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Tween creator Like Nastya scored deals with Disney, Littlest Pet Shop, and Five Below.

Sep 21 2026

Tween creator Like Nastya scored deals with Disney, Littlest Pet Shop, and Five Below. Or really, they scored deals with her. The 12-year-old has a cumulative 450M YouTube subscribers across several channels and is now the face of a “global family entertainment franchise.” The Disney deal will bring some of the existing Like Nastya content to Disney platforms, as well as kick off new original series for Disney Jr. and Disney+. Disney has partnered with YouTubers before, but given the scale of Like Nastya as a brand, it’s their “first development deal with a major entertainment company.” As for her LPS collab, the toys were designed in partnership with Like Nastya as part of their new global collection, World of LPS. The launch event for LPS x Like Nastya at Five Below in NYC is offering a free “Stylin’ Kit” from the collection and a sweepstakes to see her concert in LA—so no doubt it will draw crowds as Gen Alpha creator brand events often do. (Deadline, PR Newswire)

👀 Read more from YPulse: 5 YouTubers Tweens Love That Brands Should Know

Gen Z and Millennial love for Uncrustables is fueling a new frozen sandwich arms race.

Sep 21 2026

Gen Z and Millennial love for Uncrustables is fueling a new frozen sandwich arms race. The crustless PB&J, launched in 2000, has posted four straight years of double-digit sales growth, adding more than 3M new households and expanding into gas station convenience buys. And while the brand’s original fans have grown up, the product stuck with them: adults, pro athletes, and long-distance runners now treat it as fuel, with NFL teams alone consuming at least 8K sandwiches a year. (Think of the protein!) Its crossover appeal—equal parts childhood comfort food and functional snack—all adds up to it becoming a $1B brand. It’s also drawing new competitors like Trader Joe’s, Welch’s, and Jams into the category, each betting that Gen Z and Millennials’ nostalgia for late the ‘90s and 2000s can be repackaged and resold. (CNN)

👀 Read more from YPulse: Gen Z Names Their Top 20 Favorite Snacks

What does the wilting rose emoji mean to Gen Z and Gen Alpha?

Sep 17 2026

What does the wilting rose emoji mean to Gen Z and Gen Alpha? In 2025, the fastest growing most used emoji was “🥀,” which tweens and teens use the same way older gens might use a broken heart. While this might feel like another way that Gen Z vernacular is impossible to keep up with, there is an interestingly clear path to how it earned meaning—in fact, it’s almost predictable. One linguist expert says this is a “forced emoji,” which means young people intentionally gave it meaning to replace an “overused,” more literal one they might see their mom use. As older gens catch on to a piece of slang or even emoji and begin to use it, teens and tweens will naturally seek out the next way to keep their communication to an only-if-you-know style. Here’s a hint for what comes next: pre-set emojis could fall out of vogue in favor of the reaction images in every TikTok comment section. (The Guardian)

👀 Read more from YPulse: YPulse Explains: Gen Z’s Favorite Comments Under Every Viral Video

Are teens trusting AI’s recommendations more than their friends and family?

Sep 17 2026

Are teens trusting AI’s recommendations more than their friends and family? A Mastercard survey found that the next generation of shoppers is far more likely to use AI while shopping: 62% of teens use AI to research products monthly compared to 49% of their parents. There’s little doubt that AI is becoming a bigger part of shopping for young people, and a reported 75% of parents surveyed anticipate that AI shopping “will define their children’s generation.” But while the headline here claims that teens are starting to trust AI recommendations more than friends and parents, it’s actually not the majority who do: 31% of teens said they trust AI-generated product recs over a friend’s, and 23% trust them over parents’ recs. And we will call out that YPulse’s data shows that while half of teens do want to use AI to discover new products while shopping, trust in friends and family members beats out trust in AI across multiple categories.
(Retail Dive)

👀 Read more from YPulse: Does Gen Z Want AI to Help Them Shop?

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