📺 WATCH IT NOW ON-DEMAND TWEENS 101

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for joining for our tweens 101 webinar. YPulse's exclusive data on what tweens today are thinking, doing, buying. We're going to be taking you through a ton of information about their behaviors and POVs from their, activities and pastimes and passions to what devices they own, when they're getting them. And we're going to preview some upcoming data from reports that we will be releasing in just a little bit on their play and their interest in sports. So with me today to take us through all of that are my colleagues. I'll introduce myself first. I'm MaryLeigh Bliss.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
I'm the chief content officer here at YPulse, and I manage the team that produces all the content that decodes young consumers for the brands that are our subscribers. Sira and Jordana, do you wanna introduce yourselves?

Sira Sartori:
Hi, everyone. I'm Sira Sartori, and I'm the trend coordinator here at YPulse. So I help to produce all of the trend reports that you guys see on our website.

Jordana Demri:
Hi. I'm Jordana Demri. I'm the new tweens coordinator. I'm coming from Nickelodeon where I have over a decade of experience. I was the director of, research and insights for the kids and family research team, so I'm excited to bring all that knowledge here and share some of the insights that we found on the Tween audience.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Thank you so much. So Sira, Jordana, and I are all going to be sharing insights on tweens today. But before we do that, I'm going to take you through a little bit about where all this data is coming from and why we do what we do at YPulse. So youth insights are a mess out there. We said it. We know it. Ever since youth and generational insights became clickbait in the last ten years, the world has been flooded with headlines about millennials and Gen Z, and it is really hard to know what is real and not real. There's a lot of unsubstantiated content out there and a lot of headlines that are really basing their insights in quotes on a few TikToks or some vibes that they're seeing out there.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
But young people hold a tremendous amount of spending power. That mess is actually within there a lot of things that brands want to understand, not just their own spending power, but they're also influencing their families and their households, which we'll get into a lot more later. So we want to clean up that mess for brands and really bring the insights and information that are going to help brands to reach this demographic authentically and truly decode the next generation so that it all makes sense. YPulse is providing the context behind all of the trends that we see, but we're also backing everything that we share with real research. So we are have the most comprehensive insights and data on youth. We are talking to over four hundred thousand eight to 39 year olds every year. We are tracking over a thousand brands and looking at affinity that young people have for those brands across really youth specific diagnostics, like what brands are cool, what brands get them, what brands reflect diversity. But we're also asking them over a thousand unique questions annually on their behaviors, their POVs, and about the trends that they're driving.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
We are covering seven markets. So we're in North America and Western Europe across seven countries. And that means we have a lot of data, over 50,000,000 data points generated. We take all of that research and we synthesize it into easy to comprehend reports and daily insights. We have our newsletter, as well as our data dashboard for our pro subscribers to dig into it all. So we are delivering a constant stream of information, trends, and insights on Gen z, millennials, and Gen Alpha now. All of our subscribers can access this. But if you're just getting started, you can, of course, sign up for our free daily newsletter letter where we're integrating all of the data that we have and providing our expert POV on the latest youth news.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
But we also are so excited to be launching our Tween products. So this is the latest in our line of products to help bring to life a very hard to reach demographic for brands, tweens. We are surveying eight to 12 year olds across North America. Every survey of tweens that we are doing is among fifteen hundred eight to twelve year olds. All of our surveys are balanced to be nationally representative across age, gender, race, ethnicity. And then, of course, for tweens, we are following to the t all of the rules and regulations that are in place to help protect tweens. So parent, supervision and parent permission for all of those surveys. So we're talking to real tweens and getting that insight, asking them questions.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
We have experts crafting those questions to make sure that it is in their language, and really getting true insights on this demographic. So if you are interested in seeing more of what we're giving you previews of today, you can get a demo on whitepost.com/tweens and learn about how you can access all of this information. But we're going to share some of those insights with you today. There's even more, of course, in the reporting that our subscribers have, but we'll kick it off with a little bit on how tweens today are different from tweens who came before. And we'll start with context. So much of what we see when it comes to generational differences is about context. What young people grew up with and what is their norm. So what are some of the things that were already around that seem like giant major innovations and groundbreaking, changes to previous generations that are literally yesterday's news to tweens today? Services like PayPal, Grubhub, Amazon Prime, Netflix streaming, all of these existed years before the oldest tween that we are surveying in our research today was even born, which means that they were born into an on demand economy, and they have that expect expectation to get what they want, when they want it, whenever they want it truly baked into them from birth.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
