Teenage girls are perhaps the economy’s biggest growth engine. They’ve turned no-name brands into household names, unraveled the popularity of others, saved local economies and even some countries from a downturn by attending concerts, and more.
But their value often goes unnoticed.
Their spending habits are important to watch because they can be considered a bellwether for overall consumer health, as young girls often receive money from their parents. When the economy is prospering, parents tend to boost their teens’ pocket money, emboldened by better household balance sheets.
An argument can also be made that purchases made by girls and women offer a window into the health of the American economy—and can be especially more insightful than boys’ spending habits, because the former group has always tended to be the bigger spenders.
Recent labor data offers evidence that some of that spending might be fueled by their own hard-earned money. More women ages 25 to 34 have entered the workforce in recent years than ever, while the share of young men hasn’t grown in a decade. That means that they’re seizing job opportunities in front of them, and thus are likely to have a growing share of discretionary income. Men, in comparison, are floundering due to a lack of purpose, according to a Wall Street Journal story.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, U.S. Census Bureau
Companies are well aware of this change in the labor force dynamic. For decades, their marketing strategies have focused on targeting this demographic and persuading that specific group to buy products.
So while this trend in itself isn’t new, it is important to look at all the ways in which girls and women have helped shape what has often been described as the blockbuster post-pandemic economy.
The decision on where to spend their money is mostly driven by online trends seen on TikTok, whose biggest users are teenage girls.
The social-media app’s recent ban and then its (possibly) temporary reinstation has spurred fresh questions about what could happen to small businesses and subsequently, the overall economy if and when the app disappears.
The app drove $15 billion in revenue for U.S. small businesses and contributed over $24 billion to the GDP over 2023, while supporting 224,000 jobs, according to a research conducted by Oxford Economics.
TikTok’s impact has also reinvented the way Gen Z speak, often saying things that may seem incomprehensible to those in other generations. For example, take a guess what these words mean: gyat, delulu, OOMF, and brainrot. (Answers are at the bottom of this article.)
It’s hard to pinpoint precisely how much of that growth can be attributed to girls and women, but one thing is clear, businesses and executives have realized that prioritizing marketing strategy toward girls and women is key to having a shot at success.
TikTok’s critics argue that the app isn’t social media as much as it is an advertising platform, where “influencers” try to covertly sell products as part of paid, but often undisclosed, advertising.
For now, that might not be important. The point is, it seems like teenage girls are buying in.
And it makes sense when remembering that we live in a culture of relevance. To not feel left out, you have to have the latest Adidas Sambas shoes, know the meaning behind the orange-peel theory, and have seen the model and influencer Nara Smith make Coca-Cola from scratch (bizarre). When you were 13, you probably also wanted to own and know the latest fashion and other trends.
Here are a handful of specific examples where the contributions of this demographic have been noted.
Crumbl Cookies
Crumbl Cookies has women, especially teens and tweens, in a chokehold. Rightly so because who doesn’t love a rich and decadent cookie packaged in a beautiful pastel pink box. Founded in 2017, Crumbl has 9.6 million TikTok followers, while Chipotle has 2.5 million followers.
Crumbl co-founders Jason McGowan said in a Wall Street Journal article: “Our strategy right from the beginning was social media.”
Their chocolate-chip cookie has 730 calories.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
The company said it doesn’t have data on its consumers who are under 18, so they don’t know how many are teens and tweens. But they do know that 65% of the customers are women.
And targeting them sure seems like it has paid off. The article said, “the average Crumbl shop posted $1.16 million in revenue last year, with profits of nearly $123,000, according to the company’s latest Franchise Disclosure Document, a detailed set of financials that are given to prospective franchisees. Crumbl, which collects a percentage of sales from each shop, had net income of nearly $31 million on more than $122 million in revenue last year, according to the document.”
The hunger for Crumbl is so big that there was a recent unofficial “pop-up” in Sydney, Australia. People lined up to pay nearly $12 for a cookie, almost double the price in the U.S. The stale, old cookies pushed the brand to make plans to open a store there, the first one outside of North America.
Taylor Swift
It’s hard to think of a bigger pop star than Taylor Swift. TikTok is a popular venue for her fan base, predominantly made up of girls and women, to hang out at. They take part in fun challenges, trivia and discourse, alongside starting trends like the “friendship bracelet” one.
Wherever she went during her tour, be it Japan or Los Angeles, a horde of girls and women followed. Economies and small businesses thrived as her fans spent money on hotels, food, clothes and other miscellaneous spending, with many dubbing it “Swiftonomics.”
Some even say spending by her fans helped stave off a recession in the U.S.
Her fans even got a shout out by the Federal Reserve. The central bank in its June 2023 Beige Book, which contains anecdotes about economic conditions across the country, said that, “May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.”
The economic impact of a concert on a host city is close to what that city would see from hosting a Super Bowl.
By one estimate, her “Eras Tour” generated more than $10 billion in impact on local economies.
She also helped the economies of the United Kingdom, Japan and Mexico City.
Hello Kitty
It’s rare to see a kid’s cartoon first released in 1974 still remain one of the world’s most recognizable characters. Perhaps it’s Hello Kitty’s cute face, aka the kawaii aesthetic, or something else, but she has been very near and dear to multiple generations of girls and women.
If anything, TikTok has helped cement that bond further. Many showcase on TikTok their latest Hello Kitty “haul,” further fueling a fear of missing out.
Her resurgence is considered a part of the Sanrio phenomenon. Its shareholders have made 10 times their money as the iconic Japanese brand expands digitally, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hello Kitty accounted for around 30% of Sanrio’s gross profit in product sales and licensing in the fiscal year ended March 2024, compared with 76% a decade earlier.
Conclusion
Teenage girls and their power cannot be overstated.
When they and others flocked en masse to RedNote, interest posed by those “refugees” in learning and understanding the Chinese language boosted shares of language-learning app Duolingo 7% on Jan. 16.
At the same time, a brand can also be susceptible to a pullback if they simply just one day lose interest. Take the case of Lululemon, for example. Once upon a time, the athleisure company used to be the only leggings women would swear by, but then suddenly the brand started fading away.
A recent Barron’s story highlighted: “LULU continues to lead within performance, but we are seeing signs of less mindshare within fashion as well as price sensitivity from the aspirational consumer,” Piper Sandler analyst Abbie Zvejnieks wrote in a note to clients. “The teen consumer which has flocked to the LULU brand over the past two years may prove to be more fickle especially given faster trend cycles and increasing competition.”
And here’s the biggest catch: While teenage girls contribute big to the economy through their spending, they’re not taught about investing at the same rate as boys, according to a report by Fidelity.
That has contributed to that gender inequality gap, pushing women behind men as they get older, even though they might have started at the same financial level.
Perhaps that’s the next trend to watch in the ever-evolving gender dynamics.
Here are the definitions of these common slang. Credit goes to Collins Dictionary and Urban Dictionary.
Gyat: Used to express strong excitement, surprise, or admiration.
Delulu: Shorter term for delusional .
OOMF: Acronym for: “One of my friends,” “one of my followers,” “online-only mutual follower,” or “online-only mutual friend.”
Brainrot: Used when referring to constantly thinking about a topic, person, place, or thing. (Also named the Oxford Word of the Year in 2024.)
How many did you get right?
