There was a time when Juliana Olarte, a 26-year-old travel publicist living in New York City, couldn鈥檛 figure out where she fit in from a generational standpoint.
Her Generation Z sister, who is 16, sometimes calls Olarte 鈥渃heugy,鈥 she said. Gen Z uses the term to refer to 鈥渕illennial things that are kind of uncool or cringey,鈥 according to Olarte.
鈥淢y sister sees me as a young millennial, and millennials see me as Gen Z,鈥 she said.
The term millennial (also known as Generation Y) refers to anyone born between 1981 and 1996, and Gen Z refers to anyone born from 1997 through 2012, .
Along the blurry edge at the cusp of the two generations, between Gen Y and Z, is where zillennials live.
鈥淲hen I first heard the term zillennial, in college, I was like, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 me,鈥欌 Olarte said.
Unfamiliar with the term? It鈥檚 a tiny group.
鈥淶illennials refer to a small cohort born between the early 1990s and the early 2000s,鈥 said Deborah Carr, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science at Boston University. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e on the cusp of Gen Z and millennial, thus the mash-up label of zillennial.鈥
Members of this micro-generation, loosely defined as being in their early to mid-20s, have faced and overcome much adversity in their relatively short lives, Carr said via email.
鈥淭hey were babies and children when 9/11 struck and don鈥檛 know life before airport security screenings, rampant domestic terrorism and other frightening threats,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey attended college during the pandemic, and missed out on important social markers.鈥
Zillennials were born roughly between 1992 and 2002, but there isn鈥檛 one consistent cutoff point that experts agree on, Carr said.
Ask a zillennial, though, and they might tell you who they are.
Olarte鈥檚 sister and other members of 鈥淕en Z grew up with a phone in their hand and with social media 鈥 they didn鈥檛 miss a beat,鈥 Olarte said. A decade earlier, 鈥渨e had the iPod Touch to download music online and did YouTube-to-MP3 converters.鈥
HOW DOES TECH DEFINE THE CUTOFF FOR GEN Z?
The different ways generations grow up with and use technology is a strong delineator in defining generations.
Zillennials straddle the generations of millennials, who are considered digital pioneers, and Gen Z, who are considered digital natives who never knew life before screens.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been growing up with technology our whole lives, but we鈥檙e not TikTok dancers like Gen Z but also weren鈥檛 on MySpace like millennials,鈥 said Sabrina Grimaldi, 23. She launched , a mostly online site for her micro-generation, in 2021.
Grimaldi has a younger sibling who is Gen Z and an older one who鈥檚 a millennial. 鈥淢y entire life, I鈥檝e been told I鈥檓 a millennial or a new Gen Zer. I really do relate to both, but I also don鈥檛 at all,鈥 she said.
Her website鈥檚 most popular articles have covered such topics as what to wear to Harry Styles and Taylor Swift concerts, 鈥渢he best cozy Nintendo Switch games,鈥 and recipes inspired by the Utah dirty soda trend on TikTok, which involves pouring creamer into soda, Grimaldi said.
Among the celebrities she considers part of her zillennial cohort are Zendaya and American singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter.
鈥淲e are kind of this weird, in-between ground nobody talks about that鈥檚 also young and figuring things out, at the beginning of our careers and discovering the world as an adult,鈥 she said. 鈥淭he most misunderstood thing about us is probably our existence.鈥
WHY LABEL GENERATIONS ANYWAY?
In addition to a shared relationship with technology, members of a generation or birth cohort often share critical life experiences, Carr said.
For the so-called greatest generation, that includes being called to serve during the Second World War, she said. For some baby boomers, having grown up together in the tumultuous 1960s is a commonality. Generation X came after the boomers, from the mid-1960s to 1980.
Gen Z attended high school during the pandemic and missed out on major youth milestones. For Americans, these might be prom and traditional graduations.
鈥淪ome generations reject the labels given to them by others, and some generations embrace the name if they feel it fits them and their values or differences,鈥 said Jason Dorsey, a generations researcher and president of the Center for Generational Kinetics, a generational research firm.
鈥淲e find that zillennials often push away from the negative millennial headlines that they are trying to avoid or not replicate, such as the clickbait stories on acting entitled as adults or having overly high expectations,鈥 he said via email, noting that zillennials also push away from teenagers and teen trends that feel too young.
Some millennials, too, shun the label they鈥檝e been given because they believe it has a negative connotation and sells them short, Dorsey said.
鈥淚n fact, contrary to many popular memes of millennials not working, they are often the largest generation in a company鈥檚 workforce and frequently the largest generations of managers,鈥 he said.
CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
While zillennials often feel they don鈥檛 fit in with either Gen Z or millennials, Dorsey said the middle zone they occupy has its own advantages.
鈥淎t our research centre, we鈥檝e seen cuspers like zillennials often end up having an advantage because it tends to make them more aware of both generations before and after their own,鈥 he said.
His firm鈥檚 research has shown Gen Z to be more connected to social causes than millennials, with zillennials similarly more interested than millennials when it comes to social issues.
People in Gen Z 鈥渃are a lot about environmentalism, trying to reduce their carbon footprints and reduce their plastic waste.鈥 Grimaldi said.
From a young age, zillennials have learned the effects of climate change, Carr said. 鈥淭hey are very mindful of the threats to the planet 鈥 yet also know they can play an important role in reducing their carbon footprint (Think, Greta Thunberg),鈥 she said.
But the stereotypes society creates for generations are just stereotypes, Carr said.
鈥淲e need to remember that every generation of young people has their own struggles,鈥 she said, 鈥渁nd that they鈥檙e coping the best they can with the world that past generations have created for them.鈥
Philip Cohen, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, calls generational labels meaningless.
鈥淢arketers and fadfluencers will want to be the first to name a 鈥榞eneration鈥 or 鈥榤icrogeneration鈥 for clicks and followers,鈥 Cohen wrote via email. 鈥淏ut it is meaningless to do so before we know what it is we鈥檙e studying and why.鈥
He added, 鈥淪ocial science does not pay much attention to the discourse over 鈥榞enerations鈥 because it is mostly superficial hype.鈥
Try telling that to a zillennial, however.
Grimaldi thinks it鈥檚 up to every generation to band together to support the next group of people growing up in society after it 鈥 all the better to help ensure a brighter future for all. And her generation, she said, is already on it.
鈥淓very time a new generation pops up there鈥檚 this argument about who sucks and why they suck, and I think as zillennials we are trying to stop that as much as we can,鈥 Grimaldi said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have to hate on every new upcoming generation.
鈥淲e鈥檙e all collectively raising these new generations. Let鈥檚 focus on building a better future together.鈥
