For our next fantastic blog, meet Alex - who lives, breathes and champions coaching!
I’m Gen Z. So, I know we keep getting cast as the generation who'd rather have an oat milk latte than a savings account. Our priorities are all wrong, apparently.
Despite the fact a latte's edging toward £5 (which should be a criminal offence), is this actually a fair read on our generation? Or is it just clickbait that skips over the very real stuff we’ve had to navigate?
The 18-24 year old undergrads we support at CoachBright are entirely Gen Z. So, I thought it would be helpful to clarify what's actually shaped our generation, how this shows up in coaching and how coaching can help build the resilience for us to thrive.
Key Influential Events
1. Social media
The smartphone officially launched in 2007, Instagram in 2010, and Snapchat in 2011. We're the first generation to grow up entirely inside this digital world from our early years (some of us from as young as birth).
18-24 year olds now spend an average of 6.33 hours a day on social media (Ofcom, Online Nation, 2025); and nearly 7 in 10 young people say they've experienced cyberbullying (RSPH, #StatusOfMind).
While academics are in the process of understanding the full picture, recent research (Jonathan Haidt and Zach Rausch's chapter in the 2026 World Happiness Report) links heavy social media use to increasing anxiety and depression in young people. Not every researcher agrees on how much of this is cause versus correlation, but the direction of travel isn't disputed.
2. Covid-19
Covid hit exactly when all Gen Z needed to be out in the world: either at school, uni, or just starting their careers. These are the moments a person is meant to be building independence and real-world social skills, not staring at a screen and cooped up inside the same 4 walls.
Tragically, NHS data shows Probable Mental Disorder in 17-19 year olds rose from 10.1% in 2017 to 23.3% in 2023. While Covid isn’t the only reason for this, it's not unrelated either. These statistics indicate the effects in just one group of Gen Z - with a reasonable assumption being that similar patterns likely repeat themselves in different cohorts of Gen Z too.
3. Finance
Economic challenges have been present throughout Gen Z’s lives. The older members of Gen Z grew up observing the effects of 2008. Now, we face the cost of living crisis, stagnant wages, and a graduate market that's brutal by any measure.
While living standards have risen overall and we’ve experienced incredible technological developments, this doesn't negate how tight our purse strings are on a day to day basis, and how difficult it is to build financial independence.
What does all this add up to?
It’s important to say that it’s far from being all bad. Gen Z is more pragmatic, financially cautious, and weirdly more entrepreneurial than previous generations (through a mix of desire for financial security, alongside a ‘what have I got to lose’ mentality, among other things).
We’ve also shifted life timelines. Researchers call it "delayed adulthood", meaning significant life events are happening later than they did before - like moving out of the family home, marriage and starting a family.
This also shows up in what we value: we’re less religious than previous generations, meaning a lot of us build our own moral compass. We prioritise purpose over money, and a work-life balance over climbing the corporate ladder.
And most importantly - this shows up, very specifically, when I coach Gen Z students. The same handful of things come up again and again:
Fear of failure - the anxiety of getting things wrong, and being judged by others because our entire lives are displayed online
Lack of confidence - especially networking, self-promotion and putting themselves out there.
A harsh inner critic - which is loud, constant and inaccurate
Overthinking and analysis paralysis - every decision or action runs through fifteen scenarios before it's taken or made
Procrastination - the practical ramifications of the above personal challenges, fuelled by instant gratification when we go online.
But none of this is a character flaw - it's a logical response to the things we've experienced. And coaching helps tackle all of this, and empowers members of this generation to take their growth, development and success into their own hands.
How can coaching help tackle this?
Here’s how coaching helps us tackle all of the above:
1. It hands back the agency social media and Covid took away.
A lot of the anxiety and overthinking comes down to lost control: the pace of the world, the constant comparison, the inbox that never switches off. Coaching creates a deliberate, protected space to actually think. Not react. Not scroll. Think.
2. It separates who someone is from how they're performing.
The harsh inner critic and the comparison spiral come from the same root: tying self-worth to output. Coaching doesn't try to shout that critic down with affirmations. It helps someone notice it, question it, and build a more accurate story instead.
3. It builds confidence through action, not thinking.
Confidence isn't something you can think your way into. It's built through small steps, taken and reflected on. That's the whole idea behind frameworks like GROW: get clear on the goal, get honest about where things actually stand, explore the options you've been avoiding (not just the two that feel safe), commit to what happens next.
For the students that we work with, these are the real shifts I’ve seen.
As coaches, we never tell someone how to solve their problems, or say things like “just get on with it” and "you need to believe in yourself".
Coaching creates a structured space to work through what's in the way, and take the next step despite this. All driven by the individual. They’re the ones doing the work, and the results speak for themselves.
So no - it’s NOT about the lattes (even though the lattes sometimes help).
Written by Alex Dewar - proud Gen Z and CoachBright coach: coaching my peers to thrive in work and life.