EP 247: Why Are Gen Z Girls Miserable? Freya India Explains

About this episode

Freya India discusses the unhappiness of young women in the Internet era and the commodification of girlhood.

We know that young women are increasingly unhappy — with high rates of depression and anxiety — and our guest on the program this week says there’s good reason for that. In her new book, she argues that girlhood has dramatically changed in the Internet era and that young women have been transformed from people into products. Freya India is a British writer and commentator, and a staff writer at Jonathan Haidt’s newsletter After Babel. Her new book is GIRLS: Generation Z and the Commodificatio...

People in this episode

Host: Tara Henley

Guest: Freya India

Topics covered

• Gen Z
• mental health
• girlhood
• commodification
• depression
• anxiety

Keywords

• Gen Z girls
• mental health
• depression
• anxiety
• commodification
• girlhood
• Freya India

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: After Babel

Books & works: GIRLS: Generation Z and the Commodification of Girlhood

More episodes of Lean Out with Tara Henley

• EP 251: Full Press on How 'Mass Graves' Became Canada's Biggest Journalism Failure · June 3, 2026 · 38 min
• EP 250: Is Phoebe Maltz Bovy the Last Straight Woman? · May 27, 2026 · 52 min
• EP 249: Jacob Siegel on Big Tech and the Information State · May 20, 2026 · 1h 3m
• Ep 248: Tony Keller on How Canada Lost the Plot on Immigration · May 13, 2026 · 48 min
• EP 246: Tom Junod: What Does It Mean to Be a Man? · April 29, 2026 · 34 min
• EP 245: John Tomasi on the Diversity We Don't Discuss · April 22, 2026 · 37 min