Show your kids you know about 2024

What happens to your teens when they leave the dinner table? Who and what is influencing them more than you? Almost everyone most of the time, and I should know because I’m a teen. We are always on our phones and we usually have AirPods in when you think we’re listening. Trying to learn about the music/influencers/fashion we’re into is hard for parents, but it’s just as hard for us because trends change so quickly. You were also lucky enough to meet up with your friends at actual shops to buy clothes and records. My parents are always talking about Loppy Lugs in Edgware, Our Price in Golders Green and we only got a taste of  Top Shop, in Oxford Circus, before it closed. What we want is mostly online, so shopping is about posting, not choosing things  in person.

Lots of us love vintage and my mum laughs because clothes she got in the 1990s are now vintage to my friends, so I’ve been selling them on Vinted and De Pop. Just expect to see your teens in someone else’s old sports shirts. During Covid, TikTok and Instagram really consumed us and still do, but now Jewish teens also have to navigate pro-Hamas films and antisemitic videos popping up all the time. Parents do, too, so we have that in common sadly.  My list is positive and there are some names you may know and some you won’t – but you might also know their parents.

Fashion

So second-hand is officially acceptable for Jewish teens, who love vintage shopping. My mum laughs because clothes she got in the 90s and kept are now vintage to us. So I’ve been selling them on Vinted or De Bop and not for enough according to my mum. On Vinted you can find last season’s Urban Outfitters or Brandy Melville and their styles don’t change. We make mistakes paying more than we thought for international postage ordering from Lululemon in the US, but if your teenage daughter still likes Juicy Couture, which was founded in 1997 by Californian Jews Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, she will be picking up old trackpants on eBay.

However, the brand has been replaced in popularity by Australia’s White Fox. The shoes we want are Adidas Campuses 00, which have taken over from the Forums, Superstars, Gazelles, and Adidas Sambas that we used to like. There has also been a resurgence of Uggs which are being worn everywhere and the most popular are the Ultra Minis, Tasmans and the Platforms. We will wear them all, but I told my mum to get a pair of Golden Goose Super-Star sneakers: She had never heard of them, but I said they are very trendy, but not the cheapest – “How much?!!” she asked.

Music

Everyone has their own Spotify lists, so I’m just going to throw out some names – and some are Jewish.

Taylor Swift isn’t, but she is so popular and you may have a teen with enough Swifty knowledge to qualify for the experts job currently being advertised at the Victoria & Albert Museum. But I also had to find a Jewish link and I did – it’s Jack Antonoff. He first worked with Taylor in 2013 and in 2019 became her main co-writer and producer. He is also in a band called The Bleachers, but we only care about Taylor.

Raye (Rachel Agatha Keen) is also not Jewish, but good to mention to show your teens you’re keeping up as the English singer wrote songs for Beyoncé, Little Mix, Rihanna, John Legend and French DJ David Guetta, who is Jewish. Her top song is Escapism (507 million streams) and she went viral after her Royal Albert Hall solo show.

As for SZA! well after you learn how to pronounce her name (it’s Scissor) the first thing you need to do is buy your kids tickets to see her perform at BST in Hyde Park on June 29. Start playing her song Kill Bill and you will want to join them, but they won’t want you standing next to them. https://www.bst-hydepark.com/

Early 20s and older listen to Haim, the LA group made up of three Jewish sisters, but since Alana Haim (guitars and keyboards) starred in the film Liquorice Pizza, we all know them, so you should too.

Throw out the name Troye Sivan as few know about the Australian singer-songwriter who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family. He is gay and he acts and he played young Wolverine in X-Men Origins. Last July he released his third album and got two Grammy nominations for Best Music Video and Best Pop Dance Recording for his single Rush.

Talk about Israel’s Eurovision star Noa Kirel who is playing Madison Square Garden in June . She must be wondering if Israel will even be allowed to qualify for this year’s  Eurovision as the lyrics in Eden Golan’s October Rain are being scrutinised as they are considered too political. But wasn’t the Ukraine sang in 2022 political? It had lyrics like: ‘She will take two fig signs from grandma, as if they were bullets’ and they won the competition. Something to discuss with your teens who may or may not appreciate your music choices. I love a lot of my parents’ music, especially Billy Joel, but most teens would hate a parent behaving like Amanda Holden did at her daughter’s 18th birthday party, so don’t dance around  to Murder On The Dance Floor in front of their friends. And don’t try and watch Saltburn with your teen or be in the same room when they are watching Big Mouth.

Big Mouth is a trend you can’t ignore because you will hear the swearing. See an episode of the cartoon because it is written by an all-Jewish team – Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett. It’s about Jewish school kids getting through puberty with the help of the Hormone Monster angels and they go to batmitzvahs. The final season is out this year and teens will miss it.

Influencers

Although there are lots of Jewish influencers, teens will watch anyone.  Ellie Zeiler is Jewish and known for her TikTok account (@elliezeiler, 10.6 million followers), where she posts fashion and beauty content and lip syncs, which we all do. She also has more than 110,000 YouTube subscribers and was in Israel last summer.

She talks about her Jewish identity and how her family celebrate Jewish festivals and there are more Jewish teens doing that on The Based Jews of TikTok (@basedjewsoftiktok), an account run by high school students in the United States and elsewhere, which helps young Jewish people come together to show the world how different Jewish teens are from each other.

Londoner Zach Margolin (@zachmargs, 106.4k on Insta) is different and very funny for anyone who went on Israel tour because he is brilliant at portraying Israelis in skits, mostly as waiters or cab drivers. I showed him to my mum and she is still following him. I think she knows his mum.