The Generation Alpha power list: 18 under-15s to watch
Move over, Generation Z, because here comes Generation Alpha. The Alphas were born in or after 2010, so the eldest of them will turn 14 this year. They have never seen a world without smartphones and social media. Many of their lives have been documented on Instagram since the moment they were born by their “sharenting” millennial parents.
Even though some are not old enough to get acne, they are obsessed with luxury anti-ageing skincare. They go viral on TikTok by recording elaborate skincare and makeup routines in Get Ready With Me videos before school, and film “hauls” of high-end products. It has impacted the world of beauty retail — there’s a Dior skincare range for babies, and the products they praise on social media often sell out.
Gen Alpha’s love for It products means many of their parents received Christmas wish lists begging for expensive items which have been hyped online. These include Ugg mini boots (£155) and face serums by Drunk Elephant (£45).
• We are Generation Alpha
They are set to be the largest generation yet — there will be 2 billion of them once they have all been born in 2025 — and they are projected to have the biggest spending power in history. So who are they? Here’s our guide to Generation Alpha’s movers and shakers.
1. Harper Beckham, 12
The youngest of David and Victoria Beckham’s brood made headlines when she attended her first fashion week aged four, at her mother’s New York show. Last year, Victoria called Harper “my No 1 muse” and designed a custom dress for her.
2. Bodhana Sivanandan, 8
In a win that shook the chess world, this primary school student from London defeated a grandmaster more than 30 years her senior and was crowned best female player at the European blitz chess championships in December. Sivanandan’s success has been praised by chess masters. Now, her sights are set on becoming a grandmaster and England’s youngest Chess Olympiad gold medallist.
3. Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5
Before he had turned three, the eldest had met US president Barack Obama, who joked, “Prince George showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe… a clear breach of protocol.” The outfits he and his siblings wear now sell out, a phenomenon which has been called the “Prince George/Charlotte/Louis effect”.
4. Tommy Calvert, 13
This skateboarding sensation will represent Great Britain at the Olympics this summer, if all goes to plan. Calvert was born in Liverpool to English parents, but has lived on the California coast since he was three. In San Diego, he met his 50-year-old team-mate, Andy Macdonald. Theirs is the biggest age difference between members of any skateboarding team.
5. Teddy Hobbs, 5
Can you count to 100 in 7 languages? Hobbs could do that by the age of three. The Somerset-born whizz taught himself to read fluently when he was two. He is the youngest UK member of Mensa.
6. Max Woosey, 14
Nicknamed “the boy in the tent” after he spent more than 1,000 nights sleeping in a tent in his garden in Devon to raise money for the North Devon Hospice. Woosey has raised more than £750,000, and set a Guinness world record for the most money raised by camping.
7. Elsie Adams, 10
The next Claudia Winkleman? Adams was the winner of the Bafta Young Presenters Competition 2023. The Edinburgh schoolgirl introduced talks at Cheltenham Literature Festival in October.
8. Bella-Jay Dark, 7
She achieved a Guinness world record for being the world’s youngest published female author when she released her debut novel, The Lost Cat, aged five. It sold more than 2,000 copies. Devon-born Dark started writing short stories when she was three, and published a sequel to her debut last year, Snowy’s Birthday Party.
9. Lucas Tsang, 10
Tsang’s GCSE results made headlines last year: he took his maths exam six years early and got the top grade. He taught himself how to solve equations at three.
10. Evelyn, 12, Missouri
Her “Get Ready With Me” TikTok monologues, recorded as she applied make-up, racked up 8.4 million views. Her fans loved her sarcastic, funny vents about the things she hates.
11. North West, 10, Los Angeles
It’s hardly a surprise that the eldest of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s four children has become an internet sensation. @kimandnorth, the TikTok account she shares with her mother, has 18 million followers. She lip-syncs and performs dance routines with her mother.
12. Ryan Kaji, 12, Hawaii
His parents started filming their three-year-old reviewing toys at home in Texas and posted them on a YouTube channel that now has 36 million subscribers. Kaji became the youngest person ever to make a Forbes top earners list in 2017, after he raked in $11 million (£8.5 million). Advertising revenue and a line of Ryan’s World products sold at Target and Walmart earn him millions.
13. Haven and Koti Garza, 7, Oklahoma
These twin girls have become skincare influencers on TikTok. Their 4.8 million followers watch them unpack “Sephora hauls” filled with expensive brands. “We’re Gen Alpha influencers,” they say. “Of course we’re obsessed with skincare.”
14. Licypriya Kangujam, 12, India
She has been called “India’s Greta Thunberg”, but she isn’t keen on that title. “I already began a movement to fight climate change before Greta,” Kangujam says. She addressed leaders at the 2019 UN’s Climate Change Conference in Madrid and was removed from Cop28 last year for storming the stage and demanding action.
15. Penelope Disick, 11, Los Angeles
Fans of Keeping Up with the Kardashians watched the daughter of Kourtney Kardashian and her ex-boyfriend Scott Disick grow up on screen. Now Disick has a following of 5.4 million on the TikTok account she shares with her mother. Her “get ready with me for Thanksgiving morning” video got 2.4 million likes.
16. Blue Ivy Carter, 12, New York
In 2021, the daughter of Beyoncé and Jay-Z became the youngest ever recipient of a VMA, when the music video for her mother’s Brown Skin Girl, on which she is credited as a songwriter and vocalist, won the best cinematography gong.
17. Coco Pink Princess, 13, Japan
A Tokyo-based fashionista who has gained 500,000 Instagram followers by posing in funky outfits. Her mother started posting photos when she was five and she has collaborated with Gucci.
18. Stormi Webster, 6, Los Angeles
When Kylie Jenner posted a video singing “Rise and shine” to Stormi in 2019, #RiseAndShine became the fastest hashtag to reach one billion views on TikTok. The pair wear matching outfits, including to Paris Fashion Week.
