When the definition of fame is increasingly blurry, who are the celebrities that still get the attention of Millennials and Gen Z? We asked their favorites to find out…
Fame is more fragmented than ever, in a time when online influencers collect millions of fans, reality TV stars can become top hit musicians, and entertainment overload has multiplied the number of faces in the public sphere. As one 30-year-old male told Ypulse, “[Celebrity] can mean anything nowadays and it's a rather diluted term; from YouTube star, to someone on Instagram with millions of followers, to reality TV dopes, etc.”
We’ve written plenty about the redefinition of fame, as the definition blurs, thanks in large part to young consumers’ preference for online content, and their desire to connect to celebrities via mediums that are more intimate than anything that has existed before. The public figures Gen Z and Millennials are most interested in watching, where they are interested in watching them, and who is influencing them continues to shift. This year, Time Inc. rang in a “new era of celebrity” with their “New Fame List,” naming the top movers and shakers in digital today. Logan Paul, Lilly Singh, Issa Rae, Rudy Manusco, and Jeffree Starr are just a few of the “entertainers, visionaries, real deals, trend setters,” and “lookers” to make the list. Clearly, there is more competition than ever to become a well-known celebrity—and a celebrity that Gen Z and Millennials actually care about. To continue tracking the kinds of celebrities that manage to achieve higher levels of fame, in our recent entertainment survey we once again asked 13-35-year-olds, “Who is your favorite celebrity?”*
About 300 celebrities received mentions—and roughly two thirds of those mentions were from one or two respondents only.…
