Gen Alpha will all be born by the end of 2025, and there’s no doubt that the world in which they’ve grown up in has been wildly different to any other generation. They’re still too young to comprehensively survey but there’s emerging evidence that the gender divide we’ve seen across Gen Z (primarily on socio-political issues) may be even starker with Gen Alpha.
We’ve been gathering Real Life Stories from 12 year olds over the past year, allowing them to write and talk about their lives, hopes and dreams in whatever way they want. Even at 12 we see some differences: girls read more than boys at this age and have more varied interests. Yet all of our 12 year olds express the same love for their family and hopes for a safe future for everybody.
In the past few weeks we’ve been sharing some stories from the boys, now's it's time for the girls: Lauren, Ellie, Malia and Elsa. Here are their stories.
Real Life Stories requires you to take some time, read actively and absorb what people are telling you about their lives. So make a cup of tea before you get stuck in.
Lauren, London
Turning twelve feels like another one of those mini milestones. A bit closer to being a teenager and not a little kid anymore although I suppose I will always be mummy and daddies little girl. I can be very loud, or so my parents say when I am excited but normally I am very shy. That is quite a weird thing for me to say because I would love to get into acting when I am older, I have already been the lead part in a couple of school plays. My favourite of which was a parody of Star wars that we did and I was the leading lady with more lines than anybody else. I loved doing this and my parents were so proud of me.
I care about my friends a lot, going to a new school last year was very nervewracking for me but making new friends has made my year 7 very enjoyable and fun. I love my family very much but I do clash with my sister, who doesn't? But I can be very protective of her because she is only ten. My little brother is our miracle baby, born very early so I am extra protective of him, he is funny, cute and we play together a lot. Well he always wants to play with me a lot. I care about trying to look my best and my dad says I have a certain style but he does not have a clue about style. I am interested in language, drama, Tv, and social network apps, they are a way to bring me and my friends together but also make my own content. I love Tik Tok and Youtube and view content on there all the time. Love reading also and currently working my way through the heartstopper series. Also dark Disney books
I spend my time viewing and making content for Tik Tok and Youtube. I have had a go at some stop start motion stuff with my sister and my friends, I really enjoy this a lot. I like to window shop and then creeping to my parents to top up my bank account so I can go shopping. This will mainly be for clothes but I like make up as well, I try not to wear much as its bad for my young skin. My first job is any homework that I might have, mum and dad may have to help me as well, art for mum, math for dad. Watching TV will always take up any other time and I am currently watching Stranger things, again, and Cobra Kai. Can find myself shouting at the television sometimes, that means I care and I feel involved.
I enjoy reading and tend to go through phases of series of books, Heartstopper is my current read, it is also on Netflix but to read it as well gives me a sense of imagination and making my own picture. We have just bought a hot tub so relaxing in that at the weekend is one new thing I look forward to now. It is lovely being in it. I like to play games with my siblings and my mum, be it on the switch or on our tablets, my dad is more a board game player. That is fun also, we recently all lost to my little brother at Monopoly.
I want my mum to be healthier as she has a bad illness, and I want my dad to just carry on being who he is for as long as possible. I want to learn to drive, dad will teach me, hopefully, and I want to travel but for some unknown reason I do not want to fly. I have never been on a plane so I don't know what my fear is but it's there. I want to do well at school and college and then get a great job that pays me loads of money. I want peace everywhere, I hate Putin for what he is doing in Ukraine and I wish that we never see anything like covid ever again but I think our next virus outbreak might be even worse than covid.
I want my friends to be my friends for as long as possible although in life we probably won't be able to stay in touch for ever. I want myself to be healthy and never have major issues like my mum has, it must be and is very hard for her and our family. I want people to just be nice to each other, because it does not cost any money to be nice and it takes very little effort to actually be kind and nice to people. My dad says we waste more energy being angry so why bother. I hope to just be as good a version of myself as I can be. Fall in love perhaps lol.
Ellie, Cambridge
Hi my names Ellie and I am 11 years old and I am coming to the end of my first year at secondary school. I live at home with my mum , dad and three sisters. I really like year 7 because there is a lot more resources and better facilities then there was in primary school for example in P.E they have trampolines and football goals and netball hoops and proper javelins. I love playing football and it is my hobby. I play a lot. I play on a Monday after school football at 3:00-4:00 and then at 6:30-8. On a Tuesday I play football for my local team at 7:00-8:00 . On Saturday I play for them as well . And then sometimes I go out and play football with my cousin.
