I let a teenager control my life for a week

By Molly Woodthorpe

Gen Zalpha is the micro-generation of children born from 2006 to 2012- part Gen Alpha and part Gen Z. They technically are Gen Z, but they also fit in with Gen Alpha (saying things like skibidi and what the sigma).

Deborah Carr, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science at Boston University says “Zillennials refer to a small cohort born between the early 1990s and the early 2000s, they’re on the cusp of Gen Z and millennial, thus the mash-up label of zillennial”. As a Zillenial, despite being Gen Z, I act and feel like more of a millennial who never outgrew their teenage emo phase. I have no clue what half the words Gen Alpha uses mean but I honestly don’t think aside from that we can be too different.

To test this, I want to let my boyfriend's 17 year old, ‘Gen Zalpha’ brother, Daniel, control my ‘Zillennial’ life for a week. He sent me multiple pinterest boards, a playlist and how he spends his free time- including TV shows he enjoys and games he plays, so I can test if 2 people from different ends of Gen Z are really that different or if micro-generational differences are a load of nonsense. It’s a 5 year age gap, how different a life can we realistically live?

Introducing me and Daniel

Molly

A 22, almost 23 year old MA student, still listening to the same emo playlists from my teenage years, with the occasional bit of pop thrown into the mix. Heavy eyeliner and no commitment to a hair colour for more than a few months at a time, paired with baggy ripped jeans and equally loose band t shirts. I rewatch the same TV shows over and over again, X files, Brooklyn 99 and Rick and Morty, all in a constant rotation.

Daniel

Daniel is 17, his playlists are a rotation of Childish Gambino, Tyler the Creator, Dominic Fike, and a variety of other, similar artists. He can reel off a list of anime recommendations without missing a beat and spends most of his free time gaming— either solo or socialising with his friends.

He thinks there is quite a difference between Zalpha's and Zillennial's, but I am not so convinced. He says “with how social media trends change so much nowadays, but at the beginning of Gen Z social media was very new" adding that there are "so many different trends and different types of jokes due to the short form content always shifting”

MONDAY

Day 1:

For day one, I really wanted to throw myself into the deep end with the outfits so I went with the one that I was probably the least likely to wear just casually for uni. So I switched out my baggy t-shirts for a corset top and my incredibly heavy raccoon eyeliner for Sabrina Carpenter-level blush.

Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was very very different from my normal makeup routine which starts with a very pale one-dimensional face that has little to no colour.

There was one key difference in the inspiration I was sent for makeup and how I executed it because I have an eyebrow slit, my eyebrows were a lot heavier than in the photos that were sent to me to try and hide it. Other than that I matched the photos as exactly as I could.

I think I was very self-conscious about today's outfit and makeup because it was so out of my comfort zone and I looked completely different from how I normally do. Generally, I'm someone who tries to blend into the back of a classroom just get on with my day unnoticed and I felt so uncomfortable and worried people were going to say something. What I did find though, was despite my friends who I sit with noticing I did look rather different, the other people in my class didn't seem to think this was an identity crisis, instead I just got a few compliments; “oh you look nice today” or “no it's different but it's cool” which I was not expecting and did make me feel more at ease. This was also day 1 of TikTok dinner and I went with a soy sauce chicken and rice, which was lovely, but not a portion for one, so by eyeballing the amounts it ended up with way too much sauce and the rice became inedible- not my finest culinary venture. I also spent my time cooking dinner while listening to the playlist Daniel sent me, on shuffle, and did not add a single song to my own liked songs. Overall, the week started on a mediocre note.

TUESDAY

Day 2

My aim when outfit planning was to pick a more comfortable outfit for Tuesday because I had thrown myself in at the deep end the previous day. However, a clear flaw in my plan was uncovered at this point– I did this planning before the clothes arrived and I despised this outfit when I put it on. Lookswise, I would rate it a 6.5/10, but comfort-wise, giving it a 2 would be generous and I considered changing before I left. But I committed and wore it to Uni. Again, people were very complimentary, which somehow made the clothes feel less uncomfortable, and I probably would wear the top again, but if not these jeans I do not know what I would pair it with. I had no free time tonight, as I was at a gig as a photographer, so dinner needed to be quick and simple, so I picked a girl dinner classic: pasta, with just some butter and cheese, and it was so good- cannot fault. 10/10 recommend.