On top of that, we have platforms like, Twitter and Instagram also launching years before they were born. So, arguably, this is the first generation of kids that is growing up with social media as a norm. This huge absolutely culture shifting thing for older generations is just the everyday to tweens today. And we know that they're already using it, which Sira will be telling you more about later. And then technology wise, iPhone launched in 02/2007, '5 years before they were born. I've had two years before the oldest tweens that we talked to today were born. So they were handed these devices from incredibly young ages. And, again, that mobile technology, which has shaped the way that they view content, the way that they shop, the way that they really view brands, has always been around for them.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
So none of that and nothing that comes after it is really going to seem like a new innovation to them. These are their lowest bar expectation. But, of course, after they were born in their early years, there were enormous changes and shifts and innovations as well. TikTok, which has really shifted social media to be more entertainment than anything else launched in 2016 when they weren't just babies. COVID, of course, a huge event happened when they were, really just kids. The oldest edge of this group, was, you know, seven or eight when COVID hit. So they are definitely old old enough to remember that. And even though nobody wants to really talk about the pandemic anymore, when we ask parents, a huge number of them, almost fifty percent, say that their child's mental health was impacted by COVID nineteen and continues to be.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
So we continue to see the repercussions of those years in these kids' lives and their behaviors as well. And then chat g p t launched just in 2022. So they are growing up in school with AI as an assistant. And again, a norm. Think about being a millennial and having the Internet launch when you were around that age and how you grew up with that, grew up hand in hand with it. That's what AI is going to be for this group of kids. So that context hugely important. Their norm is other generations earth shattering innovations.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Millennials are also a huge part of what's shaping tweens today. So much of generational difference is also built on how young people were parented. And millennials are, like it or not, the parents of this group of tweens. And they're definitely approaching it differently. 34% of eighteen to thirty nine year old parents are single. So tweens today are growing up in very differently shaped and looking households that can have a lot of different repercussions from, you know, parents really being working and needing to rely on their outside networks, to get that childcare that they need, to just really nontraditional families being more of a norm for this group of tweens. We also see that parenting styles have shifted. So forty four percent of millennials, as just one example, are trying gentle parenting.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
It's actually the most popular of parenting trends that we are tracking currently. And millennials on the line, you will know gentle parenting. There's a lot of information out there about it. It's all about listening to kids' big feelings, not reacting on their level. So forget about snapping back at them. It's about reacting with with calmness and gentleness. It's about breaking generational traumas. You really have to be patient to participate in it.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
I'll tell you that much. It's certainly teaching kids that their feelings and thoughts matter from an incredibly young age. So we are shaping them. They are being shaped by these new parenting styles. And also, it does really have kind of a mental health forward approach to parenting, which we dig into more in the report. Tweens today really have a huge awareness of mental health while they have broadly a really, you know, bright and positive view of the world, which is great to see. They are aware of mental health, and they are really open to discussing it. And parenting styles like this really bring that to the forefront.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Another huge shift and way that tweens today are really different is the amount of screen time that they are exposed to. It's not just about how much time you're spending on TV anymore by any means. Now parents are really having to supervise how much time are being spent on phones, on tablets, and gaming. So while there's a lot of stereotypes about kids spending way too much time on screens, and certainly 72% of parents agree that they worry about their kids spending too much time looking at screens, we also see that digital babysitting, AKA really monitoring and supervising how much time they are spending on those devices, has become a normal part of parenting and childhood. So the majority of tweens tell us that their parents supervise what they're doing online, are approving the video content and TV shows that they watch, and are limiting their screen time in some fashion. We also see that over half say their parents are keeping their devices when they're not using it. So there's a lot of back and forth happening between parents and kids over these devices, and a lot of supervision. But, also, they're literally tracking where they are digitally.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
