Welcome to Kids Today! I’m Anna North, a senior correspondent covering politics and culture at Vox, and today, I’m launching a Vox newsletter that will deliver weekly readers to my inbox with stories about Generation Alpha (people born between 2010 and 2024) and American childhoods. Newsletter — for everyone. If you want to get it, sign up here.
I’m a parent of two young children, but I’m not here to talk to you about parenting. For that, I recommend Sarah Petersen or Angela Gerbes. In this newsletter, I want to focus on the experience of being a kid in America right now.
Childhood in 2024 is an incredibly fraught topic. We are trying to understand everything After an epidemicThe impact of social media, and the impact of climate change and war The world’s children grow upConfused“
Part of my goal with this newsletter is to dive deep into some of the hottest debates in contemporary childhood and give you an accessible, panic-free look at what’s really going on. I worry about kids today (the demographic, not this newsletter, though I’m sure I’d worry about that too) as much as anyone, but I also know that every generation has worried about the young on its lawn, and I want to approach. Today’s scary headline With a dose of skepticism.
I also want to bring you a portrait of Gen Alpha that addresses what is unique about this group of young Americans, as well as what they have in common with Gen Z, millennials and beyond. We live in a time of intense and fast-paced generational warfare, and when some of it Quite fun and funnyI also want to see where these generalizations fall short.
I will admit that I am an imperfect guide to the world of children. As an adult, I am naturally calm. I will never understand the culture of kids as well as the kids themselves. My own older kid likes to call me “the guy who doesn’t know anything.”
That said, I’ve been talking to kids—preschoolers to teenagers—as part of my reporting process for nearly a decade. I am committed to meeting children at their level with curiosity, openness and honesty. While I will certainly talk to adult experts for this newsletter, I will bring in the voices of real children whenever possible.
We were kids before our filters were fully developed, when the world was still fresh and strange and confusing. Children are unpredictable. (My 6-year-old, for example, just asked me if worms can do yoga. Yes?)
But children are also smart and thoughtful. They have keen insights into the world today and into the future when they will be in charge. I’m eager to learn from them, and I hope you are too.
Next week, you’ll get a whole newsletter from me on what kids think about “Gen Alpha” as a concept — how they see their own generation, and what they think about TikToks and news stories that criticize them. In the meantime, here’s a little of what I’ve been reading and thinking about as summer winds down:
- School supply list This time of year is always a problem — district budgets are often insufficient, families or teachers end up on the hook for buying everything from pencils to graphing calculators. I’m also interested in how kids think about back-to-school shopping and how much the financial stress of the process eases them.
- Children’s relationship with nature is determined by their socio-economic status, whether they live in the city or the suburbs, According to a new study.
- More states are leaving Place chaplains in public schoolsSome are concerned that these clergy members may be proselytizing, or counseling students without appropriate mental-health training.
- Kid-friendly dance partiesWhere parents can enjoy house music with young children, the scene is growing in Brooklyn. I was ready to be annoyed by this but actually it’s sweet.
- At this point my older kid is watching obsessively Bread Barber ShopAn animated show about a barber slice of bread.
- My younger son doesn’t want to read Spring is hereBy Taro Gomi, a soothing story about the inevitable cycling of the seasons that helped keep me sane during the pandemic. He wants to read a book that makes humming noises, and I won’t name names.
A final note: I’d love to hear your questions about kids and childhood, whether you’re a parent, a child-free adult, or a child! (Kids with questions about growing up are also welcome to write in.) Are there topics you’d like me to cover? Experiences you want to share? You can reach me anna.north@vox.com.
