• Gen Alpha watched influencers make millions from daily vlogs and video game content—now they want a piece of the pie. The generation’s top career choice is to become a YouTuber or TikToker, according to a recent survey of 12 to 15-year-olds. 

Gone are the days of kids aspiring to be a ballerina, the president, or an astronaut—Gen Alpha wants the dream jobs of the digital era. They’ve swapped Neil Armstrong for MrBeast, and Serena Williams for Emma Chamberlain. 

That’s because being a YouTuber is Gen Alpha’s top job aspiration. More than 30% of 12 to 15-year-olds say they want the career, according to a recent report from social commerce platform Whop. The gig is followed up by 21% of the kids aiming to become TikTok creators—another highly lucrative platform, launching the careers of million-dollar successes Addison Rae, Charli D’Amelio, and Khaby Lame.

TikTok and YouTube creators are jobs that simply didn’t exist 25 years ago, but it’s a dream for digital natives who grew up with vlogs and bingeable videos as entertainment. 

“Gen Alpha has grown up watching YouTubers who have turned content creation into highly lucrative careers,” Cameron Zoub, co-founder of Whop, tells Fortune. “Unlike TV, movie, or sports celebrities, these digital figures feel more relatable and accessible, making the YouTuber career path seem achievable.”

Most of the youngest generation dreams of being the next Markiplier or digital world builder, with 19% of Minecraft and Fortnite-obsessed Gen Alpha seeking a career designing video games. But there’s still a cohort of kids pursuing traditional jobs like nursing, entrepreneurship, teaching, and athletics. They have one foot in the digital world of self-made influencers, and one in the storied arena of white-collar work. 

Gen Alpha’s siren call from the office to social media

Gen Alpha still aspires for some traditional jobs. The report found that 20% want to be a doctor or nurse, 15% hope to be an athlete, and 14% are looking to become a teacher. However, their choices might be more rooted in their home environment rather than emerging trends. 

“Traditional careers like doctors and lawyers will likely always hold a level of prestige and demand,” Zoub says. “If Gen Alpha grows up seeing family members in traditional professions or interacting with inspiring figures in these roles, they may be more inclined to follow a similar path.”

But there’s another player that has entered the chat: the internet. Just a couple of generations ago, kids may have looked up to their parents as the central money-maker of their lives. Now, just by logging onto Instagram or TikTok, stories of “get-rich-quick” tricks and overnight careers litter kids’ feeds. They’re even being lured into influencer jobs; around 23% of Gen Alpha kids have been contacted by a brand with a digital sponsorship opportunity, according to Whop’s data. And about 30% would consider making money through the partnerships on YouTube or TikTok.

“Kids today see YouTubers like MrBeast, streamers, and online resellers achieving financial success without a college degree or traditional career path,” Zoub says. “It’s also important to recognize that at a young age, career choices are also often based on what looks fun rather than financial logic.”

Alyssa Tucker, New York City school teacher and co-founder of popular kids comedy account @LiveFromSnackTime, also polled her followers on what their Gen Alpha kids want to grow up to be. Submissions from her 800,000-plus fans on Instagram began rolling in. 

The youngest children in the Gen Alpha range—which spans from children born after 2010, up until today—gave unpredictable answers like alligator, snow plow man, and Lady Gaga backup dancer. Multiple kids even espoused their dream career: being a tree. But Tucker’s survey results also pulled on a common thread found in Whop’s data: that Gen Alpha aspires to be video-game makers and artists. 

“A few years back, if [kids] wanted to be creative, they thought about art,” Tucker tells Fortune. “But nowadays, because there is so much technology, social media, computer games, and YouTube, they think of creativity in a different way.”

Top 10 job aspirations for Gen Alpha

Whop’s 2024 survey gathered insights from 910 U.S. Gen Alpha across the U.S. aged between 12-15 years old. Participants selected all careers they were aspiring towards. 

