Forget fast fashion – entrepreneurial teens make five figure salaries selling their clothes
Gen Z are turning their closets into cash with the top 1% making five figure salaries from selling their clothes online. Throughout the US there are over 400,000 teenagers making a profit on their preloved items.
Over two in five (42%) teenagers are actively earning money online across the US. One in six of these teenagers are earning a digital income from selling second hand items online – the most popular and successful way teens are earning a digital income.
To explore the scale of teen earnings through digital channels in the US, Whop, the all-in-one platform for digital products, gathered survey data from 1,655 US teenagers aged between 12-18 years old to produce the US teen digital earnings report 2024. The findings show that teenagers in the US are capitalizing on their digital presence and turning screen time into serious income.
Over the last four years, Vinted, an online marketplace for second hand clothing, tripled its number of users and is continuing to expand. The app found Gen Z users are the most entrepreneurial, found to be the generation most likely to withdraw their seller earnings. In comparison, Millennials are the generation most likely to purchase second hand items.
Many teenagers consider their online earning methods as genuine career choices. When asked about the most sustainable digital income opportunities, 32% of teenagers believe selling clothes, footwear and accessories is the most effective method.
The most popular ways teenagers are earning money online:
Selling clothes, footwear, or apparel accessories — 16.69%
Streaming video games — 10.09%
Earning in-game currency — 10.79%
Video game tournament prizes — 9.20%
Product reviews — 8.75%
Brand sponsorship earning through social media accounts — 8.60%
Viewer earning from social media platforms — 6.55%
Affiliate marketing — 5.70%
Dropshipping — 5.30%
Paid for unboxing videos — 4.90%
Selling gaming accounts through a third party with loot box winnings — 4.80%
Operating online has given teenagers a platform to leapfrog the traditional roles to become their own boss, highlighting a whole digital economy that US teenagers are at the forefront of.
Cameron Zoub, chief growth officer and co-founder of Whop, says: “The way people make a living is changing — Gen Z’s entrepreneurial mindset alone is proof of that. As a fifteen year old today, if you have a laptop, there’s a million ways to make money on the internet. Once you get the bug of making money on the internet, you don’t turn back. Our findings are clear: younger generations are hungry for opportunities to make money online. It’s a sign of the times, and what more is to come.”
