What do these 16 people all have in common?

Apart from the fame, it’s the label many people could stick on them. Because according to the Pew Research Center, McCrindle, and most of LinkedIn, they’re all grouped into one supposedly distinct generation. Gen Z.

Using the Pew definition, Gen Z now spans ages 14 to 29.

That’s the gap between someone taking their first big school exams and, well, someone approaching 30.

Imagine the differences there.

And for further context, a quick, rough estimate shows less than 0.02% of the world’s living population has a Wikipedia page - any real marker of public fame. Which makes our selection of 16 wildly different celebrities a very tiny, very specific sample.

Now think about the huge differences in culture, attitude, privilege, access and expectation for young people across the world. This is a generation defined by difference, not by a single label.

So for everyone relentlessly applying generational labels to everything - “Gen Z are this…” and “Gen Z do that…” - it’s worth stepping back and taking a sense-check. The same with the Alphas and (deep breath) Zalphas.

Yes, continue to see the value of demographics and segmentation, but to a point. We should question how far we push it, and how obsessed we become with simplifying people.