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Welcome to TODAY Kids! I’m Anna North, a senior reporter at Vox covering policy and culture. Today, I’m launching a Vox newsletter that will send readers weekly stories about Generation Alpha (people born between 2010 and 2024) and childhood in America. It’s a newsletter about kids, for everyone. If you’d like to receive it, sign up here.
I have two children, but I am not here to talk to you about parenting. For that, I recommend Sarah Peterson or Angela GabesIn this newsletter, I want to focus on what it’s really like to be a kid in America right now.
Childhood in 2024 is an extremely tricky topic. We are all trying to understand After the epidemicthis The impact of social mediaas well as Climate Change and war The world that children grow up in. Children also play a very important role in the upcoming presidential election, with Senator JD Vance and others arguing that having children is a patriotic duty and that not having children makes you “Mental disorder”
Part of my goal with this brief was to dive into some of the most heated debates about contemporary childhoods and give you an accessible, non-panic look at what’s really going on. I worry about today’s kids as much as anyone (demographics, not this brief, though I certainly worry about that, too), but I also know that every generation has its share of panic about young people on lawns, and I wanted to get close to Today’s Horror News Headlines With a hint of doubt.
I also want to describe Generation Alpha for you, telling you what is unique about this group of young Americans and what they have in common with Generation Z, Millennials, and other generations. We live in an era of fierce and rapid generational wars, and while some of them are Very interestingAdditionally, I want to see where these generalizations fall short.
I admit, I’m not a perfect guide to the world of children. As an adult, I’m inherently uncool. I can never understand children’s culture the way that children can. My own older children like to call me “the know-it-all.”
Still, I kept talking to the kids— Preschoolers arrive teenager — This has been part of my reporting process for nearly a decade. I’m committed to engaging with kids with curiosity, openness, and honesty. While I certainly interview adult experts for this newsletter, I also bring you the voices of real kids whenever possible.
Children are what our filters are like before they’re fully developed, when the world is still new, strange, and confusing. Children are unpredictable. (For example, my 6-year-old just asked me if bugs can do yoga. Can they?)
But children are also smart and thoughtful. They have a keen understanding of the world today and the future they will hold in power. I am excited to learn from them, and I hope you will be too.
Next week, you’ll get my full newsletter on what kids think about the concept of Generation Alpha — how they see their own generation, and what they think about TikTok and news coverage that criticizes them. In the meantime, here’s some of what I’m reading and thinking about as summer draws to a close:
- School Supply List Shopping is always an issue this time of year—with school district budgets often inadequate, families or teachers end up having to foot the bill for everything from pencils to graphing calculators. I also wondered how kids viewed back-to-school shopping and to what extent the financial stress of the process trickled down to them.
- Children’s relationship with nature depends more on their socioeconomic status than on whether they live in an urban or suburban area. According to a new study.
- More and more states are turning to Putting chaplains in public schoolsSome worry that these clergy members may proselytize or provide counseling to students without proper mental health training.
- Dance parties for childrenI was prepared to be annoyed by the house music that parents and kids can enjoy together, a genre that is apparently on the rise in Brooklyn, but it was actually quite thoughtful.
- Now my older kids are watching it obsessively Bread Barber Shopa cartoon about a piece of bread being a barber.
- My child doesn’t want to study Spring is comingby Taro Gomi, a soothing story about the inevitable cycle of seasons that helped keep me sane during the pandemic. He wanted to read a book that would give him a buzz, and I won’t name it.
Final note: I’d love to hear your questions about kids and childhood, whether you’re a parent, a childless adult, or a kid! (Kids with questions for adults can write in, too.) Is there a topic you’d like me to talk about? What experiences do you want to share? You can contact me at anna.north@vox.com.
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