Editor’s Note: Published on page I1 of the August 7, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

"THOSE dudes are fossils."

That was my cousin’s verdict as the video for "Ch-Check It Out" by the Beastie Boys splashed across the Wega. Spotting the goofy Brooklyn trio’s armada of crow’s feet, gray hair, and expanding waistlines, however, I couldn’t agree with her more. Was this "Nip/Tuck" or MTV? So it was a huge relief when the totally un-retro Dashboard Confessional came on next. With a glass of skim milk as a microphone, we sang along to "Vindicated" with all the emo disaffection we could muster. See, my cousin—whom I will hide under the name Samantha, after her favorite "Sex and the City" harlot—is a psychotic Chris Carrabba groupie. (Chris is the voice and, apparently, the face of Dashboard Confessional.) Samantha describes him as "so fetch," a phrase she put on heavy rotation after watching "Mean Girls" for the nth time two nights ago. That’s essentially the same thing she said about the other "has-been hotties" she used to worship, like James Marsters from "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" and Kevin Zegers of "Air Bud." Oh no.

Slouching so much that she was nearly horizontal, Samantha then took off the chunky diamond mini-hoop earrings her mom lets her wear to school. She also wished out loud, wanting to be taller so that she could go to the prom, bling and all. I, on the other hand, sat up to turn out a short ennui-filled show-and-tell about the Mount Everest of magazines in my room. Among them was a back issue of The Fader Magazine with Kurt Cobain as its cover star. After pointing out to her that no, Kurt was not the lead singer of The Vines, I picked up the intellectual-lite conversation and talked about a few transcultural theories I read about in Trace, another alternative title. As the new Nelly video blared in the background, Sam looked at me like I was spewing hooey. This was exactly the same Alexis Bledel, deer-in-headlights stare she puts on when her parents start talking about religion, politics, and other sleep-inducing topics. I took that as my cue to can it and go back to discussing "The O.C." After all, this cousin of mine was only 10.

At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-dud, I couldn’t help but look back on my own childhood. At 10, I was either parked in front of the TV watching "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" videos, playing with my Nintendo, or burying Cobra Commander at the bottom of the pool. Designer labels were exclusively for grown-ups so I solved my fashion emergencies with Guess? jeans and shirts from Polo Ralph Lauren Boys. Aside from that, my taste in music encompassed the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" Christmas album since my awareness only geared up with the advent of grunge a couple years later. We were all 10 at one point in our lives, but back in the day we were only called "kids." In contrast, 10-year-olds of the 00’s, like my cousin, are eminently dubbed as "tweens."

Pre-Teen Beat The word "tween" is shorthand for "between child and teenager." Although most believe that tweens fall between the ages of 10-15, Laura Batts of the Advanced Research Laboratories in Costa Mesa, California, says that tweens are defined as those within the ages of 8-12. Whatever the case may be, tweens have always existed but marketers continue to inaccurately claim their discovery. More likely, what they may have chanced upon and explained was their purchasing power.

In the US, they account for $48 billion in spending per year, using over $15 billion of their own money, and influencing more than $30 billion of their parent’s money. Calculated from a 1997 report titled "Capturing the Purchasing Power of Kids," it’s clear that tweens are also spending 57.8% more than their predecessors just ten years ago.

By predecessors, they mean us. As the largest—not to mention, wealthiest—group in history, we came of age in an era filled with a blinding onslaught of technical advancements and instant global communications. Alternately called Echo boomers, the baby boomlet, and Generation Y, our generation is roughly defined by research group Schroeder & Tremayne as those born between 1977 and 1994. Since birth, today’s teens and twentysomethings have been saturated with media hype and surrounded by material excess that, I guess, made us seasoned, tech-savvy consumers at such an early stage. We may have only recently hit our stride as a demographic, but the world is already bracing itself for the next wave of heavy hitters.

Far from being exploitable suckers, those born after 1994 are like us in most ways. First of all, tweens want and are ready to drop some serious coin, both their own and their parents’. If you don’t believe me, check out the crazy cyclotron of magazines aimed at the kiddie pool crew-Teen Vogue, Elle Girl, Teen People, and Cosmo Girl. Next, tweens are similarly into cool, insider recreational finds. Like Gen Y, the 15-and-under set wants to discover something new and word of mouth is the primary source of information among their friends, whether through normal interaction or online communication. On the other hand, tweens are aliens when it comes to other things. Unlike Generation Y’s battle plan to remain individualistic at all costs, tweens want to belong to a club and don’t mind having the same stuff as the next person as long as they belong to the same clique. It’s possible that the idea of taking something and customizing it hasn’t given them a shout-out just yet. And most strikingly, if most people go all-out when it comes to preserving their youth, tweens aspire to look, act, and be older. I’m sure they’ll make a mental U-turn about that someday.

Human chess game Don’t look now, but despite their age, tweens are turning out to be major players in the large-scale human chess game known as pop culture. 13-year-old Los Angeles native Gerren Taylor has been called "the next Naomi" by her modeling agency New York Models. Far from her chubby counterparts in the amateur catalogue-modeling world, Gerren is what I would call a "serious" model, much like new generation gold standards Natalia Vodianova and Jeisa Chiminazzo. In fact, Gerren has appeared in a Marc by Marc Jacobs campaign shot by A-list lensman Juergen Teller. To Gerren, what she does is no different from what young actresses do. The only thing is, starlets play their age or younger, while Gerren, when made up, can easily be mistaken for 21. Red flag!

Another 13-year-old on the verge of mainstream stardom is JoJo. Hailing from Massachusetts, JoJo has become a TRL fixture with her radio smash "Leave (Get Out)". Not camera shy, JoJo has appeared on shows ranging from Bill Cosby’s "Kids Say the Darndest Things-On The Road in Boston" to "The Oprah Winfrey Show," where she blew everyone away with her incredible vocal range. After fielding calls from different record labels, she finally signed up with Blackground Records-home to Timbaland & Magoo and the late Aaliyah-to hammer out her self-titled debut. With blues from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and Etta James infused with her own distinct jazzy pop sound, her CD "JoJo" balances attitude and innocence, which is what this non-surnamed prodigy is all about. More power to you, JoJo.

What’s my age again? By the burning light of the computer monitor, it hit me like a big yellow school bus that to my cousin and her playground posse, Kurt Cobain has always been dead. Imagine that! In his place are perky girl power superpowers like Amanda Bynes, Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Anne Hathaway. Britney and Christina have moved on to the giant expanse of land known as adulthood and those two can probably only attend a cozy tween mixer when they ditch the singing slut act. Remember that tweens are teens without the sex.

Far from being watered down teens, I nonetheless believe that tweens possess a different ethos altogether. I thought I could read my cousin’s head like a crystal ball, but Sam made it clear that despite the sassy uptalk, smart-ditz poise, and adult-like complexity, she was still, in Britney’s words, "not a girl, not yet a woman." What was she then? As I hunt for a Blue’s Clue to this stumper, chew on this fact: The number of tweens has breached the 23 million mark and that’s in the US alone. Throw in the worldwide tween population, multiply that number by a kazillion, and you’ll end up with a force to be reckoned with, with a side of onion rings. Is the image of a planet overrun by independent, educated, consumer-oriented postmillennials a sign of the end of civilization? I don’t think so. They’ll become full-blown teens in a few years, which is presumably when society should start worrying.