‘Can’t be tamed’: Inside the 2025 Schoolies chaos

Brace yourselves because the first week of Schoolies has kicked off and Gen Z have just proved one big thing about themselves.

OPINION

When you’re a Millennial woman having a glass of wine with a girlfriend and you announce that you’re off to cover Schoolies for work, I can’t say anyone acts like it is the opportunity of a lifetime.

I am a woman that entered a life stage that is a far cry from drinking vodka cruisers at the beach.

I have a ‘good’ tote bag, an ‘everyday’ tote bag, and a favourite cocktail bar that charges me $30 for a drink that, if I’m honest, does kind of taste like a vodka cruiser but with a fresh lime.

Heading to the Gold Coast and being thrust into the mayhem of a bunch of teenagers partying to celebrate the end of school isn’t exactly appealing.

Sacrifices had to be made. For example, I missed out on venturing down to my local market to get my lovely fresh fruit for the week.

Not to mention the fact that, when I see a group of teenagers get on the bus now, I’m automatically praying they don’t sit near me.

Because teenagers don’t just speak, they squawk at each other and even Lily Allen’s divorce album cannot cover up that kind of pitch.

Anyway, when I told my mate I was off to cover Schoolies, she immediately offered me her condolences.

She then tacked on, “Surely it’ll be tame, right, not like when we went?”

This Gen Z man purchased an ‘I Love Bonnie Blue’ T-shirt. Picture: news.com.au

These boys also had on Bonnie Blue Merch, which isn’t exactly giving demure. Picture: news.com.au

It is a fair enough assumption.

All we ever seem to hear about Gen Z is that they don’t drink as much, aren’t as keen on having sex and aren’t as interested in experimenting with drugs as Millennials were at their age.

They are meant to be all about wellness, fitness, and taking care of themselves, and Millennials are the cringe-worthy older generation that made partying and general debauchery uncool.

Before I went, one of my Millennial friends told me I would be in bed by 9pm because Gen Z are boring and “don’t know how to go hard”.

As a journalist it had me a little worried. Was Schoolies going to be hard to cover because nothing would be happening?

Were Gen Z not going to be out and about dancing with each other in the streets? Instead would they all just be learning TikTok dances in their hotel rooms and staying away from the opposite sex?

I wasn’t really sure what I would be walking into, so I packed my best baggy mid-rise jeans so no one could think I was an undercover police officer, and headed off.

The Gen Zers weren’t hiding in their hotel rooms … they were out and about. Picture: news.com.au

Sadly I was informed these jeans are only ‘kind of’ Gen Z. Picture: news.com.au

Immediately, things went wrong.

My Gen Z cameraman told me my jeans were only “kind of” Gen Z - I think he was being polite and found them hideously Millennial - and the Gen Zers weren’t acting tame.

Quite the opposite: they’re all firmly in their Miley Cyrus, “I can’t be tamed” era.

I want to clarify that none of them were doing anything wrong, but they’re certainly not behaving conservatively.

The Gen Zers were out and about and having a lot of fun on the streets. Picture: news.com.au

It was less conservative … and more unbuttoned school shirts. Picture: news.com.au

When I headed down to the belly of the beast (in comfortable shoes as I am old enough to have a podiatrist), the main strip of Surfers Paradise, on the opening night of Schoolies, it was like I had stepped back in time.

Everyone was in lanyards; the girls were in crop tops and short skirts, and many of the boys were barely wearing shirts.

They were also loud; there was screaming, singing, yelling at each other, stopping to speak to me and then just randomly bursting into shrieking.

Gen Z were not quiet and were out and about being loud. Picture: news.com.au

It wasn’t bad screaming, I mean, it was hard on my little ears (I had to take a Panadol), but it was just youthful excitement and everyone was ready to let loose.

They were also all wandering round the main strip drinking alcohol, buying alcohol, joking about buying Bonnie Blue T-shirts or making good on that threat and buying Bonnie Blue T-shirts.

There’s nothing wrong with any of this, but once again, it wasn’t tame; they weren’t being demure and they certainly weren’t holed up in their hotel rooms playing board games sober.

It was also just chaos; there were girls joking with me about how the only rule their parents gave them was to “not get pregnant”, and boys were wandering around in groups and then egging each other on to speak to girls.

Everyone was sweaty from the humidity in Queensland and no one was being conservative or discussing their choice to do Schoolies sober.

The first night of Schoolies was loud, chaotic, and loose, and it really just proved that Gen Zers are just as hard to tame as Millennials were.

Originally published as ‘Can’t be tamed’: Inside the 2025 Schoolies chaos