A Gen Alpha Pod Beat Joe Rogan — and the Audience Shake-Up Begins
With names like ‘Pucker Up,’ ‘Girl Talk’ and ‘LOL,’ teen mega-shows reveal the power of early fandom — and the brand loyalty shift underway
This is a preview of Like & Subscribe, my standalone Ankler Media newsletter on the creator economy. I scooped the launch of podcast Good Noticings from the Celebrity Memoir Book Club hosts, visited Kasey Esser’s indie microdrama set and reported on the wild world of TikTok Live and Hollywood agencies battling over top creators. Email me at natalie@theankler.com
PresLee Faith has just popped a quarter-sized blue sour candy in her mouth and makes a pained expression. She spits the candy out and whines, “My teeth hurt.” The 15-year-old internet It girl is playing Pucker Up, the YouTube game show that’s become wildly popular with the under-18 set. But it doesn’t matter if PresLee eats the candy. She’s really there to dish to Pucker Up host Joely Live about the status of her relationship with Jackson Harvey, the floppy-haired fellow TikToker sitting cozily by PresLee’s side. Her friends Embreigh Courtlyn and Ayden Valdez are there too.
When Live asks Embreigh and Ayden to weigh in on PresLee and Jackson’s status as a couple, Ayden responds, “Y’all are just friends.” Embreigh interrupts, “They’re best friends.” And then Ayden makes an addendum, “But something’s coming.” PresLee and Jackson look coyly at each other but don’t say much.
If you’ve never heard of Pucker Up, let alone PresLee or Jackson or Embreigh or Ayden, that’s okay. Because the young viewers who’ve been following the quartet on social media for years go crazy for this episode, titled “PresLee Jackson Embreigh Ayden TELL ALL! dating? ships?” It garners more than 1.8 million views on YouTube in just a few days, and the comments blow up with messages like this one: “The way jackson stares at preslee and slows his gaze and slows his talking is sooooo cuteeee omggg.”
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Welcome to the sweet-and-tart, head-spinning world of Gen Alpha media, a whole new cohort of (super) young audiences rewriting the rules of what they want to watch — and how.
Generation Alpha is roughly anyone born in 2010 or later, making the oldest in the group around 15. Since they’re still so young, researchers are still gathering information about Gen Alpha, but one widely cited projection suggests that by the end of this year they will number almost 2 billion globally, making them the largest generation to date. They’re highly online, have a savvy awareness of brands and can seriously impact spending — research firm McCrindle estimates that their purchasing power will near $5.5 trillion (yes, trillion) by 2029, before they’ve even hit their 20s. Want to see what that impact looks like IRL? Check out the absolute chaos that 15-year-old YouTube creator Salish Matter incited last weekend when more than 80,000 people swarmed New Jersey’s American Dream Mall for the Sephora launch of her Sincerely Yours skincare brand.
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Pucker Up launched in 2023 to serve this audience, amassing some 474,000 YouTube subscribers along the way. And it’s not the only show out there speaking to Gen Alpha. There’s also LOL Podcast, which features 16-year-old influencer Harper Zilmer and her friends gabbing about life, love and (at least on one recent episode) Labubus. And there’s Girl Talk, in which a quartet of young women dive deep on topics like “bathing suit bodies,” periods and relationship red flags. Rock Squad, a creator collective with nearly 4.5 million YouTube subscribers, has Rock Pod, where they offer advice for teens. MD Foodie Boyz features a group of four friends talking about cafeteria lunches, the magic of microwaves and their desert island meals.
Though each of these shows has a different flavor, they all share some key elements: They’re largely made by teens for teens, and they are hyper-focused on serving that audience. That means they don’t hold your hand. If you’re listening, they assume it’s because you know who they are and are already plugged into the drama they’re discussing. (Many of the podcasts don’t even feature an introduction and the hosts don’t say their names before they dive into that day’s topic.) All of these shows — even those billed as podcasts — are made to be watched (primarily on YouTube), with TikTok clips fueling interest in the full-length episodes.
“For me, social media at that age was social, and for them it’s entertainment,” says self-identified millennial Madeline Baldi, an agent at WME who is part of the team that recently signed Live for representation.
Today I’m pulling back the curtain on the teen shows rewriting the media playbook — with Joely Live, the hosts of Girl Talk and LOL Podcast, plus WME’s Baldi and other Gen Alpha insiders.
Today you’ll learn:
Why Gen Alpha’s projected $5.5T spending power makes early fandom conversion the next great media land grab
How brand loyalty forms younger than ever — with candy, merch and skincare as proof points
WME’s Baldi on turning fleeting teen clout into durable businesses
The overlooked monetization path from bedroom podcasts to Sephora launches and live tours
How Pucker Up’s audience-driven booking is reshaping teen talent pipelines
What Girl Talk’s 1M+ bedroom-chat views say about authenticity and Gen Alpha demand
Why LOL Podcast’s Dolby Theatre near sellout signals the next wave of merch and live extensions
The emerging Gen Alpha media playbook: formats, distribution, and fandom dynamics insiders must track
The rest of this column is for paid subscribers to Like & Subscribe, a standalone newsletter dedicated to the creator economy from Ankler Media. Click here or on the button below to access the full story.
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