1. YouTuber (32%)
2. TikTok creator (21%)
3. Doctor/nurse (20%)
4. Mobile app/video game developer (19%)
5. Entrepreneur (17%)
6. Artist (16%)
7. Sports athlete (15%)
8. Professional online streamer (15%)
9. Musician (14%)
10. Teacher (14%)

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© vorDa / Getty Images

• These high earners rethought their careers as "lifestyle creep"—where spending rises with income—left them under financial pressure despite impressive paychecks, especially in the face of inflation and social pressure. Sources told Fortune they walked away from lucrative careers to pursue more meaningful, lower-paying paths that prioritize fulfillment, health, and personal values over material success.

Everyone remembers their first paycheck. Whether it's cash-in-hand for a paper round or a significant slip, few people forget the world of potential that opens up once you start earning.

Then people get older and their earnings potential and financial priorities shift: They find themselves with a pet, a mortgage, car payments, a child. Maybe they get promoted: They buy a bigger house, a newer car, holidays for the family are put on a credit card.

Suddenly, a salary that once would have made them feel rich barely scratches the surface.

This is 'lifestyle creep:' When a person's spending ties them into an income bracket.

In a tight housing market, relatively higher interest rate environment and tariff-induced inflation increases on the horizon, even those on the upper end of the income scale are being backed into a corner by their outgoings.

Sources told Fortune why they gave up their high-end homes, C-suite titles, and generous pay packages for careers that truly fulfilled them. But in a world of keeping up with every Jones on social media, it's only getting easier to fall into the same trap.

Money vs meaning

As the former CEO of a New York City-based investment firm, Neal Shah begrudgingly collected the hallmarks of success: The right watch, the correct suit, the $1,000 shoes.

Moving up the ranks from an investment analyst, to hedge fund partner by 27, to leading his own organisation with $20 million in assets under management [AUM] by 31, Shah saw his income soar accordingly.

"At some point in my late 20s I wanted a different life ... but every year it kept getting deferred—it was like golden handcuffs," Shah recalled. "I don't really care for fancy things, but by being in these careers, you're sometimes forced to do things.

"Early in investment banking, I learned the type of suit you wear and the type of tie [matters]—like I was good at my job, but all my bosses told me: 'You need to buy this and dress like this.'

"It's just a perception thing. All the community wears Ferragamo shoes, even though it gave me heartburn to spend that kind of money."

But when Shah's wife was diagnosed with cancer, the decision to leave the finance world could no longer wait.

Crestfallen with the care service available for his wife while he attempted to continue working, Shah became a caregiver full time and the couple moved home to North Carolina—where they encountered other families who had found the same.

In 2021, Shah launched CareYaya Health, which connects universities and their medical students with families in need of support. Now, with more than 30 universities, such as Duke, Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkley, verifying 28,000 students on the platform, Shah is charging no fees to connect caregivers to families and is not drawing a salary from the business.

"I'm very pleased with my life. Financially, things might have looked different ... and I'd have had a fancy life, but that isn't what drives me, so to some degree it would have been more meaningless," Shah added.

"There's a fulfillment aspect beyond money, which is that all these families that are struggling with care, you're helping. You're motivating these young people to do positive things in their community—that has tremendous value that you can't measure."

It's only getting worse in 2025

Judi Leahy, vice president of Citi's personal wealth management unit, said that even clients with "significant means" will turn to their wealth advisors for help cutting lifestyle costs in 2025.

"People do get caught up in the process of: You have money, but you're not forward thinking," Leahy told Fortune. "My mantra is when in doubt, do without.

"You can't sacrifice all the time ... if you are making money and you have that discretionary income then it's ok to go out and do something for yourself, but it shouldn't be part of your routine spending."

Lifestyle creep is only becoming more of a problem because of social media, easier access to goods and services and societal pressure, added Leahy, adding the problem is compounded in 2025 because of inflation.

