The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - are you gen Z or gen Alpha pretty

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

👉🏻Download the next gen browser for FREE: https://opr.as/Opera-browser-zoeunlimitedThank you Opera for sponsoring!are you gen alpha or gen z pretty?Learn & Grow with me.💖 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeunlimited/💜 TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@zoeunlimited🖤 Listen on audio: http://apple.co/zoeunlimited🪭 All my outfits https://www.shopltk.com/explore/zoeunlimited👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/zoeunlimited🛒 Essentials https://www.amazon.com/shop/zoeunlimited📧 Business inquiries: [e-mail]//🕙Timestamps: 0:00 Intro2:26 Gen alpha pretty vs gen z pretty7:54 Face card economy13:17 Beauty Trust fund babies

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7. Get ready to tell you the proper way to shop at Sephora. I mean we've been shopping there since we're six. Welcome to the baby boom of beauty junkies. Young enough to have a bedtime but we'll spend $300 on an anti-aging night routine. Oh my gosh. This is so much. Cheers to the age of not just pretty, but Jen Alpha Pretty. Just stab it on your cheeks. Oh my gosh, yes, yes. Oh my gosh, yes. This looks amazing. Yes. Yes. Yes. That glow? No one wants to be ugly. Duh. So is it bizarre that some gen Zs struggle to pay rent while the average 10-year-old spends $300 on cosmetics?

Not really because this is a new norm. I'm for my support. This one says 155 and then 106 and $84. Perhaps a little different from the girlhood where many had different hobbies such as film, sports, breeding. The modern girlhood seems to have unified into one. One word, Sephora. Where much like the movie Neon Demon stated, Beauty is no longer everything.

It is the only thing. True beauty is the highest currency we have. Without it, she would be nothing. And kids starting the age of six are climbing a social hierarchy. A hierarchy defined by the scale of how pretty you are. It's the Beauty Olympics that begin as soon as Mommy gives you an iPad, showing you who you should be as a young, young woman. It's not enough to just be pretty. You need to be Gen Alpha Pretty.

Oh my gosh, I look so good. So let us talk about how Gen Alpha Pretty is not just Gen Z pretty on steroids, but much scarier than you think. And how the future of girlhood is decaying into only two things that matter. Appearance and maintaining that appearance. Welcome to the face card economy, where beauty comes from Monday. But money also comes from beauty. Gen Alpha Pretty versus Gen Z Pretty. Now you might be wondering what is Gen Alpha Pretty? And how is it different from Gen Z Pretty?

If we're jumping into that, we need to understand the context of the two generations. Gen Z is the last generation that experienced the bridge between pre and post-immerive digital media era. A lot of our understandings of the world and therefore have we perceive ourselves come from a hybrid of online and offline interactions. Whereas for Jen Alpha, many met their first friend Cocoa on the iPad before interacting with any real human friends. Touching grass now means going to Sephora and spending $1,000

on the new drop you saw on your 4-U page. Despite being young, Jen Alpha is becoming the strongest consumers in the face card economy. Remember that Gucci heart ring that that girl didn't get me in Sephora, well guess what? I'm still winning. Thanks, Dad. And it gets scarier. Gen Z is already known as one of the most narcissistic generations of all, and I am speaking as a Gen Z myself. We are hyper obsessed with our own quote-unquote uniqueness, where everyone thinks they are a special snowflake and care more about how they look online with a boogey aesthetic

Instagram story than paying back their compiling student debt. What Genzi considers as pretty, is always a little controversial and a little countercultural. Going very minimalist for the no makeup makeup look when glam makeup is in to grunge beauty that defies the quote unquote stereotypical feminine beauty. In other words, what Gen Z cares about most is proving ourselves as the most unique, most creative, thus creating a chaotic loop of nonstop microbeauty trends

as we search for a new identity that makes us different every few months. To be Gen Z pretty is to be conventionally attractive, yet with an unconventional twist. Think Billy Elish, gorgeous women, but often with very bold looks that contrasts with her very soft feminine traits. It girl Emma Chamberlain. Stunning, yet with a carefree aura that accentuates her beauty. This explains why brands like Glossier and Fenty were able to resonate with this generation. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community.

