- Parents on TikTok are lovingly describing their Gen Alpha children as "honey badgers."
- The term has grown popular this year to describe this cohort of loud-mouthed, plucky kids.
Parents and other millennials and Gen Xers are introducing an endearing nickname for Generation Alpha kids who are mouthy and unafraid of defying authority: "honey badgers."
Gen Alpha, the generation cohort after Gen Z that began with kids born around 2010, has recently become a hotbed for online discourse. Zoomers have already begun panicking over Gen Alpha humor being too confusing to understand, so it seems likely that these generational distinctions will become increasingly frequent as Gen Alpha gets older.
Now millennials and Gen Xers who are raising Gen Alpha children are giving us an insight into some of their most defining traits.
@thatpsychnp Gen A ARE THE HONEYBADGERS! #ReTokforNature #thatpsychnp #amazing #love #gena #honeybadger #honeybadgerdontgiveashit #school #news #nursesoftiktok #kids #nurse #fyp #fypシ #fypage #viral #learnontiktok #youthoftiktok #youthofthenation #childhood #momsoftiktok #dadsoftiktok #mentalhealth ♬ Jump Around - House Of Pain
The exact origin of the Gen Alpha honey badger term is unclear, but "honey badgers" has long been used to refer to people who assert indifference or dominance over others (the phrase "honey badgers don't care" went viral a decade ago as part of an internet meme about the animal).
The current use of the phrase was popularized on TikTok by the user @ThatPsychNP, who has made videos about "Gen Alpha honey badgers" since at least August 2022. The term has gained significant traction in the last few months as other TikTokers began posting videos adopting the phrase.
@ThatPsychNP, whose bio says she's a psychiatric nurse practitioner, explained why she calls Gen Alpha the clan of "honey badgers" in an October 2022 video.
"Our little nuggets will throw hands with anybody because they are built different and they don't give a shit," she said, adding that these kids were born with "zero fucks to give."
The creator has posted numerous videos duetting clips of Gen Alpha illustrating her points. One recent video featured a young girl stubbornly refusing to drop a raccoon she was haphazardly clutching. Another clip from June showed a young girl spotting a bear and running joyously toward it.
Many of her videos feature Gen Alpha kids engaging with animals in both bizarre and adorable ways — such as a video of a young boy running around a trampoline while holding a snake like a horse. "I'll be honest with you, I was really worried about the snake," the apparent father of the child joked.
This week, another TikToker and a Millennial mother, @thespecialmagnolia, made a popular video saying the phrase deftly captured her 5-year-old daughter's behavior. "These little beautiful psychos have more fury, conviction, and confidence in their pointer finger — which they don't mind putting in your face — than any activist or politician on the stage right now," she argued.
@thespecialmagnolia My child is 1000% Gen Alpha Honey Badger #southernmomma #genalpha #genalphaparent #millennial #millenialparents ♬ original sound - Holly
@Thespecialmagnolia qualified her explanation by saying all the intensity comes from a place of empathy.
"I've said this about my own child since she was very young: she's either going to run the country, or a prison gang, just depends on how she's feeling that day," she quipped.
The comments of her video are full of users who identified themselves as fellow young mothers hilariously agreeing with the assessment and sharing their own examples.
"My little HB is a spicy lovable empathetic little boy," one commenter wrote. "He said to his papaw, 'We don't yell. We talk it out.'"
"My honey badger said 'Hey don't talk over me' to her 75 yr old great uncle and then said you should say sorry," another added.
"I keep telling my friends that are parents of Gen Alpha just set up a savings account 'cause you don't know if it's a college fund or bail money," the video's top comment reads.