So millennials were helicopter parented. We had our boomer parents not letting us go very far from where they were. Now helicopter parenting has been digitized and we see that 75% of tweens say that their parents track their location. And by the way, that is not just turning off when they are aging up. We see that for teens and young adults, location tracking is a very normal part of interacting with their family and friends. So this is certainly something that we would see continue when this group of tweens ages up to be in those teens and young adult ages as well. Sharing your location and having your family and friends know where you are at all times is really a norm for them, and it's because they are getting those devices at such young ages as we will share. Another huge difference that we see with tweens today is the amount of influence that they have over their parents' spending.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Eighty two percent of eight to 12 year olds say that they influence what their parents buy. But we also ask parents about this, and you'll see this throughout our reporting. We know that it is so important when we are asking tweens about their lives that we also ask their parents to get that full perspective. Tweens are going to tell us one thing, but asking parents verifies that information and also gives us a more deep contextual and, understanding of what tweens' lives are like today. In this case, we see very clearly that it's not just tweens thinking that they're influencing what their parents buy. Parents say it as well. The majority of parents say that children influence their regular purchases. And the number one thing they say that kids influence is, of course, toys and games.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
However, really important to note that it is certainly not only toys and games that kids are influencing. Number two is food. Just one percentage lower. 72% say that, food is the purchase that their kids influence, and 63% say clothes. So, certainly, kids are going to influence the thing that parents are buying directly for them, but, also, some of those other household purchases as well that everyone is using. And this is an enormous amount of spending power that tweens are influencing. They're also directly buying some things in their own way, which we'll explore again later. So a little bit about tween's pastime and interests, and, again, really talking about how those things might be different than tweens that came before them.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
We ask young people, tweens today, what do they do regularly for fun? And the number one answer is watching YouTube videos. YouTube is an enormous part of tweens' lives today and where they're getting a ton of information. We see that playing video games is actually number one for young males. Eighty four percent say that they regularly play video games for fun. That is also a huge part of tweens' lives. Yes. We see a lot of screen time in the top things that they are doing for fun. Fun.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
But in fairness, we see the same thing for tweens and young adults, teens and young adults. But there's also non screen related stuff on here. I just have to point out listening to music, spending time with family, spending time outside, the majority all say that they are doing those things regularly for fun and hanging out with friends as well. Playing with toys is also on the list, and we'll explore more about that later. But we see that half say that they regularly play with toys for fun. So that's a big part of their lives as well. There's still tactile, outdoor fun happening for tweens. But, yes, YouTube is enormously important.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Tweens are also growing up gaming. So 99% of eight to 12 year olds play video games or mobile games. So all of them. And that's as many, as tweens, as teens and, young adults as well. So they're gaming just as much as older age groups. They are growing up gaming, and they're certainly not the first group of tweens to grow up gaming. I think millennials can take that title. Maybe Gen X.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
We can fight about it. But we're growing up. We grew up gaming very differently than tweens are growing up gaming today. First of all, they're gaming in different places. So when we ask them those who game weekly or more what devices they're using to game, we see that phones and tablet are absolutely the number one place that they're gaming, with the majority saying that they're playing games on a phone or tablet weekly or more. Console is number two, and certainly many of them are playing on console. We see a pretty big difference between males and females there, with young males much more likely to say they're playing on cons consoles regularly than females. But, really, mobile gaming is dominating their behavior.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Remember, they have they had those iPads since they were little babies or access to them. And, you know, really, their entertainment is focused very much on mobile devices. And they're playing games that really are mobile friendly as well. They're also playing different kinds of games than other generations did at this age, and virtual worlds are a huge part of their gaming behavior. So 82% of eight to 12 year olds play video games that involve them being part of a virtual world. Think of those open world sandbox games, your Fortnites, your Roblox, your Minecrafts, the ones that allow you to explore and build and really do whatever you want. The metaverse ultimately already exists in the games that they've been playing since they were little littler. 75% also hang out with friends while playing video games, so that's incredibly important.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Games are social spaces for them, and metaverse open world games really have made that a possibility more than it ever was before. You know, millennials and gen x, we play video games next to our friends, potentially to player games. But this group of young kids is growing up hanging out with friends in those virtual worlds. In fact, 60 of eight to 12 year old males say that they hang out with friends virtually in video games. So they're really their avatars are hanging out and spending time together. Maybe they're chatting on a discord or a group call while that's happening. But those games are social spaces to them. And not only are they being social in those games, they are having a lot of fun, of course, and they're really bonding with those brands.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
