for a generation dealing with deep economic anxiety, that’s not great.

So, why does this seem to be a particular problem with Gen Z? Our intern, Abbey, weighs in below. From her POV, there are three core dynamics at play.

First, there’s the age component. Younger people are more likely to mix money and social life since we have fewer commitments (and no jobs, lol), and that means spending more on group trips. But apart from being the youngest generation with any real purchasing power, Gen Z has been raised on the Buy Now, Pay Later doctrine. Klarna — i.e. the service that lets you do exactly that — may have budgeted for losses in delayed repayments, but our friends certainly did not.

Then, there’s the tech. Money has always been a sensitive spot in relationships, and now it’s easier than ever to lend and lose money. Along with platforms that let you send money with just a click, you can even send money you don’t have yet. Gen Z’s FOMO and need for instant gratification is manifesting in a sort of klarnamaxxing: commit to the plan but not the payment plan.

And when it comes to avoiding repaying their friends, young people are showing our COVID-era roots. There are deft abilities with technology paired with the crutch of going mute, camera-off. You can transfer funds in an instant, but also close yourself off. So while people want to make plans, to be outside, they’re comfortable muting groupchats and ditching plans to avoid uncomfortable conversations.

This summer, with dynamic pricing, inflation, a poor job market, etc… stuff is expensive and Gen Z is feeling the weight of that as we try to balance community and personal finances. Let’s not swap lost time for lost savings.

Noteworthy reads

• In turning to trade school, Gen Z confronts an Enduring Stigma, Callie Holtermann for The New York Times

• Where Gen Z’s time goes: How the generation compares with millennials, and why experts are worried, Joelle Gross for NBC News

• Gen Z is ‘job scrolling’ in the office while on the clock. Here’s what that says about the workplace, Jennifer Mattson for Fast Company

• Gen Z’s Band of Brothers, Mary Julia Koch for The Wall Street Journal

Interested in working with The Up and Up? Email hello@theupandup.us

I held two focus groups with more than a dozen Gen Z voters this week, ages 18-25, from seven states: Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New York, Nevada, Indianna, and Illinois.

They were the latest in our Gen Z politics series, where we’re asking about the key themes and issues they’re focused on ahead of the 2026 midterms. Earlier this week, I wrote about what young voters are looking for from politicians — character, hope, accountability, transparency.

When it comes to the political issues young people are focused on, we talk a lot about economic anxiety. But I’m not sure many people really understand what this actually feels like for those going through it.

Here’s what you need to know — and how young voters’ economic anxiety is impacting their politics.

I asked the participants in our focus groups to share what their financial concerns look like.

From balancing school, retail jobs, and work study programs to using student loan refunds to pay for basic necessities, opening up new credit cards to pay for additional expenses, and supporting their parents — here’s some of what we heard.

(TL;DR? I highlighted some especially noteworthy points)

• “This summer, I do research at school, which is paid. I work at Athleta. I work at Ulta. And then, if I can find babysitting or anything like that, I’ll do that,” said a 20-year-old student in Pennsylvania. “Because I was in a pinch last summer with some family stuff going on, I decided to take out another credit card. And that was helpful like at the time to pay for stuff. It wasn’t like a crazy amount that I was approved for, but paying that back when you have to potentially pay for school or potentially pay for books or paying just to get back and forth from work, it can kind of feel stressful to feel like, okay, ‘When am I actually saving money?’”

  “I also kind of rely on my refund during the semester, but recently I’ve been considering whether I should just cap my loans at my tuition amount and not get a refund. That way I will have to pay less once I get out of school,” she said.

• “I’m currently renting an apartment. I’m sharing the rent across two other people. We each pay a third… $550 a month. I also work at Target part-time, and I also am paying for college. Usually during the school year I am relying on my refunds from school to pay my rent, to pay my car payment and car insurance, phone bill, internet, stuff like that. So through getting those refunds, even though they’re through the loans that I will have to pay off eventually, that gets me through the semesters, and then I catch up on winter and summer breaks,” said another 21-year-old college student in Pennsylvania.

• “I’m paying for rent, but it’s not rent for myself. I’m paying for it for my mom. I feel like one of the things that stresses me out the most financially is not necessarily about my own personal finances because I’m lucky enough to have help, I guess. But when it comes to my mom who’s super old, an immigrant, [and] she got laid off like two years ago and it’s just been very difficult for her to find work. So the housing that I’m receiving from the government, which is not that bad compared to a lot of the housing in New York, but basically I’m letting her stay there,” said a 20-year-old from New York.

• “I work part-time and if it wasn’t for the generosity of my best friend’s mother, I would not have a place to stay because I don’t really make enough to afford rent around here and also go to school, which I’m doing. I’m not currently under a lot of financial stress, but I’m very aware that I can’t move out or even saving for big purchases in the future is is very slow going because I only work part-time,” said a 22-year-old in Arizona.

• “I work full-time as a teacher. Make a solid salary… it would be enough to live on my own, but like it’d be paycheck to paycheck. [If] you have a bad car bill or you have something wrong with your car, [it would] probably send me back behind. If I was to live my own, I’d be one bad break away from not being able to. And I feel like that’s [how the] majority of Americans feel. Where they’re either underwater or just barely treading water,” said a 25-year-old in Illinois.

When young voters talk about economic anxiety, it’s these experiences that they’re thinking about. And our focus group participants aren’t alone. In fact, this is how most young people across the country are feeling — 65% of young people said the cost of living and inflation are a top concern in a recent CIRCLE/When We All Vote survey, just ahead of healthcare and housing costs.

So what?

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen outsider candidates (including those who call themselves democratic socialists) win by running on a message that the system is broken, failing everyday Americans.

The takeaway here is not that young people are now all Democratic Socialists. It is that addressing economic anxiety is vital to winning young voters, and therefore, elections. And right now, for some young people, it feels like they’re the only candidates doing that.

After all, how could anyone expect a candidate who ignores the everyday experience of young people to resonate with them?

Here’s more of what I heard about why this style of politics is meeting the moment — but why it’s not actually about socialism.

Read more