The Up and Up is Growing – Here’s What’s Next
Our paid-tier launch and a fall semester forecast
I started The Up and Up in 2022 to cover untold stories in the youth vote space. At the time, there wasn’t much coverage of young voters, but I had a hunch that our generation’s growing political power was something worth paying attention to.
In early listening sessions with young Americans, I noted Gen Z’s shifting politics. While many politicians expected Gen Z to swing left in 2024, I wasn’t so sure. Many younger Gen Zers told me they rejected party labels and wanted to rewrite a political system that fit their daily lives. Their conversations centered less on horse-race politics, and more on culture, the economy, jobs, AI, dating, socializing, and social media.
My early theory was that Gen Z would be consequential in the 2024 election because of the way their culture had been politically coded. That proved to be true. Since then, The Up and Up has grown into a space to analyze the way young Americans are reshaping culture across industries, beyond just politics.
By 2030, Gen Z will make up one third of the global workforce. Their projected spending power will be $12 trillion. Gen Z is going to define our future, and there’s so much we can learn about this generation as they mature – as employees, consumers, founders, and policymakers.
Now, with our continued growth and the debut of our first-ever ambassador program, The Up and Up is entering a new phase and launching a two-tier subscription model. Paid subscriptions will be $8 a month, or $80 per year. We are also offering an ‘Upward’ membership for those of you who deeply believe in my work and are able to contribute more, at $200 per year.
Tuesday editions will remain free for all subscribers, while the majority of Thursday editions will now be reserved exclusively for paid subscribers.
Paid subscribers will gain exclusive access to The Up and Up’s qualitative research analysis, reports, and The Up and Up’s proprietary Gen Z community. You can submit questions to The Up and Up that we will bring directly to Gen Zers across the country. Upward members will have access to all of the above, as well as the opportunity to hop on a phone or video call with me to discuss insights.
One of the most exciting things we’ve built is The Up and Up Community, a bespoke network of hundreds of young people across the country who offer their candid feedback on spending habits, politics, campus culture, and more. I met many members while visiting campuses and communities in person, and I connected with others online while covering Gen Z – along with their friends, roommates, cousins, and classmates. They respond in real-time to questions of the day.
The Up and Up is a unique corner of the internet where Gen Z tells its own story, and where institutions, brands, leaders, and individuals can tap into the voices and perspectives of Gen Z, in their own words. It’s this level of access and intimacy that makes The Up and Up worth investing in.
Gen Z’s story is still being written. If you’ve found value in The Up and Up – whether through election analysis, data-driven insights, or the real voices of young people – I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support makes it possible to continue studying this generation as it grows, matures, and reshapes the future in ways we’re only beginning to understand. So, thank you.
To kick this off, today, we’re rolling out our ‘Fall Semester Forecast’ Reality Check, an up-close look at how students are heading back to school this fall.
We look across four buckets:
How they’re thinking
How they’re socializing
The apps and platforms they’re using
And how they’re spending
There are juicy insights about how students are using AI, the ways they’re relying on ChatGPT for dating & medical advice (such as uploading screenshots of texts with their crushes to decode flirting), and how the MAHA movement has infiltrated health and wellness content on social media.
Paid subscribers can read the forecast below, and a full report with the data will live on upandupstrategies.com for paying members (subscribe now for the password).