So gaming brands meet a ton to tweens. They're actually some of the top cool brands among this group. But these are some of the their favorite video games according to parents. Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, as I said. So we really see those open world games where they can socialize and shop and do anything, really rising to the top of favorite games for this group. But we also see Super Mario, Call of Duty. There are some generational standards here that are continuing. Some of their first brand interactions are actually happening inside of games, thanks to these open world games where so many brand activations already exist.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
63% of eight to twelve year olds have purchased a digital product, a product that exert exists virtually in a game or app. And so it's even higher among young males, seventy percent of young males. So they are shopping and learning how to shop in virtual worlds. And in fact, 70% of parents agree that their kids ask to buy products that they see inside of video games. So they're asking mom and dad for the money to buy these products. Absolutely. These are some of their first interactions with brands and maybe some of their first experiences shopping are happening happening digitally in virtual worlds. We have said for so long looking at Gen Z that brands need to have a gaming marketing plan in order to reach them.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
And we absolutely see that that continues to be the case with this next generation coming up. They are spending a ton of time in games. And if you want to reach them or understand this next group that's going to be at some point your main consumer demographic, you really need to be in games and understand them there. I'll also say that video games being social spaces, it's not just with friends. They're also playing with mom and dad. Sixty six percent of tweens tells that they play video games with their family. So it's a huge part of their lives in so many different ways. But it's not the only way that they're interacting with brands for sure.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Sephora kids are real. You have probably seen the headlines about tweens. This is one of the reasons that so many people were paying so much attention to this age group in the last few years. There was this huge really tide of young girls who were, bringing a lot of attention to Sephora and really a whole new market for skin care and makeup. And our data shows that interest in skin care and makeup is real among young females. Fifty one percent of eight to 12 year old females watch makeup tutorials online, and 40% watch skin care tutorials online. So we know they're watching YouTube. It's the number one thing that they're doing for fun, and they're being exposed to a ton of content that previous generations might not have been exposed to at this age.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
We definitely see that there is interest in products that aren't necessarily marketed to them because they are seeing them on these platforms. And certainly, there's a lot of different POVs about the impact of the interest in makeup and skin care on young girls. Some people think that it might be really bad for them, that it's, you know, beauty standards that they're not ready for and certainly ingredients. There are some states that are actually banning beauty products for kids under a certain age, because they're worried about the impacts. On the other hand, some people think that it's self care or just healthy fun. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. But certainly, social media is already having an impact on not just what they want to buy, but also how they feel. With twenty six percent of eight to 12 year old girls saying that social media makes them feel bad about their appearance.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
So certainly not all of them, but a large number, a quarter. So we do see that there are impacts of their time on social media and the kind of content that they're watching. But the reality is that they are interested in these products and that it continues to be a huge trend among tween girls because of their exposure to the content that they're watching. But with all that screen time, all that time in games and on YouTube with their family and friends, we should remember that they're still doing things off screen. They are still active. Sixty two percent of eight to twelve year olds play sports. It's even higher among young males. Seventy two percent of young males compared to fifty two percent of tween females.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
You know, this time, eight to twelve years old, is really when these activities start to intensify for tweens. Many of them are overscheduled. Actually, sports can get hyper competitive for them. We're exploring even more around that in our upcoming report on their hobbies and their play and their participation in sports. But just really important to remember when we think about their pastimes and their interests, yes, we know that there's so much about screens and devices and the content that they're finding there, but really important for brands to remember that it's not all screens, and they are spending a good amount of time off screens, and they are still active. There was a time when there were really headlines around, youth sport participation falling. We see with this group of tweens that the majority are still participating. It's still a really big part of their lives.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
In fact, it's the number one kind of activity that they do. Other activities include clubs, boy scouts, things like that, but sports really dominates. So with all that background on what they're doing on all these devices, I'll pass it over to Sierra to talk more about their tech and media use.

