Were you born between 1977 and 1983? If so, you're a Xennial – part of the microgeneration sandwiched between Generation X (born 1965 and later) and the Millennials (born up until 1996).
Jacinda Ardern resigning as New Zealand prime minister because she "no longer has enough in the tank" is the most Xennial thing ever, says British journalist Esther Walker.
"Generation X would be there until they were dragged out… no excuses, never say die, Rip Curl, riding big waves madness ... Millennials would have been made too freaked out by the internet to do anything," she tells Jesse Mulligan.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Unlike Gen-Xers – who Walker says are proudly self-reliant – and Millenials – who are digitally adept but a bit entitled due to helicopter parenting – Xennials have their own thing going on.
'[Xennials] do occupy a very precarious and unusual space between these hardcore Gen Xers who went to raves and smoked and did a lot of drugs and these Millenials who were parented by early gen-Xers and had things smoothed out for them.'
As a Xennial, she had an "analogue childhood" and remembers wearing Body Shop dewberry perfume, calling her parents collect from a payphone and knowing her friend's phone numbers off by heart.
Although Instagram is "poison" a huge social media backlash is on the horizon, Walker says, she does use social media, sharing photos with her family on the app BeReal and giving herself a 15-minute time limit on Instagram to look at some "super addictive" video reels.
Esther Walker Photo: Adrian Sherratt for The Times
As a Xennial, Walker feels lucky to have enough digital skills to stay relevant alongside memories of the good old days before ubiquitous devices.
But had she been born earlier, Walker believes she would also have made "a great Gen-X person".
"I shade towards the more hardcore end of Xennials and my dream when I was little was to be a really tough, ball-breaking journalist. I never quite made it but I think if I was ten years older I would have busted some ass and it would have been really fun."
Esther Walker writes a column on Substack and co-hosts a podcast with her husband called Giles Coren Has No Idea.