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start your search at ototrater.ca, Canada's car marketplace. They facilitated self-expression through beauty, even though conventional beauty standards still lay as a fundamental foundation. But when it comes to Gen Alpha, the face card economy is more ingrained. The minute that Gen Alpha has gained a conscious thought about their identity, they have already been exposed to a flood of media influence that will be shaping who they are as a person. Their community is not just the other six year olds in class. It's everyone and anyone including the most surreal, insanely beautiful humans,

on the internet, who may or may not have gained the face card through skin-like beauty filters, procedures, lighting. All that being said, what is Gen Alpha Pretty? Before we answer that question, it would be much easier if we first ask, who does Gen Alpha look up to when it comes to the ideal? This is not an easy answer because everyone's for you page is a little different. But whether or not the TikTok algorithm has done a good parenting job, We can all agree that at least it is consistent in its little biases. In the sense that being pretty is all you need to get 50 million likes and 800 million views in 2024.

Not that shocking given the record Miss Bellaportch broke in 2020. It's the type of pretty that can change your life from being an ordinary schoolgirl to multi-millionaire. The beauty on steroids that is teaching a new set of values to the future generation. That the only card you'll ever need is your face. Because apparently it looks more natural and you have a facelift, you need a facelike. And the only type of pretty that matters is the one that TikTok agrees on. The type of pretty you aspire to be at 10, so you wake up an hour early to put on a full face makeup. Literally, I make sense.

The type of pretty that raises your social status. So you spend $1,000 on Sephora every time you try to quote unquote invest in yourself. Let's make these eyes shine! Welcome to the new age of the face card economy. If beauty is all about self-expression for Gen Z, the new wave of Gen Alpha pretty is all about status. It is true that Gen Elphas are the magnifying glass of the TikTok Beauty algorithm, but there is so much more.

The aesthetics and brands that 10-year-olds are obsessed with at this moment speak more about status and class that consume their identity. For instance, the Vanilla Girl aesthetic, that leans into luxe cozy minimalism, cashmere cardigans, and all white, understating expensive and elevated, all the while achieving this look at 10 with zero disposable income. And all the sold-out, preppy beauty brands from drunk elephant glow recipe the ordinary,

say Soda General and Kosas are now 10 year old favorites. The drunk elephant bronzing drop, a gen alpha favorite, is $38, which isn't bankrupt level expensive compared to a car, a bag. But when it comes to skincare and cosmetics, this is something that needs to be repurchased every so often. And considering that many young stands out there by every new drop that comes out, it does add up to a few hundred to over $1,000, which is a good chunk of a new college grad's monthly sales. And when we consider the function of the products, it is even more bizarre how the highlight of future says it is good for entangaging loss of firmness addresses the concerns of dark spots, fine lines, wrinkles, and dullness. But the best part is, it is, quote, trending on social. When most 10-year-olds have faces bouncier than a basketball and may or may not still have a bedtime, one cannot help but ask,

Why on earth our Gen-Off is spending money they do not make on products they don't need? Do you see those wrinkles? I bet you do. Why does it feel so necessary to wear full-face makeup to school? I need red lipstick when you're just learning about fractions. Is it simply an expression of pure interest for makeup and skincare from a hobby perspective? Or is there something more ingrained from modern culture that makes it almost as essential as wearing clothes?

A 2023 Piper Sandler report shows a significant increase in annual spending on makeup and skincare among teens, with 45% of them wearing makeup every day. Indeed, Gen Alpha's economic footprint is estimated to reach $5.46 trillion before the end of the decade. I do have to use this pin to highlight them even more. It is no surprise that according to the Robin report, 53% of 12 to 14 year olds in the US who use social media say they are in interested in interacting with beauty brands online, and the same demographic is spending nearly $300 a year on cosmetic skincare and fragrances. Remember, the oldest alpha is only 14 years old.

You might be wondering, what is their parents take on this? In a very interesting ABC News article, a parent revealed, quote, my daughter is empathetic, she gets good grades. If she wants to spend her hard-earned money to go to Sephora, I'm going to let her do it. I'm not exactly sure what this parent means by hard-earned money, but it is very alarming to hear a parent's attitude to support that the purpose of going to school, getting good grades, studying, and earning money, is to spend money on Sephora. And this is assuming the hard-earned money comes from allowances from the parent

because gen alphas are still under the legal age of labor. How is it normal now? For 10, 12 year olds, that the sole purpose of studying hard and quote-unquote earning money is to buy makeup. And I don't even want to open another can of worms on family content and kid influencers. I did make a video on Picme Mom, so feel free to check that out. But very briefly, zero hate. Using the Garza Career as an example, I can see how the intention is creating a variety of quote-unquote wholesome videos. but it is a little eerie to me to wonder,