Sira Sartori:
Yeah. Let's dive into tech and media. So tweens today are absolutely iPad kids, but they are spending time on multiple devices, and they're using an average of five different devices. So being on a device is just really part of their daily lives. Tablets are the most popular, and, many of them have been navigating tablet screens since before they could even tie their shoes. And nowadays, they're using them in school. They're using them as learning resources. And then also, of course, for entertainment, We find that 69% of parents say, I use smartphones or tablets to entertain my kids.

Sira Sartori:
So if you're a parent, you probably know this, but giving a tablet to your kid in the car or in a restaurant to entertain them is definitely pretty commonplace nowadays. But, again, those are not the only, tech devices that they're using. As you can see here, smartphones are really popular as well as gaming consoles. So more young boys tell us that they have gaming consoles than any other device, just showing how important gaming is as a pastime for young people today and especially this, demographic of tweens. And for millennials, it might have felt like the epitome of cool when you were a kid to have a TV in your room. Today, we see that gaming consoles are actually more popular device than TVs. And parents report that they're giving their kids smartphones at age 10. So even though they're concerned about screen time, as MaryLeigh mentioned, they are doing some digital babysitting, and they want to stay in contact with their kids.

Sira Sartori:
Giving them a phone means that they can contact them 247. If they're out at the mall, if they're with friends, they can call or text, but they can also track their location. And also through parental controls, track the content that they're seeing online. So for many parents, that really outweighs the risk of too much screen time, just being able to stay connected to their kids. But it is at a younger age than millennials and some of our older Gen z, you know, got their smartphones. For millennials, we see the average around 15 years old when they got their first smartphones. For Gen z, Our data shows it's around 12, so kids are getting them earlier. And in many cases, parents are giving them their own smartphone, not just their personal one, but giving their kids their own.

Sira Sartori:
There is also a movement called the wait until eighth movement, and some parents are really trying to hold off and not give their kids their own smartphones until high school. So we do see that as an up and coming trend that some parents are participating in. And as MaryLeigh mentioned earlier, YouTube is huge for this demographic. YouTube content is king, and it really is a platform that provides content for the generation. So it's not only tweens watching, it's also teens and young adults and even millennials. So it's really going throughout the generations and kind of growing with, each of these each of these generations. There is a ton of content on YouTube. The algorithm, of course, keeps, you know, providing content that young consumers love.

Sira Sartori:
There's cartoons. There are shows that they enjoy watching. There's content creators. And so they're just able to find a lot of different content on YouTube, and many of them have been watching it since they were kids on their tablets as well. And when it come comes to the type of genres that they're watching, music videos, gaming, and creators are even more popular than among teens. And so I think the most interesting thing here is that when we ask tweens what content genres they're watching weekly, one of the top five genres is vloggers and online personalities, which doesn't even make the top 10 for teens or young adults. And so it just shows how important content creators and social media are for this demographic. Another really interesting thing here is that while tweens love cartoons, both girls and boys, we do find that, young boys really also love gaming and esports content.