WEDNESDAY

Day 3

After a tiring day on Tuesday, I was looking forward to some downtime on Wednesday, which I finally got… or at least I was supposed to. But I decided to play Fortnite for the first time, and after trying to get it to work on my PC for an hour to no avail, I gave up and tried playing the Sims, which I realised I cannot stand, but I was supposed to be gaming and being social, so I joined my friends online playing Minecraft. Not one of the games I was told he plays, but we make do with what we have, and I ended up having a great time. For weeks I had been playing games as an escape but almost always alone, but it was so much more enjoyable spending time with my friends online, and it is something we will be doing more of. Dinner tonight was also faultless- loaded sweet potato fries with cheese and prosciutto, not the healthiest (which is seemingly becoming a theme on my fyp), but it was delicious and not something I ever have, so it will be added to my dinner rotation as a treat every now and then. Clothing today was also pretty good- I was very nervous because I felt like a lot of the outfits on the Pinterest board were not intended for plus-size people, and as someone who is not small, I often avoided wearing anything tight or cropped, unless my trousers covered enough of my body to still feel comfortable, but I felt a lot better in this outfit than I expected to, and will be adding crop tops back into my wardrobe, especially as we move towards summer.

THURSDAY

Day 4

As a 22-year-old, I don't have extracurricular activities, but Daniel does, so I thought, what is the closest thing I can do to an after-school activity? Answer: Pub.

After a long day, sometimes we go to the pub, and with the excuse of ‘it's for work’ who could say no? Soon, the table was full of drinks and we were all chatting away, which after a busy day was much-needed stress relief, and in my opinion, the best extracurricular I could've chosen. Today’s outfit was one of the most me- a loose band t-shirt and equally baggy jeans, and I didn't feel like I was too dissimilar from how I look every day. I also reused a TikTok meal from earlier in the week- my girl dinner pasta, with an addition of chopped-up salami that came in Wednesday's prosciutto pack, so it didn't go to waste. Overall, didn’t feel like too different a day from my everyday norm.

FRIDAY

Day 5

My last weekday of this was the first day I felt competent doing my makeup differently, I had finally settled into something new and was starting to enjoy it, and will even be adopting aspects of it into my everyday makeup. It has also made me want to explore doing my makeup differently, which has really surprised me given that whatever the situation I do my makeup exactly the same, with black liner on my waterline if I want to do something different. This was the day that was most like my normal style and a day where I binged Death Note. In year 8 I used to watch a lot of anime, but genuinely forgot the storyline to Death Note and how good it is I will be looking at more and getting more recommendations of other anime I should watch. The outfit today wasn't too different from my usual wardrobe anyway, and if I wasn't intentionally trying something different, this would've felt like a normal day for me. This dinner is so far my favourite dinner of the week- a steak sandwich with sweet potato fries.

SATURDAY

Day 6

I had a lot of work to do today, so I didn't get to spend it gaming, which is I think how Daniel often spends his free time at the weekend, mixed in with jobs around the house. So I got as close as I could to this and put on the playlist he sent over and got on with my housework- even stopping a few times to add them to my liked songs. Following that, I put the last of Death Note on in the background and got on with my work, until I went to a friend's house that evening for drinks. The music in the background was the first time this week I had a chance to listen to my usual music, and I was very ready for a couple of Taylor Swift songs on that playlist to tide me over until Monday came.

SUNDAY

Day 7

Nursing a minor hangover from the previous night, the clothes for today were such a relief- the joggers were a really weird shape and looked like balloons were stuffed around my legs, but they were incredibly cosy with fluff on the inside of them and paired with a black strappy top, it was a fairly standard outfit for me. After a couple of headache tablets and an ungodly amount of water, I put my hair up with a claw clip and started back on Minecraft- even bringing TikTok into my world, finding a seed on there and building a house while my boyfriend went mining. It was a great way to spend the day, facetiming each other for most of it, it was a really nice way to socialise, and something I want to do more with the people I don't see as much now I have moved further away from them. For dinner I got dominoes- still counting as a TikTok dinner because it was at the top of my FYP.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Now this week is over...

Coming out of this, I still do not know what skibidi means, there is still a lot of music I was sent that I have not grown to appreciate, and I will continue to give myself unnecessarily large winged eyeliner. However, I enjoyed this week far more than I expected. After getting over my initial reservations about the outfit from day 1, I have realised that overall, there isn't too much of a difference, but I have come out of this wanting to adopt several aspects of things I have tried this week.

Although my screen time is often higher than his, I quickly noticed how he socializes and spends time with friends, in a way I don’t. My phone and laptop use is almost entirely TikTok, work-related or mindless scrolling through Instagram, and I think by contrast, the thing I most want to take away from this week is the social side of it- spending time online but not just for work or procrastination.

I think when it comes to certain aspects of Gen Zalpha there is a difference- they use the online world to socialise very differently. I also think aesthetic wise there is a clear difference, heavily influenced by social media- in a way that older Zillennial's didn't always have, and if we did it was Tumblr not TikTok.