Teenagers looking consciously or not for a role model often turn to celebrities for inspiration and guidance.

Many flash mobs have been immortalized on YouTube and show large groups of young people doing anything from dancing in train stations to having pillow fights in public squares.

Gap year volunteering is increasingly being recognised by employers and universities for providing real life experience and the opportunity to learn valuable skills.

1. The children of Generation Z (“Gen Zers”) were born around the new Millennium. They have “known nothing but an Internet-connected world. From their earliest years, they have been shaped by social media, e-commerce, and on-demand services, using technology to customize the information they receive, the products they buy, and the interactions they have. […] At the same time, they are conservative in their spending, less likely to expect financial help from their parents, and more wary of the future after witnessing their parents or friends’ parents lose jobs in the Great Recession [in 2007-2009]”.
The Boston Globe, September 2015.
2. Too young to remember 9/11, they have grown up in a world in political and financial turmoil. As a result, they are keen to look after their money, and make the world a better place. […] Unlike the older Gen Y, they are smarter, safer, more mature and want to change the world. Their pin-up is Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education campaigner, who survived being shot by the Taliban, and who became the world’s youngest ever Nobel Prize recipient.
Adapted from The Telegraph, July 2014.