Last summer, Nya-Gabriella Parchment, brand partnerships director at influencer management company Digital Brand Architects, asked her Gen Z intern about her career goals.
Historically, Parchment found that the question prompted a vague answer. But this time, the intern began to lay out a detailed five-year plan that began with becoming a content creator and ended with her launching a brand.
“Now that more people are seeing creators and what can become of it, they are starting to see it as a launchpad to do other things,” said Parchment. “People create a career on their own terms and it can fund whatever you want.”
It’s an increasingly common aspiration. For the generations that grew up fully online, content creation comes naturally, and a growing number of Gen Alphas and Gen Zers see it as not just a way to make money early — content creator revenues are expected to double by 2030, according to advertising giant WPP Media — but as the starting point for their careers, in fashion or otherwise.
Because of this, younger and younger people are cultivating — and monetising — substantial followings. On their mom-run TikTok account featuring make-up tutorials and fit checks, eight-year-olds Koti and Haven Garza have amassed 5.2 million followers and inked brand deals with skincare line Everdeen and vitamin brand Hiya. They’re even launching brands: Buzzy tween skincare labels Sincerely Yours and Yes Day are run by a 15-year-old and 13-year-old, respectively.
“Initially I didn’t even know getting paid for TikToks was something that could happen. Now it’s shifted [to be] a much more open conversation, which is why a lot of people want to be in this world,” said Demetra Dias, an 18-year-old fashion influencer, who first went viral at 15. She has charged upwards of $20,000 for posts according to the Wall Street Journal and counts 4.5 million followers on TikTok, many of whom buy the Brandy Melville sweatpants, White Fox tees and Hollister jeans she wears and post videos under the tag “The Demetra Effect.”
These younger creators are starting their businesses having already learned the lessons it took their predecessors years to learn: the best partnerships come with brands that already appear in their content. Their audiences, too, are different — they’re ultra-attuned to blatant advertising, put off by anything that feels too pushy and want content that’s entertaining and embedded in creators’ real lives. They also aren’t as loyal as prior generations — just as their algorithms prioritise discovery, they do too.
Young people are shopping voraciously and maturely. Brands that work with and pay attention to this growing cohort of influencers stand to benefit not just because of that, but also in the long term, learning their preferences as a generational shift takes hold.
“There is an audience for everyone. Anyone can be an influencer,” said Saad Aslam, co-founder of creators agency Gen Flow. “Everybody’s creating content because they’ve understood that.”
Everyone Is an Influencer
Given that they’ve spent their lives surrounded by social media, being a creator is a foregone conclusion for many young people.
“Their biggest skill is influence, and they look at it as a default capability,” said Monica Chun, president of Acceleration Community of Companies (ACC), a firm that owns a number of marketing and media companies, which published a research paper on Gen Alpha’s growing power in September.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha have also watched countless creators earn big pay days. As they start to enter the workforce or more seriously consider their future goals, they see content creation as a means of escaping a traditional career path and forging their own.
An audience is the “biggest asset” they can acquire, because it can open doors and lead to opportunities down the line, said Aslam. In just a few years, Dias, for example, has gone from getting free clothes to inking paid deals to actually creating products, including through a collaboration with Aéropostale in 2025. Next, she hopes to start her own brand.
Much about how Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences and creators interact has changed as popular platforms change. TikTok’s dominance has prompted all platforms to shift their algorithms to prioritise discovery, which has in turn driven shifts in content style. Influencers today are more apt to show off their everyday lives and put out unpolished content. Teens love to watch product videos, but don’t like content that feels like an advertisement — fitting for a generation that grew up in the age of streaming.
“I only promote things that align with my personality and what I like,” said Dias. “It’s more ‘she likes that, I like that too,’ not ‘she’s telling me I need this.’”
And while Millennial influencers such as Danielle Bernstein, Olivia Palermo and Aimee Song are known for cultivating die-hard fandoms, younger generations are much less likely to be loyal, said Chun.
“They follow the moment more so than the celebrity,” she said, adding that means brands have to be led by content — meaning, staying attuned to what’s in the zeitgeist, and constantly engaging with the hottest creators of the moment.
This, however, presents key challenges for this budding group of influencers: Loyalty has helped many longtime players prolong their careers and sustain successful businesses. Plus, mercurial audiences and so much competition make the landscape especially tough to navigate.
One viral teen moment shifted Pacsun’s strategy more toward microinfluencers and community: Lyla Biggs, who had just been accepted to Pacsun’s TikTok affiliate program with just 5,000 followers posted a video featuring its Casey Jean in 2023. Within 48 hours, Pacsun sold 11,000 pairs.
“The brand is no longer deciding who it wants to work with, the community is deciding,” said Brieane Olson, chief executive of Pacsun. “Our largest success stories have come from creators and community members who are choosing us that we might not have had on our radar, or reached out to partner with.”
Co-Creation and Bigger Brands
Teens are growing their followings against a backdrop of increased regulation. In the last few years, France and Australia have approved social media bans for under-15-and 16-year-olds, respectively, with Australia’s already in effect. States across the US, including California and Nebraska, are passing legislation aimed at getting kids offline. Even the platforms are getting involved: In the past year, both Instagram and TikTok have rolled out more protective safety features for teen accounts.
For brands, working with the group requires purposeful and age-appropriate engagement — best for brands specifically tailored toward teens, like Pacsun, Claire’s and Hollister, for example.
“[Social media] is absolutely a part of their lives, recognising that and trying to create positive ways to bring the customer and communities together to enhance that, and not to create disruption there, is important,” said Olsen.
Pacsun has been focusing on trying to create community, working with its Youth Advisory Board, where Gen Z and Gen Alpha members as young as 14 — like Life With Bex, a creator with over 700,000 followers whose feedback on creative has been particularly helpful, according to Olsen — can consult on its products, projects, store design and marketing; and launching PS Community Hub, an app that will allow creators to share content, build a following and earn affiliate commission and even the opportunity to put out a capsule collection. Sephora, another teen favourite, similarly, launched My Sephora Storefront last year, to serve younger generations in particular. It allows influencers (albeit, above the age of 18) to create their own shoppable curations.
The rise of these new formats signal how brands are thinking about adjusting to the next generation’s preferences.
“The future of influencing is going to be modular, episodic and format-led. Brands really need to build more creator systems, versus just one-off partnerships or sponsorships,” said Chun.
Read The Creator Economy’s Coming-of-Age Moment, a special package that breaks down the stakes facing influencers and the brands that work with them today, and how they can evolve to meet the market.