"The biggest indication of that is just going grocery shopping," Leahy said. "When you think about your basic needs and your wants, when you go to the grocery store, it's very easy to splurge on things that you don't need really, and the prices have just really gotten out of whack.

"That's one place where you can be completely trapped because you're used to buying certain things and those prices have gone exponentially higher and you're still in the same game."

Take even the most basic purchase of a dozen large eggs. According to the St Louis Fed, the cost of eggs continues to spike, sitting at more than $6 in March 2025 compared to $2.99 a year prior.

Anyone worried about their spending vs. their necessary income needs to compile a brutally honest financial plan, Leahy added. "Use the different scenarios: If you retire at 60, if you retire at 65, if you take Social Security, if we sell the main house and buy a smaller house—what does that look like?"

"All of that should get factored in, and you have a very sobering moment to say 'I can make it' or 'Oh my god, you better go get a second job.' Once you have everything in black and white, things become more real."

Stepping away from it all

Unlike many in his family, Gene Cabalerro didn't grow up with an entrepreneurial itch, so he spent a happy decade in Nashville working at Dell Technologies.

His days consisted of hard work, enjoying his $3,000-a-month apartment in the best building in town, regular sports tickets at the nearby Nissan stadium, and weekends partying.

On a Friday afternoon a few years ago, looking out over commercial parking lots around his office, Cabalerro considered his lifestyle creep for the first time. He was counting the speedboats parked in the nearby lots, towed to work ahead of a weekend on the water.

"It was a fun place to live, a great environment, and you're surrounded by wonderful people that are also doing well. You just wanna keep up with them and keep striving," Cabalerro recounted.

But then an opportunity to invest in and lead GreenPal—an on-demand lawn care platform—was offered and the entrepreneurial itch kicked in.

"I'm now living in my sister's spare bedroom, and last year I stayed 196 nights in Marriotts across the world," Cabalerro said. "I'm in Peru right now, and I've already got six trips planned this year. Life is great, it just takes those shitty few first years."

The story is the same for Christopher Kaufman, who left behind his $1.5 million California home, healthy 401k, and high-end hotel stays to complete a doctorate and lecture at universities.

Kaufman went in search of more independence than his six-figure role in tech afforded him, but the decision to leave his job was made all the more complex by the medical insurance it provided him and his wife, who suffers with autoimmune issues.

"There were moments of regret," he recalls, particularly when the couple were searching for insurance cover.

Now living in the Coachella Valley, Kaufman added: "Tears were shed, going: How much do we burn into our retirement? Luckily, we didn't have to do that, but we got right up to the edge of saying: 'We could burn down what we built up' and that was not part of the plan.

"From teaching, I'm now probably earning between 5% and 10% of what I was. I'm ten times happier, but I'm making ten times less money."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• With social media consumption and skyrocketing tuition, Gen Z is facing financial confusion like never before. University leaders are hoping that by investing in financial literacy, they can navigate the true pathways to building success.

College campuses are often advertised as safe spaces where intellectual ideas can flow freely. 

However, even though nearly 8 in 10 college students report that financial struggles are harming their mental health, and finances are the leading reason why some 42 million students have ditched the classroom, money remains a taboo topic for many Gen Zers. 

There’s no question that the cost of college is a leading driver of angst, with the average public university student taking out $32,000 in student loans.In response, some universities are pouring millions of dollars into new financial wellness and literacy centers—and at some schools, it’s working.

At Indiana University (IU), which began prioritizing financial literacy in 2012, student loan borrowing has dropped 13% in the last decade. That’s a savings of nearly $73 million, even when tuition and fees for in-state students rose by nearly the same percentage. Moreover, while some 44% of students still graduate with student loan debt, the total amount they borrow is down 5.2%. 

Phil Schuman, IU’s executive director of financial wellness and education, says schools are slowly realizing that financial wellness is critical to the success and health of students and institutions alike. 

