Freya India’s Girls®: The Damage Done to Gen Z

I teach math at an all-girls school, so I am always interested in learning about what the culture is like for young women. Freya India has a Substack named GIRLS, and she writes for several publications. Her book, Girls, is an eye-opening explanation of all the difficult issues Gen Z (born 1997 - 2012) women have had to deal with. Freya herself was born in 1999. Girls has 6 chapters, each one focusing on a specific issue. Freya's main thesis is that, while adolescent girls have always had struggles, Gen Z girls have been forced to deal with dilemmas no previous generation had to navigate.

Chapter 1, Filtered, describes how young women are encouraged to alter their appearance on social media using filters like Facetune. This app is like virtual plastic surgery, allowing users to change their complexion, noses, ears, etc. Social media like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok promote ephemeral beauty fads that are then used to advertise products and procedures to vulnerable adolescent girls. Algorithms manipulate what users see in their feed, leading them to believe they are physically, psychologically, and emotionally flawed.

By the mid-2010s, girls as young as thirteen and fourteen were wearing more and more makeup. We were contouring our cheeks, wearing fake eyelashes for school, and overlining our lips to look as though we had fillers. Girls started looking the same. We were being sold the same things, and we were being funneled toward the same face. p. 39

Chapter 2 is Diagnosed, and it details the commoditization of mental health. Influencers on TikTok overshare their emotional and psychological struggles, and mental health "experts" have viral posts explaining how normal adolescent issues are symptoms of mental illness. Online therapy has become a huge business, and influencers proudly talk about all the medications they take.

By 2024, BetterHelp had served over five million users globally, with a network of more than thirty-five thousand licensed therapists and annual revenue of around $1 billion. p. 73

Because social media rewards the posts that garner the most clicks, more and more extreme behavior is posted online and normalized.

Today, in the 2020s, girls share everything online. On TikTok, they give tours of their messy "depression rooms", showing dirty underwear and plates of half-eaten food ("it started to smell six months ago lolz"). They share traumatic "Storytimes" about sexual abuse and suicide attempts while styling their hair and applying skin care ("get ready with me whilst I tell you about the time my nan tried to kill me, my mum, and my dad"). Some set up live cameras to record live panic attacks ("watch me have a panic attack while waiting at a red light"), others post pictures from their mental health diagnosis reveal parties ("Cutting the cake... It's pink and blue! Bipolar 2 and OCD/OCPD...") p. 63

There is big money in mental health treatment, and India makes a strong case that social media platforms and virtual therapy services have preyed upon vulnerable girls to convince them they are ill.

Chapter 3 is titled Documented, and in it Ms. India writes about the phenomenal growth of vlogging - people posting video of their most personal life experiences. Millions in ad revenue are earned by parents posting intimate details of their children's lives, as well as the children posting about themselves. In the competition for clicks, users are incentivized to post more and more outrageous and personal details of their lives. It makes one ponder what it says about our culture that so many people take pleasure in voyeuristic binging of these vlogs?

Developers design apps to increase drama amongst adolescents and thus increase engagement.

Yik Yak launched in 2013, allowing users within a five-mile radius to ask and answer anonymous questions. It too became linked to self-harm and suicide attempts by users. Yik Yak was later followed by more anonymous apps, like Not Gonna Lie (NGL) and Fizz. Fizz, which describes itself as "a private social feed just for your school", encourages students to "share and discover anonymously so that you can be your true self." According to the Wall Street Journal, the app tore through high schools in 2024. Students commented on each other's appearances, personalities, and disabilities, posting embarrassing and even incriminating pictures. p. 117

I can't think of a more diabolical use of social media than something like Fizz. Teen girls can be catty enough without an app encouraging them to talk about each other anonymously.

Chapter 4 is titled Disconnected, and Ms. India makes a convincing argument that despite all of the rhetoric employed by social media apps about "building community," they drive people apart and isolate them. As adolescents spend more time on their phones, they spend less time outside and interacting face-to-face.

Across social media, there is a growing celebration of being indoors by ourselves. Today, girls and young women talk about "JOMO", the joy of missing out. Viral TikToks, tweets, and memes celebrate canceled plans and getting to stay inside. We call it "self-care" or "protecting our peace". p. 150

There are countless examples of young women videoing themselves having panic attacks as they make a phone call to a business. India supplies copious data that illustrate the alarming decline in teens getting together in person. She makes a convincing case that the word friendship has been redefined to mean how girls interact on media and include each other on their profiles.

India also documents the rise of virtual friends, thanks to AI. There is an app called SocialAI where users can construct their very own version of X, populated with bots that do nothing but pump up your ego.

Alone in a vast social network of AI bots, you get to "be the main character", and "pick the types of followers you want", selecting from options including "fans", "cheerleaders", "trolls", and "debaters". p. 153

Having a bunch of fake "fans" constantly interacting with me in a closed system sounds like a customized hell, but according to one reviewer, "You get the benefit of ranting and raving to your customizable following without any of the negatives like having to deal with real people!" As AI continues to be used more and more, we are already seeing discussions about whether it is appropriate and healthy to have a "serious relationship" with it. The sycophantic nature of AI makes it very attractive to vulnerable users.

Chapter 5, Detached, was, for me, the most depressing one to read. In it, Ms. India discusses the horrible consequences of having hardcore pornography made available to children and teens. According to her, we have practically an entire generation that has no idea how to relate to the opposite sex. Influencers celebrate promiscuity and prostitution, insisting they are "empowering" behaviors.

Putting aside the evils of porn, even dating apps can be harmful, encouraging users to think of potential dates as objects that can be swiped away and discarded. A whole new vocabulary has sprung up because of Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge:

There was "benching" (keeping someone as a backup option while pursuing someone else), "breadcrumbing" (sending flirty messages now and then, with no intention of following through), "cloaking" (not showing up for a date and blocking the person), "orbiting" (ghosting someone but still liking their posts and watching their Stories), and even "throning" (dating someone for the social media status). p. 174

The sixth and final chapter is "Empowered," and it focuses on how people without religious faith fill the need for belief with unsatisfying substitutes, like new age spirituality, far-left politics, and shopping.

Girls are also becoming consumers younger than ever. Instead of flipping through toy catalogs before birthdays like I once did, girls now watch TikTok toy hauls, YouTube unboxing videos, and "What I Got for Christmas" vlogs, often featuring children their own age. Ryan Kaji, for example, began unboxing toys on YouTube at just four years old. By nine, Ryan was earning nearly $30 million a year from reviewing toys, making him the highest-paid YouTuber three years in a row. p. 224

America has always battled crass consumerism, but given the number of hours teens spend online, it's no surprise that they increasingly define their identities in terms of the brands they buy. As I mentioned earlier, I teach at an all-girls school, and I'm always fascinated by how quickly a certain product becomes ubiquitous in my classroom and the hallway, whether it's Stanley cups, Parke sweatshirts, or Owala water flasks. Just as quickly, these expensive accessories are discarded for the next big thing.

India concludes her book with a plea for young girls to see through the lies of online marketers, take back their privacy, and connect with people in real life. Girls is a powerful indictment of how manipulative and greedy media companies have been preying on the most vulnerable members of our society. I hope it ignites a backlash against platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and the influencers who use them to spread harmful messages. If only all platforms could be like Ricochet!