how did two seven-year-olds gain the awareness? To start putting makeup on their faces and posting that to the internet to millions of strangers, obsessing over probably over hundreds of different newest cosmetic products over their feed. Y'all have said we should try ever eaten. Today's the day. Oh my god. This looks so pretty. It is a value system that has to be a value system that has to be a value system that has to be a very

to be learned from somewhere. The question is where? And more apparent now than ever. Appearance is the value system that Gen Alpha's run on. And even more severe than Gen Z's, the worth of oneself and one's social standing, especially for young girls, is all rooted in a face card. They might not understand compounding or floating interest, but they sure are invested. In the one and ultimate asset that seems to promise a bright future seeing on a TikTok the face card beauty trust fund babies after years of wooing Gen Z brands are tapping Gen Alpha as ambassadors and influencers terrifying the girls clothing brand fc created an ambassador program for those ages 7 to 14 meanwhile skincare

brand bubble lets anyone at least 13 years old to apply to be a brand ambassador except my bubble moisturizer ever too early to moisturize right bubble The initiative is so popular that it had a wait list of some 41,000 people as of July last year. The value that brands and the overall social media landscape are screaming is that look pretty and your life will be pretty awesome. No wonder while tons of gen alphas cannot read, they understand retina well and can probably do a full-face makeup much better than I did after college. Next, we're going to go in with a little freckles. The undertone of today's pulp culture is Face is more important than education.

And this ethos has forever changed the zeitgeist and is manifested in how even more appearance-obsessed every new generation has become. And who can blame them? The internet only celebrates and rewards those who play the face card game well with no lack of aspirational rags to riches stories about lives changed by a sudden gain of virality. Not saying that there is a lack of talent,

but very clearly, the poster children of these sensational successes all have a very similar look. Also known as TikTok Pretty, now equated with Gen Alpha Pretty. It seems extremely useless to go through 12 years of school, then college, then maybe grad, then postgrad, to work a 9 to 5 you may or may not hate, and only make pennies of what a pretty girl can make on a ticot in a split second. Nothing pays better than being pretty, or does it? As someone who is passionate about beauty and skincare, I just want to say I am absolutely pro-self-care and props to everyone doing things within their means to feel healthy, beautiful, and confident. But relying on the privilege of being pretty or the validation from looking a certain way is a huge, slippery slope.

Sure, some of us definitely have won the genetic lottery by looking a certain way that fits exactly, into the conventional standards at the moment, but it is the same thing as having a trust fund. It will not last forever unless if you keep investing in yourself. And the beauty trust fund can eventually run out when you no longer look conventionally attractive or the standard changes, aka the currency of your trust fund crashes and becomes valueless. A trust fund might get you through many years in life, but unless if you create any additional values for yourself, your whole worth will be based on your beauty trust fund and it will deplete. Perhaps that is why consciously or subconsciously,

the diligence towards beauty for every generation of women is somewhat fear-based, to the point that beautiful baby-face eight-year-olds are beginning their anti-aging routines, wanting to increase the value of their face cards while fearing to lose the privileges that come along them. Instead of being an asset, the face card has become a debilitating. prison, where the worth of us of not just being women, but human, got reduced to the face we show on a tiny screen to strangers who do not know and do not care about us. There is absolutely nothing wrong with loving and embracing the fun of beauty and skincare, but the line between passion and obsession is more and more blurred by how we are valued and ranked on social media

according to our appearances that translated to a new value system not based on ethics, morals, thoughts? But who has the face that the TikTok algorithm prefers? And Jen of us, being the generation with the most amount of their lifetime influenced by such algorithms, is paying the price of becoming the newest and largest supporters of the face card economy. Although it is impossible to escape the economy where wealth and social status are highly tied to appearances, the beauty trust fund is not the only source of wealth for girls and women. It's like that trend of being obsessed with a guy that has a trust fund, it's 6.5 in finance with blue eyes. If you tie your word to something or someone so external,

just like a trust fund man, the beauty conventions can turn against your favor any single day. Life has no shortcuts and trust fund might not last a lifetime. Investing in yourself needs so much more than just investing in your face. Go invest in exploring topics you're interested in, authentic relationships with others, and experiences that expand your awareness beyond your current circle. The wealth of living is so much more than just looking good for people online who don't know or care about you. So whether you're 12, 22, 32, 42, or whatever age you are,

I sincerely hope you get to embrace that beauty in you beyond just your face. You are so much richer than just a face card. Hope you liked this chat. please share this episode so more people can be aware of the impact of the rising face card culture share the series with a loved one it will mean the world to me subscribe i will see you next week