Pacsun just published its 2026 Youth Report, run with GlobalData across 6,126 people aged 11 to 24 in the US. They nicknamed this group the "Drawbridge Generation," kids who live in a noisy, algorithm-shaped world and respond by pulling the drawbridge up, retreating to a small circle they actually trust. Buried in the numbers is a distinction that should change how a lot of local businesses spend their money.
Two different questions
The report separates where young people discover brands from who they trust, and the two answers don't match.
On discovery, TikTok wins clearly. Organic TikTok content, regular videos, not ads, is the single biggest driver of new brand discovery at 27.8%. TikTok Shop follows at 18.6%, then Instagram organic at 10.6%, and Instagram ads trail at 7.5%. So the top of the funnel is obvious: short, native video is how you get found.
Then you get to trust, and the picture flips. Asked who they trust for fashion and style, only about 11% named influencers or creators they follow. Friends came in at 34% and family at 27%. And it's not a fashion quirk, across every category the report measured, from money advice to purchase decisions, influencers never cracked an 11% share of trust. Discovery and trust are simply not the same job.
What this means for your money
A lot of small businesses do this backwards. They pay an influencer a chunk of the budget for a sponsored post and hope it does everything, gets them found and gets them believed. This data says that's one tool trying to do two jobs, and losing the more important one.
Split the work:
For discovery, show up in organic short video. Post real, useful, human TikToks and Reels consistently. Not polished ads, actual content, the behind-the-scenes, the how-it's-made, the answer to the question every customer asks. That's what surfaces to new people.
For trust, engineer word of mouth. The people who move a purchase are friends and family, so your job is to get talked about inside those small trusted circles. That means content from real customers, not paid faces, honest reviews you actually ask for, and a referral nudge that makes it easy for a happy client to tell one friend.
This is a gift to local businesses
If you run something in Miami, this is good news. You were never going to out-spend a national brand on influencers, and it turns out you didn't need to. Your edge is the thing the data says actually converts, real people vouching for you inside their own circles. A neighbor's recommendation, a genuine five-star review from someone in the same zip code, a customer's own video, those beat a paid post the algorithm already taught this generation to distrust.
The play, in one line
Get discovered with organic short video, and get trusted through the customers you already have. If you want help turning happy clients into the content and reviews that actually move people, that's our lane, reach out to the La Media Social team.
