These teen girls are living better than most adults - and it’s time we admitted it

While we’ve been busy worrying about TikTok dances and teen drama, this generation of girls has quietly built lives filled with sunrise walks, smoothies and soul-nourishing friendships.

I know not all teenagers are the same. Some are struggling, some are searching, and for plenty of families - in any generation - the teen years are tough. I see that. I’ve lived that. This isn’t one of those “kids these days have it all figured out” pieces.

But something’s been happening lately that I can’t ignore.

The girls I know - my youngest daughter, her friends, and my friend’s beautiful  15-year-old who sets an alarm to catch the sunrise with her mates - aren’t just coping. They’re flourishing.

And while we’ve been busy worrying about their screen time and side parts, they’ve quietly started living lives that are... well, better than ours.

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Forget the doom and gloom - today’s teenage girls are living better, cleaner and more joyfully than most adults. Image: Supplied

They’re not lost - they’re flourishing

It's easy to think teenage girls are just glued to screens, scrolling their way into disconnection and chaos. But then my daughter texted me:

“Going to watch the sunset with the girls, acai bowls after. Can you pick me up at 8?”

Wait, what?

It turns out, while we’ve been busy worrying, a quiet, soulful revolution has been taking place.

They’re doing yoga on the beach. They’re hosting board game days. They’re walking barefoot in the sand, drinking green smoothies, talking about mindfulness and actually listening to each other. They’re into clean skincare, clean food, clean fun - and they’re genuinely kind while they’re at it.

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These teen girls are living better than most adults - and it’s time we admitted it. Image: Getty

If we paid attention, we might learn something

If we pay attention, these girls are teaching us how to live, albeit with our money. Because while we’re in group chats complaining about the cost of everything and doom-scrolling through our burnout, they’re prioritising connection and curating their lives around joy, movement and feeling good. They’re doing nervous system regulation like it’s second nature, while we’re still trying to remember where we put the magnesium tablets.

They get a bad rap - this generation. People love to mock the TikTok kids. The ones glued to their phones, who speak in a code of emojis and say things like “slay,” “feral” and “era” like they’re punctuation. But honestly? Every generation has its weird quirks.

It’s easy to roll your eyes at the dancing, until you remember the golden age of your own choreographic career. Personally, I can’t ignore the memory of making up a dance routine in my carport with my friend Michelle, to Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler, because that was the only tape in Mum’s collection that hadn’t been chewed by the cassette player. Too young to understand that sentence? Google it.

They’re not like we were - and that’s a good thing

Mum, avert your eyes - but when I was 14, I was peroxiding my fringe in the school science lab and hanging out at the train station to pash boys. That was our version of character development.

These girls? They’re so wholesome I feel like I need to apologise for even remembering Passion Pop. I can NOT imagine my daughter and her friends skulling a bottle of it and heading down to the pipeline behind the scout hall to meet up with the other neighbourhood kids. (To be fair, our parents didn’t have a 360 tracking app.)

Instead, they’re watching the sunrise. They’re walking the beach. They’re learning how to feel good in their bodies without chasing chaos. It’s admirable. And kind of… aspirational?

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The truth is, they’re not the problem

It’s convenient to blame “kids these days” for everything. But the truth is, they’re not the ones who forgot how to slow down. We are. They didn’t break the system - they were born into it. And instead of falling to pieces, many of them are quietly building something better.

Sure, they still scroll. And yes, they speak in what sometimes sounds like a different language. But beneath it, there’s a generation of girls quietly rewriting the narrative we’ve handed them.

They’re not “too online.” They’re not all drama. They’re not lost.

They’re found - at the beach, at sunrise, with a smoothie in one hand and a best friend in the other.

And honestly? That’s the dream.

Originally published as These teen girls are living better than most adults - and it’s time we admitted it