Remember Pandemic Mama? I'm Relaunching This Newsletter!
From Pandemic Mama to Raising Gen Alpha
Welcome! We’re a community of parents and caretakers navigating the ups and downs of raising humans born in 2010-2024. Generation Alpha kids are incredibly diverse, digitally native, globally connected, dedicated to inclusivity, and care deeply about climate activism. Click here to join the conversations and find the support you need.
Hey, y’all! Welcome to this relaunch of my newsletter… now called Raising Gen Alpha. This will be your weekly guide to bringing up the next generation—aka those born between 2010-2024. Like a mom group, but with science.
You might remember me from my OG podcast, Pandemic Mama, which launched in September 2020 and lasted through March 2021. Or you may have subscribed to this newsletter under the same name back in January 2022.
But I haven’t written anything since last May. Sorry!
The truth is that when I started my job as Parenting Editor at theSkimm this time last year, I got busy. Like, really busy. The job was awesome but all-consuming. And unfortunately, I was laid off this past January… along with many other media friends and job loss across many other industries.
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that I’ve been pretty depressed since. And, even worse, it took me months to realize that I was experiencing burnout after layoffs.
But you know what has been helping me lately? Launching this newsletter!
I’ve been thinking about Gen Alpha for about a year. To me, it feels like nobody even knows the term yet (other than researchers that work in demographic data). I polled a bunch of parent friends and none of them had heard of it. But all of us had worries about bringing up our kids in this world.
And so, Raising Gen Alpha was born.
You can read more about the newsletter here, including why I’m starting it, who should subscribe, what we know about Gen Alpha so far, and what you’ll get if you stay subscribed or upgrade your subscription to paid.
Know a Gen Alpha parent? Forward this or send them a link!
But the long and short of it is this:
Raising Gen Alpha is a weekly newsletter filled with research and data-led essays, expert interviews, book recommendations, and everything else that you want to know about bringing up the next generation.
All subscribers receive weekly public posts and any future podcast episodes I publish.
But I’ll be honest: A lot of work goes into these free posts, including the research and interviews I do for each one. So if you’d like to support the research, writing, and publishing of this newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Your financial support allows me to continue this work exploring the questions we all have about bringing up the next generation and growing this community of parents and caretakers. Plus, you get:
Access to extra weekly paid subscriber-only posts + the full archive
Exclusive expert interviews + ability to submit questions beforehand
Extra goodies (like children's book author interviews + parenting book recommendations)
I hope you’ll stay to read. I hope you’ll comment. And I really hope you’ll email me with any questions or thoughts about Raising Gen Alpha at raisingenalpha@gmail.com.
If this newsletter shift isn’t up your alley, I totally understand. Thank you so much for your support over the years!
Raising Gen Alpha officially launches on Tuesday, June 6th, and you can expect a new free newsletter every Tuesday.
Read more about Raising Gen Alpha on Substack and introduce yourself to the community with your name, pronouns, and when your Gen Alpha child was born. I’ll start (and you’ll see this in my signature weekly): I’m Irina (she/her), and I am raising a March 2020 Gen Alpha kid.
Space tourism agent is a predicted job for Gen Alpha kids. I wouldn’t mind that, so long as they’re not working for Elon Musk…
Talk soon,
Irina (she/her) - raising a March 2020 Gen Alpha kid
Can’t wait for this! Congrats on making big moves, mami! ✨