Sira Sartori:
Again, one of their favorite pastimes, something they're doing very consistently throughout the week, and it's also the content that they like watching as well. For young girls, we're seeing that music and music videos are really popular for this demographic. And as we'll get into, TikTok is really popular among these young females. And a lot of those trending videos are taking, you know, audio clips and music clips and exposing them to new artists and bands and songs. And so that could be part of the reason why music is so enticing to young females. And now we'll dive into social media. Despite age constrictions or restrictions on some social media platforms, nine and 10 tweens are still on social media, and they're not just on one platform. They're on an average of four.

Sira Sartori:
While, of course, YouTube takes the top spot, TikTok and Fortnite are also really popular platforms. And if you look at the graph, you can see here that TikTok is really popular among young females and Fortnite really among young males. So So while you may not think of Fortnite necessarily as a social media platform, as we shared earlier, gaming is really a social space where they're interacting with their friends, their peers, and even people that they don't know. And so it does kind of pop to the top as a really popular social platform for, tweens today. And then TikTok, again, has a lot of their content that they're really interested in watching. There's quick bingeable content. It's easy to shop on TikTok to find creators, and, again, just an endless amount of content that they can consistently be watching. Social media is also influencing their broader entertainment preferences.

Sira Sartori:
So when we ask tweens if they would prefer a short or a long video, the majority do say short. And when we ask them to pick between a streaming service or social media content, a streaming service does slightly edge out social media, but still 46% of teens say social media. So that bingeable content is really something that's changing their entertainment preferences likely for the long term. So if you are a brand that is a streaming service, make sure that you are leveraging social media style, content in your, in your content as well as in marketing. And online celebrities are already influencing them to buy even at this really young age. So the majority say that they wanted to buy something an online celebrity has spoken about or recommended, and many of them are even going to social media to just browse for things that they want to buy. A lot of these tweens are watching, influencers who are older than them, and they're actually asking for brands and products that you might associate as more, you know, for grown ups, for teenagers, or even young adults. Brands like Lululemon and Apple iPhones and, you know, Stanley mugs are things that tweens today are asking their parents for.

Sira Sartori:
And, of course, you know, they are influencing their parents' purchases quite a bit, and so it feels like they're growing up a lot faster than, previous generations. And, of course, many of them want to be influencers themselves. So they have stars in their eyes about what they wanna be when they grow up, and millennials had the same thing. We just wanted to be movie stars or professional athletes. But for tweens today, being an influencer or being a content creator sponsored by a brand is definitely something that, they strive to be someday. And I love this quote from a nine year old girl. She said YouTube is a cool brand because I can watch videos and make my own videos. So before they've even hit the double digits in age, some of them are creating their own content.

Sira Sartori:
Certainly not all of them, but they are seeing other influencers their own age online, sharing content like product reviews and get ready with me videos and, personal vlogs, which oftentimes are, managed on accounts by their parents. And one example here is Leo. He is the Shirley Temple king here on the screen. He is an an 11 year old drink critic who is even highlighted in the New York Times, and he's very well established. And some restaurants have even changed around their menus to, make sure that they are making the best Shirley Temple for him. And so young people are saying that there are people their own age making, making waves in this influencer space. And now I'll pass it

Jordana Demri:
on. Thanks. So I'm gonna give a sneak peek, to our report that's coming out in June, focused on playing sports for tweens. So let's dive in to some highlights. So one stat that we thought was really interesting is that almost 75% of kids, like, prefer to play games with their friends and family versus playing alone. To MaryLeigh's point, previously that she made, you know, kids can be viewed this generation as isolated because they're behind the screen or they're playing a lot of video games, but to them, that's actual actually a social aspect. So even though they're playing Minecraft in their house and their friends playing Minecraft in their own home, together, they feel like it's a very social aspect. And in fact, 50% of kids are saying that the reason why they like to play with toys and games is to spend time with their friends and family.

