ChaCha. Ask Away.

There exists a bewildering array of names for those not-yet-fully grown individuals commonly known as “teens”.

Marketers of a demographic bent are fond of using the “Generation Y” moniker for the offspring of Baby Boomers.  Gen Y’s are also sometimes referred to as “Echo Boomers”, and these citizens are already getting a little long in the tooth, according to a New York Times article about Gen Y nostalgia.

Millennials is yet another name for Gen Y.

Generation Z refers to those born in the mid-to-late 1990s — the Teens of today. In this taxonomy, each generation is viewed as unique according to the prevailing social forces in play at the time they are born and growing into adulthood.

Other  marketers approach teens depending on what stage of “teenness” they are in. Take “Tweens” for example.

In 1999 Newsweek published an article titled “The Truth About Tweens”, at that time a group made up of “27 million children 8 to 14–the largest number in this age group in two decades.”  Tweens were seen as mega-consumers of adult products capable of throwing a tantrum like a 2-year-old at the slightest provocation. The heady days of the internet bubble are present in the following quote from the same article:

“Tweens are also a retailer’s dream: consumers with a seemingly insatiable desire for the latest in everything, from Old Navy cargo pants to Limp Bizkit CDs.”

Here at ChaCha, we use ” teens” to refer to 12-17 year olds, and “young adults” for those aged 18-24.  For years, librarians have used the term Young Adult or YA literature to refer to books written for readers age 14-21.  Libraries commonly sponsor “Teen Read” programs throughout the summer.

But what do teens call themselves?  As the mother of a teen I never ever heard my son or any of  his friends call themselves “teens” or even “teenagers”.  My limited research on the subject has confirmed this; “teens” is almost universally a term that no self-respecting teen would ever use to refer to themselves or their peer group.

Part of this is due to the sense of uniqueness that teens embrace.  (A recent ChaCha focus group participant revealed near consensus around the idea that they each asked completely personal and unique questions and that no one would ever ask the same question that THEY would ask.) This feeling is no less strong for being a myth.

The point is, however convenient it is to lump teens together, marketers should never lose sight of the fact that teens do not consider themselves part of a marketing cohort, but as unique individuals.