Dear Millennials, Please Stop Calling Gen-Z Kids. We’re not.

All too often an incident such as Tide Pod eating or the cinnamon challenge arises and it is used to make a mockery of the younger generation. As an older Gen-Z, I have grown incredibly tired of it. I am a 21 year old college graduate who spends her time researching. I did not have a smartphone until I was 14, I wore the ridiculous eyeliner, and watched the Twilight films when they came out. Maybe it was that my mother is hip, but I would like to think my childhood and that of my peers were not much different from the ones people born 5 years before us may have had.

You may be asking yourself, why is this an issue? The issue is that for years I watched Boomers accuse Millennials of killing every industry in sight, even when they did not. I watched Boomers tell Millennials their lack of success was due to lack of work ethic, even as the Boomers proceeded to pull the rug out from under said Millennials. My heart bled for your generation. Now your generation is coming for mine with those same sharp teeth. A large portion of my generation is a year or two younger than youngest Millennials. Too old to fit in with the Jojo Siwa crowd, too young to remember 9/11 or the pre-Obama administration. However, that does not mean we do not deserve respect.