Jordana Demri:
So really encouraging. Even though it may seem like it's isolating, they're very sociable, and they like to play, with their friends and family together. And looking a little bit further into the toys that they're playing with, tweens are still very into toys. This, you can kind of see, leans itself into more of the gender stereotypes. So boys are still into the building blocks of the Legos and remote control cars and vehicles, while girls lean a little bit more towards playing with stuffed toys, dolls, and board games. 60% of tweens are saying they're very into collecting things, so collectibles are still really huge for the tweens, whether it's trading cards, toys, dolls. They're very into consuming a specific genre of toys, and 75% of twin tweens say that they feel that they'll never be too old to play with toys. So that's really encouraging that they have this playful spirit and kind of always feel that toys will be a part of their life.

Jordana Demri:
And one stat that we thought was particularly interesting is that sixty five percent of kids say they already know what they want for the holiday season, which is pretty crazy because this study was fielded in April. So seven months in advance, parents who are on the webinar buckle up. That means they know what they want already seven months in advance. And a lot of them say that they're finding out the new toys and games they want from YouTube. So whether it's an ad or whether it's a video that they're seeing on YouTube, again, showing the force and the influence that YouTube has on this demographic. And lastly, one topic that we are touching upon for this next report is sports. So 60% of tweens say that they are sports fans, pretty evenly split between the two genders, and what's interesting is that how they're consuming and engaging with sports is evenly split between live TV and YouTube. So, again, illustrating the power and influence of YouTube that kids are not only just watching sports on live TV on cable, but how they're consuming it is equivocal to the amount that they're consuming on YouTube nowadays.

