Gen Alpha reinvents old fashioned hustle with a modern twist
Gen Alpha is the new breed of Australian entrepreneur, already nipping at the heels of Gen Z and Millennials – so how are kids and teens smashing the avocado crowd and making real money?
READING LEVEL:
A childhood job used to mean a paper round, babysitting or maybe a lemonade stand. It was lo-fi and low paying, and it was the only kind of job a kid could do.
Take the classic book series and now Netflix show The Baby-sitters Club. Those hardworking kids slogged it out for an hourly rate, clocking on after the school day was done, and everyone wanted to be them.
But not anymore. Things have changed. The next generation of kids have scaled up.
Take the classic lemonade stand on a suburban backstreet. This cute slice of nostalgia* was always guaranteed to attract grown ups keen to support young entrepreneurs* manning their stall. No one expected much: a cup full of warm Cottee’s cordial in exchange for some loose change.
But times have changed. According to children’s author and lemonade lover Kate Temple, a few coins just won’t cut it with this crowd of kids.
After placing her order at one stall, Temple watched as the child pulled out a square reader* and said, “We’re cashless.”
It wasn’t her only surprise.
“And that’ll be six dollars.”
It wasn’t the first time Temple had noticed Gen Alpha’s strong entrepreneurial streak.
“These kids, born from 2010 to 2025, are the first generation to live their entire lives with smart devices,” she said in an op-ed for The Sunday Book Club.
“They’re tech savvy, AI savvy and a recent UK Visa study suggested 76 per cent of them aspire to be their own boss or have a side hustle.
“Not content with the small-scale enterprises like the ones Kristy and the gang were running in The Baby-sitters Club, these kids mean business.”
Gen Alphas have already shown themselves to be a real shift from Gen Z and Millennials. Both those previous generations have been criticised for being entitled, only to be left wiping up all that “smashed avocado*” with their student debt.
In her work as a children’s author, Temple said she had seen many Gen Alpha “tiny tycoons*” on school visits.
“And I’m not the only one,” she said. “Teachers have reported everything from kids selling 3D printed objects on demand, trading in rare Pokemon cards, while others build and design Roblox games hoping to cash in on a global gaming market.
“And who can forget the Prime energy drink craze, where kids were buying the liquid gold and reselling it at school for hugely inflated* prices?”
Money-minded kids as young as eight have also approached her after author talks.
“One ecstatic* kid even asked me to sign a bookmark, and when I asked why he was so happy, he immediately announced it was going straight to eBay – he might be waiting a while for that horse to come in*!”
But the cash-makers were not just primary school kids pocketing some cash for candy – Temple said teenage barbers were “raking it in”, setting up shop on park benches and charging their mates $15 for a fade.
“One father who bought his son a gold plated clipper kit fresh from Temu reported that his child was now making up to $400 a week,” Temple said.
And this entrepreneurial mindset of Gen Alpha is a good thing, she added.
“Setting up a business is hard work and the benefits are significant,” Temple said. “It builds soft skills, helps develop financial literacy and fosters their interests.”
But could there be a downside?
Seeing the playground as a marketplace could shrink a sense of real community. Treating classmates as customers and friends as clients rewrites the rules of relationships. For children still developing their own set of values, what happens when everything is a transaction? Some schools have clued on to potential harms by banning the schoolyard marketplace altogether, while others manage it case-by-case.
Things that are more valuable than money was a theme Temple was keen to explore in her new book, Mega Rich Guinea Pigs,which follows four guinea pigs (including a capybara* that just thinks it’s a guinea pig) who inherit a tech billionaire’s whopping fortune.
Sure, it’s a fictitious adventure but the themes of wealth and hustle* culture are real and under-explored in kids’ books. It gives kids the opportunity to imagine the wonders of what endless wealth could bring but also asks the question of what’s more important than cash?
“It’s a delicate balance,” Temple said. “Encouraging innovation* and entrepreneurial spirit will set kids in good stead for an uncertain economic future. The jobs we have now may not be the jobs of tomorrow, and the jobs of tomorrow don’t exist yet.
“As these kids enter the workforce, they’ll need those business skills, but they’ll also need friends, family and community – and you can’t put a price on that.
“Whatever the right approach, one thing is for sure. The next time a kid asks me to buy a cup of lemonade, I’ll be asking for a receipt.”
Mega Rich Guinea Pigs by Kate and Jol Temple is out now, published by HarperCollins.
POLL
GLOSSARY
- nostalgia: sentimental longing and feelings of pleasure but sometimes also pain when you recall often personal things from the past
- entrepreneurs: people who start, organise and run businesses, taking financial risks in order to make a profit
- square reader: small mobile payment device that can read the information on a credit card
- smashed avocado: a popular cafe breakfast order that hit the headlines after demographer Bernard Salt criticised young adults for blowing potential home deposit savings on eating out and has now come to mean generally poor money management
- tycoon: someone who has succeeded in business or industry and has become wealthy and often powerful
- inflated: when the price or value is higher than it should be or than is reasonable
- ecstatic: overjoyed, extremely happy and excited
- waiting for a horse to come in: refers to spending money on something that may not be a winner, as in betting on a horse race
- capybara: the world’s largest rodent, a large, tailless, semiaquatic mammal native to South America, related to guinea pigs
- hustle: to earn money or gain advantage, usually quickly or with urgency; a hustle was previously associated with dishonest or illegal activity but now mostly just means making money on the side of your main occupation
- innovation: a new idea, method or thing
EXTRA READING
Aussie kids go global with card game
Kids, it’s time to start your own business
Loony labubu craze hits Australia
QUICK QUIZ
- How much was Temple charged for a lemonade from a kid’s neighbourhood stall?
- What payment device surprised it and what kind of payment wasn’t acceptable?
- How are some teens “raking it in” and how much is one making a week, according to their father?
- What percentage of Gen Alphas is estimated to want their own business or side hustle in future?
- What is the name of Kate Temple’s new book and what is the premise?
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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
A fair price?
Do you think that $6.00 is a fair price for a cup of lemonade from a stand run by a child? Should the price be less than if the stand was being run by an adult?
Consider you answer carefully and provide three clear reasons to justify your opinion.
Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; HASS (Economics); Critical and Creative Thinking
Extension
Write a one page proposal for a business that you think could be successfully run by a child your age. Think about the following:
What goods or services will the business sell?
How much will the goods/services cost?
What costs will the business have?
How will the business be marketed?
What makes this business idea achievable specifically suitable for a child?
Time: allow 40 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; HASS (Economics); Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
Read this!
A headline on an article – or a title on your text – should capture the attention of the audience, telling them to read this now. So choosing the perfect words for a headline or title is very important.
Create three new headlines for the events that took place in this article. Remember, what you write and how you write it will set the pace for the whole text, so make sure it matches.
Read out your headlines to a partner and discuss what the article will be about based on the headline you created. Discuss the tone and mood you set in just your few, short words. Does it do the article justice? Will it capture the audience’s attention the way you hoped? Would you want to read more?
Consider how a headline or title is similar to using short, sharp sentences throughout your text. They can be just as important as complex ones. Go through the last text you wrote and highlight any short, sharp sentences that capture the audience.