“Universities are seeing that parallel, where if students are stressed about their finances, and they're not going to have the ability to focus on their academics, and if they can't focus on their academics, their chances of succeeding are low,” he tells Fortune. 

Financial wellness is critical to solving the Gen Z mental health crisis

The initiatives, like those at IU, offer students online and in-person resources on how to establish healthy money habits like budgeting, paying for study abroad, or dealing with interpersonal relationships. Plus, students can receive one-on-one advice from either a student or staff financial expert, or even request a financial education presentation for their class or club.

And universities across the country are catching on. In the last two years, institutions like the University of Maryland, the University of North Carolina, and Washington University in St. Louis have announced investments in financial literacy. mental health, financial well-being is being seen as critical to success.

This is especially true for the current generation of college students who went through the pandemic during high school and experienced intellectual and social setbacks unlike any other prior generation. In 2020, before the pandemic, a survey of undergraduates at The Ohio State University found that finances were a leading source of stress for 68.1% of students. By 2023, that number rose to 72.5%.

While there’s plenty of blame to go around, one of the glaring changes has been the rapid rise in the cost of college. Over the last two decades, tuition and fees for private universities have increased by 41%, even when adjusting for inflation, according to U.S. News. For in-state public universities, which are often viewed as the better financial deal for lower-income students, costs have risen by 45%.

Moreover, social media’s glorification of sometimes unwise financial decisions, like buying now and paying later, betting on their favorite athletic teams, and investing in shiny new cryptocurrencies like memecoins, is likely also contributing to a growing financial burden on Gen Z. 

On the flip side, technology has also made it easier than ever for young people to access smart financial information.

“There's an overwhelming amount of information out there,” says Gilbert Rogers, inaugural director of the center at the University of North Carolina. “And what that does is, it’s a double-edged sword. It's good that you have access to this info, but what's reliable? What's not reliable?”

Having a trusted campus center where students can seek guidance and confidence about their money is more important than ever, Rogers tells Fortune.

“There's a lot of finance talk that the average person may get intimidated by, but it's not so difficult once you break it down,” he adds.

The rise in personal finance education at the college level

Personal finance at the college level is nothing new. For years, universities have offered personal finance classes and resources, but some experts have voiced against having it be a graduation requirement (akin to the now 26 states mandating it in high schools)—with the primary reason being that students do better when they want to learn something versus being forced to do so. 

However, it’s unclear whether this wait-and-come-to-me strategy is beneficial to the generation at large. After all, instead of currently talking about their financial woes, students are brushing them off like it’s a homework assignment they can procrastinate in perpetually. A recent study by Inituit found that Gen Zers would rather talk about politics, sex, or infertility than financial topics like debt, salaries, or bad investments. 

Adam Nash, the former CEO of Wealthfront, has been teaching “Personal Finance for Engineers” at Stanford University for seven years. He tells Fortune that the subject is relatively rare, but probably should be taught to everyone in middle or high school. 

“I think it's wrong to send kids out into the world not understanding the basis of personal finance,” he says. 

Before the semester began last fall, he polled his students, who include freshmen undergraduates up to those in graduate school. Less than 10% reported not having student loans, and just over half reported not having their brokerage account. 

In his course, Nash says he largely just focuses on the basics—because that’s ultimately what’s important (he even releases all of his lectures online, for those to access and learn).

“The biggest liability that smart people, intelligent people, have with money actually comes from in some ways over-complicating it,” he says.

And while Nash’s course is just one example of financial wellness education in action, it’s emblematic of the fact that teaching young people about money is a marathon, not a sprint.

“Don’t be afraid to make decisions and learn from your mistakes,” Nash wrote at the end of the semester. “(It’s) better to make them when the dollars are small and your responsibilities are few.”

And at a time when many schools are facing rising enrollment rates but declines in federal funding from DOGE cuts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Education, investing in financial literacy might just be the win-win some schools need. Not only can it help students remain enrolled, but it also helps lead them down a path toward success.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Getty Images

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