Jordana Demri:
Another interesting thing is that 70% of tweens feel that being a a sports fan is a big part of who they are today. And most primarily, they're very into athletes. So 60% of tweens are saying that they would buy a product that their favorite athlete athlete endorses or watch non sports content that their favorite athlete is a part of. So athletes are kind of like the influencers to them, and they kinda follow their lead in terms of purchase power and what their content they're consuming. So that's all I'm gonna tease for this report. It'll be out in June with more detail, and I'm gonna pass it to MaryLeigh for some key takeaways.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Thank you so much. We're really excited to continue to roll out Tween content with that report coming up next, and we dig really deep on all of those topics, sports, play, hobbies, in that next report. But I'll do some quick takeaways for you on what we've covered today. Tweens today are growing up with mobile devices in hand. These devices have existed since they were before they were born, and parents are handing them to them at very early ages and, in fact, often giving them their own devices at around age 10. So we really just can't get around the fact that they are on those mobile screens, and it is impacting so much of what they do from entertainment to shopping and beyond. But offline activities are still a big part of their lives. So there are a lot of stereotypes about the amount of time that kids are spending on devices and rightfully so, but they are still playing sports.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
They have athletic activities. And in fact, during this time of each 12 years old, really, a lot of those start to intensify, and they tend to be really heavily scheduled. Video games are huge part of their lives, though, and they are social playgrounds. So they're playing in metaverse virtual worlds where they can do anything, and they're using those spaces to hang out with their friends, and their families. They're spending time playing video games with families as well. Social media already has a really big influence on their lives. It's impacting what they want to buy and even what they want to do when they grow up. While previous generations might have a really averse reaction to that, the reality is that every generation is growing up with a different set of media, and that media impacts who they are and their plans for the future.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
Whether that is, you know, millennials growing up with the early Internet and video games or today's tweens growing up with social media. The media changes, but often, the dreams don't. They're still kids. They're still playing and watching sports in their own way. They're still playing with toy toys, the majority of them, and they still see themselves playing with toys as they grow up, which really coincides with what we've seen with gen z and millennials not giving up playtime as they become adults. So we can expect that this is a group of tweens that's not really gonna age out of toys so much as they age up with toys. The taboo around playing with toys as you're, grown up has really disappeared, thanks to millennials and older gen z. They're also watching sports, but as we mentioned, that's in their own way as well.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
A lot of that's happening on YouTube, where they're spending so much time, and that's also the top place they're going when they want to have fun. So do not forget YouTube when you're thinking about reaching this group. For more on all of this, absolutely need to talk to us about that Tween product. You can get a demo at ypulse.com/tweens. We're rolling out four reports across the year, toys and play, shopping. We're gonna be talking about, their media consumption, as well as their passions and their hobbies and their tech use. So more on everything that we covered and beyond. So absolutely reach out to us if you need information on this demographic.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
And I'll just leave that up while I look at a few questions that we've gotten in our q and a. Our I know our team has been answering them as we go, but we have a few that I'd love to address live. One is asking if tweens are influencing, parents' own behavior, the things that parents are buying them for themselves or just what they're buying for their children. The way that we ask parents and kids this is if they're influencing parents' purchases for the household, so things that they're buying for their kids and for everyone. That being said, qualitatively, we absolutely know that tweens are introducing brands to their parents and beyond. You know? We see I have seen moms and grandmas who are wearing Aviator Nation because they learned that they have to from their tween daughters. So we definitely see that there's cross pollination happening between generation when it comes to trends these days. We also see, as we mentioned, the opposite.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
You know, tweens are taking some trends that originated with millennial moms, Stanley Cups and Lululemons, and, taking taking that and making that cool. So, we definitely see that both are really introducing brands to each other, and, the influence is going both ways for sure. We had a question about our surveys and how tweens are completing these surveys. You know, really important to note that all the tweens that we are serving, we are following really careful regulations around how we talk to tweens. Each of these surveys, which is fielded among 15 hundred eight to 12 year olds in North America, we get parent permission. There's parent supervision. So we're following all those rules. That's why this is a very difficult demographic for many to reach and why it's often so hard to find data on eight to 12 year olds.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
So we're making sure that we follow all of that. We do have a question about brand loyalty and tweens being labeled as highly fickle. Drunk elephant called out plummeting sales due due to tween fickleness. What are recommendations for a brand's loyalty longevity? This is a problem that is not new with tweens. White Pulse has been talking about young people's loyal ish behaviors for a very long time. We've seen that brand loyalty has completely shifted when it comes to millennials and Gen Z, and that now tweens are following in their footsteps. They are more likely to call themselves loyal ish than brand loyal, which means that they will use a brand they like as long as there's not another brand that's doing something cooler, better, and more interesting. But as soon as another brand comes along that seems like it's worth trying, they will go ahead and try that brand.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
They're really brand loyalty does not mean the same thing to them. So we have long been telling brands that you need to stay in a state of constant beta. You need to always be innovating and experimenting in order to keep young consumers interested, because they always have their eye out for the next, the latest, and the greatest, and they certainly won't stay loyal just because they have been using you for recent times. That being said, we do see among thirteen to seventeen year olds and eighteen to twenty four year olds that the majority tell us that they are more likely to stay loyal to brands that they started using when they were young. So while all young consumers, including tweens, are absolutely fickle, really building a relationship with them at a younger age does help with that brand loyalty. Doesn't guarantee it, but it can help it. So, the younger you start to reach out to them, the more likely they are to keep using you as they grow up. That's all the time that we have today for our questions.

MaryLeigh Bliss:
I wanna say thank you to Sira and Jordana. Thank you so much for doing this webinar with me and sharing our Tween insights. We're so excited to have Jordana come on board and really be our Tween expert and head our tween content going forward. So absolutely look forward to sharing more with you from us and her. Thank you so much for joining, and reach out to us with any questions. Have a great day.