My favourite subjects at school are PE English and Music . I like English because I get to use my imagination! I like music because there is a lot of instruments you can play. I like pe because of the equipment and i have a few of my friends in my class too. I don't really like maths, RPE and geography. I have done a few football tournaments and games with my school too. We won a football match the other day 17-2! I also really like history and learning about the past. I also really like when we cook in DT because i also really enjoy baking and cooking.
I spend almost all of my spare time playing football. I also like spending time with my family, watching movies and relaxing at home. Football is the thing I love best and I also really enjoy cooking/ baking my favourite recipes are tacos, Reese’s peanut butter cupcakes and chocolate cookies. I enjoy playing in my garden with a football or playing volley ball with my family because we have a volley ball net. I really enjoy playing on my Nintendo switch too. I go on my phone quit a lot watching YouTube or listening to my favourite singers music. I love playing games with my little sister like board games and teaching her football skills in the garden.
I really like going to see my cousins and my granny who also live near me. I have some other cousins who live in Scotland. Obviously I can’t see them very often because they live in a different country but I enjoy face timing them and texting them. I don’t like sitting at home for too long though as I like to go out and do activities with my family for example going to football matches. I also like Alton towers as I think the rides are really fun!
In the future I really really want to become a women's footballer. Since I was 5 I have absolutely loved loved loved football. My football journey started when I was in reception and was just playing on the playground! Then I told my parents I liked it and they signed me up to a girls only football group where they trained every Saturday. Then when I became year 2 we started playing matches against other teams as well as training! I did this for a year and then when I was in year 3 a premier league coach happened to be at one of our games. And then asked my dad if I would like to go for a trial! I went for a trial a few weeks later and got in !
Now I play for them on a Monday and in half terms do games and play for my local club on a Tuesday and Saturday.(i do training on a Tuesday and matches on a Saturday I look up to people like Ella Toon and Alessia Russo because they both play for England women which I would love to be able to do. My dream is to play for Manchester United too! I’m actually going to the FA cup final this year! I hope to become a woman’s footballer one day!
Malia, Luton
I live in Luton with my lovely parents and my 8 year old brother. I'm very excited to turn 12 next month and I find the fact that me turning into a teenager a bit nerve racking going into. I will celebrate my birthday with my family. My favourite food is pizza and lasagne. I love to play Roblox with my friends in spare time. I am currently in high-school still managing my way through. In my opinion I think primary school way better then high school because the teachers care more about children but in high school it's little different. All teachers are different. If I got late I got detention. It's little strict but good for us. My favourite hobby is to paint and draw sketch, after watching videos from YouTube, hence why my favourite subject is art and science. A side hobby I like to do is write using my imagination and creativity combined. I am very interested in space because there is endless things to learn about and how other planets were created. In the future I would like to either be an artist or an interior designer since I have been into decorating a lot recently. I love to explore the world. I care about my family and friends. I’m very concerned about trees and species because they are dying due to littering.
When I come back from my long and exhausting day of school I usually would change into my comfortable clothes and then let myself emerge onto the world's most comfortable sofa to watch some Netflix or YouTube. Playing Roblox every day is an obsession of mine. I love to build houses in the game. In the moment I usually don't even let my self think about the piles of homework I have still to do. Even though I love art, its quite rare for me to get up and go paint since I don't have the mind to think of something to paint yet. In the weekends I would wake up and use my laptop to watch some YouTube videos for about an hour before getting up and making breakfast for myself and my younger brother. From there I would watch some more YouTube for about 30 minutes and then plan out my day.
Sometimes if I have a lot of homework to do I would do it first so I could get the huge amount of stress from it of my back before facing the day. As you could tell I use my electronics a lot and I do realize which is why I go online to find some inspiration to draw something or to craft something. Recently, I made a collage for my wall. On the weekend we love to go to the park and have ice-cream from the ice-cream van. Sometimes we all play badminton, board games like uno, scrabble, connect 4 and have fun time with my family.
