Freya India

Freya India is one of the most perceptive young writers chronicling the struggles of Gen Z. She is a staff writer for Jonathan Haidt’s After Babel and the author of GIRLS, a widely read Substack. Her work, featured in The Spectator, The New Statesman, The Independent, Quillette, and UnHerd, has been acknowledged by The Guardian, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.

At the heart of India’s writing is an attempt to make sense of a generation shaped by social media. Unlike abstract critiques, her essays illuminate the emotional and psychological cost of growing up online. She has described her generation as one that has “lost something”. The depth of real friendships, the friction of face-to-face connection, and the wisdom that once guided personal relationships. Instead, they have been offered a world of hyper-curated identities, algorithm-driven validation, and digital substitutes for real intimacy.

Whether she’s dissecting the glamorisation of divorce, the contradictions of contemporary feminism, or the commodification of mental health; Freya India is unflinching in her critiques. She is a fierce advocate for leaving social media behind, and emphasises the importance of using it as a work tool rather than allowing it to define one’s identity.

Through GIRLS, India provides a space for young women to reflect on the deeper implications of a world that has reduced them to consumers of products, ideologies, and their own vulnerabilities. Committed to asking the hard questions, Freya India challenges us to reflect: What kind of life is worth living? What is truly empowering? What happens when an entire generation loses the ability to connect outside of a screen?

As part of Haidt’s Anxious Generation project, India has emerged as one of the most influential Gen Z thinkers on mental health, technology, and the cultural shifts shaping her generation.