Everyone has a goal to achieve in life so, for the perfect future I would like to either be an artist or an interior designer. One of my reasons for wanting to be an artist is for my love of art and painting. As I've probably mentioned ,I love to paint with my mum and try new styles of painting every time. As a kid I've always loved how free you can be with painting as if you have no restrictions, which you don’t.
My reason for wanting to be an interior designer, because of this one game I play which allows you to build and decorate your own house. Ever since I started playing that game (Roblox) I fell in love with decorating and testing out knew layouts of furniture. I would love to pass my GCSE's with a high test result and get admission into a good collage and then university, just to prepare myself .if my dreams take a wild turn and I don't become an artist or interior design, I would love to get a job and earn money for my bright future and get married to please my parents. I would love to support them mentally and financially. My dream is to have a big home. Above all its very important to be a good human being, I want a happy, healthy and have a peaceful life. But I know that life is not a bed of roses, we have to face a lot of challenges in our life.
Elsa, Manchester
I am interested in football, I like to watch football I am basically obsessed with football. I also like to The great thing about turning 12 is it means 1 more year till I am a teenager, although my parents say I’ve acted like a teenager for the last 5 years. I really like shopping and social media especially Snapchat (that’s my favourite) it’s great for taking pictures. I am a dancer and spend 5 days a week dancing, it’s hard training with some days being 6 and a half hours but in the week it is 3 hours. School is mostly enjoyable with certain subjects I love, like History, languages, and PE my least favourite is Geography no matter how much I try I just don’t get it. When I’m not dancing I like going out with my friends, however I am not allowed out on my own without an adult so my Nan volunteers. We go to the cinema, parks and last week we went to a fair. When I’m older I want to work in law because I like getting my point across. My favourite member of my family is my dog Doris a cockerpoo she helped with my fear of dogs as she is the nicest dog you could have. I love fruit over chocolate but when they are together like chocolate covered strawberries or candy apples they are amaze. I like performing and last year was in a professional panto. An interesting fact about me is I don’t have an interesting fact which is what makes it interesting.
The majority of my spare time is taken up with dance. But when I’m not dancing I like to get piercings I have 5 piercings at the moment they are my tummy, helix, 2 lobes and a conch. I am working on my mum and dad to get my double helix done. At dance I do several subjects these include tap, ballet, modern lyrical jazz and commercial as well as acro and tumbling, which I have recently got my back handspring and I am working on my ariel. I love being on my phone and my trampoline but mostly love spending time with my friends. I watch lots of YouTube and TikTok videos my favourite ones to watch are the Norris nuts, although I have to watch them with my AirPods in as my mum can’t stand their voices. I like going shopping up town to buy clothes and beauty products and I can not pass on a bubble tea and cinnamon pretzel.
I also have sleepovers at my friends and they stop at my house as well. We stay downstairs and watch films and pretend to be asleep but try and stay awake for as long as possible sometimes we are still awake when my older brother comes in from being in a club. Often at night I will go to bed and watch a few episodes of Modern Family which as I’m now 12 I’m allowed to watch or read the Lottie brooks book I’m on the third book and can’t wait for the fourth one to come out in June.
In the future I want to go to law school and eventually become a lawyer, just give me a Chihuahua and call me Elle Woods. I want to live in a big house with a slide that comes from my bedroom to the swimming pool with a walk in wardrobe. I want the next level Rowblox Brooke Haven house . When I pass my driving test I want a mini but eventually will upgrade to a mx5 they are really cool cars. I will go on lots of holidays and later down the line I will move to a hot country, at the moment I would like to move to Hawaii.
I would also like to win the lottery so I can pay off my families mortgage. I want to get married and wear a big poofy ballgown and say yes to the dress, love that programme. But I won’t wear a big dress to my prom I will wear a silky satin fitted slit dress that’s emerald green with noodle straps and sparkly belt. The most important thing though is for me to be happy in whatever I do and just be me and enjoy that’s what my mum always tells me. That’s all I have for plans for the future because apart from my prom dress you can’t plan your future out to the last nitty gritty.
We put real voices at the centre of Real Life Stories - unedited, unfiltered, and uniquely human. By capturing raw, personal perspectives, and combining them with AI-driven analytics and expert interpretation, we help organisations uncover deeper truths and more meaningful data to inform strategy and decision-making.