Pacsun’s “2026 Youth Report,” compiled with GlobalData from 6,126 U.S. respondents aged 11 to 24, finds a split between where young consumers say they get fashion ideas and who they actually trust to inform a purchase. TikTok organic content is the single largest driver of new brand discovery, cited by 27.8% of respondents, ahead of TikTok Shop (18.6%), Instagram organic content (10.6%), and Instagram ads or sponsored posts (7.5%). But when asked who they trust for fashion and style information, only 10.8% named influencers or creators they follow, trailing far behind friends (34%) and family (27%).
TikTok Leads Discovery and Inspiration, Ads Do Not
TikTok is also the most-cited source of fashion inspiration overall, named by 61.6% of respondents in 2026, essentially flat against 61.9% in 2025. Instagram follows at 52.3%, down from 57.7% the prior year, while Pinterest (39.9%) and YouTube (36.5%) round out the top four. Notably, the discovery data breaks out organic content from paid placements, and the gap is stark: TikTok’s organic content outperforms Instagram’s paid ads and sponsored posts by roughly 20 percentage points as an initial brand discovery point.
The Trust Gap
Despite that reach, influencers rank well below personal relationships as a trusted source across every category the report measured. For fashion and style advice, influencers and creators (10.8%) sit behind friends and family but ahead of celebrities (5.9%) and social media generally (3.9%). The same pattern holds outside fashion. Asked who they trust for financial advice, news, mental health support and general life decisions, respondents again put family and friends first, with influencers registering 8.2% for financial advice, 10.2% for news and current events, and 7.4% for mental health or emotional support.
Gen Z Pulls Back From the Influencer Model
The report describes a specific generational pattern it calls a resistance to being shaped by outside influence, a theme it says also surfaced in Pacsun’s 2025 edition, when 32% of respondents said they themselves had the biggest influence on their own thinking and decisions. That resistance shows up again this year: Gen Z is more likely than Gen Alpha to say they don’t follow influencers or celebrities on social media at all, and among those who do follow influencers, Gen Z gravitates more toward unique or niche creators (39.9%) than the most famous celebrities (34.5%). The report notes this holds even though the most commonly named favorite influencers and celebrities among Gen Z, including MrBeast, Zendaya, Emma Chamberlain, Taylor Swift and Kylie Jenner, are mainstream, famous figures, a contradiction the report attributes partly to fame’s built-in visibility advantage.
What Gets an Influencer Unfollowed
The report also measured which influencer behaviors youth respondents said would make them unfollow a creator. Bullying or harassment of others topped the list at 49.5%, followed by racist or discriminatory content (47.9%) and scamming followers (46.7%). Failing to disclose paid partnerships or ads ranked far lower, at 22.6% overall, roughly half the rate of the top three behaviors, suggesting non-disclosure carries less reputational risk for creators among this audience than other forms of misconduct. Only 7% of respondents said they do not believe in cancel culture at all.
The report illustrates the limits of that cancellation threshold with the case of Clavicular, a TikTok creator tied to the “looksmaxxing” trend who has amassed 1.1 million TikTok followers and 903,000 Instagram followers as of July 2026. According to the report, Clavicular was hospitalized in Miami in April after a suspected overdose broadcast during a livestream, and later that month was charged with unlawfully discharging a firearm in a public place or residential property in connection with a March incident in which he was filmed firing at an alligator.
Google Trends data cited in the report shows both incidents corresponded with spikes in search interest rather than a falloff, which the report describes as the creator gaining a reputation for being “uncancelable.”
Image source: Pacsun The full report is available here
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
Pacsun’s “2026 Youth Report,” compiled with GlobalData from 6,126 U.S. respondents aged 11 to 24, finds a split between where young consumers say they get fashion ideas and who they actually trust to inform a purchase. TikTok organic content is the single largest driver of new brand discovery, cited by 27.8% of respondents, ahead of TikTok Shop (18.6%), Instagram organic content (10.6%), and Instagram ads or sponsored posts (7.5%). But when asked who they trust for fashion and style information, only 10.8% named influencers or creators they follow, trailing far behind friends (34%) and family (27%).
TikTok Leads Discovery and Inspiration, Ads Do Not
TikTok is also the most-cited source of fashion inspiration overall, named by 61.6% of respondents in 2026, essentially flat against 61.9% in 2025. Instagram follows at 52.3%, down from 57.7% the prior year, while Pinterest (39.9%) and YouTube (36.5%) round out the top four. Notably, the discovery data breaks out organic content from paid placements, and the gap is stark: TikTok’s organic content outperforms Instagram’s paid ads and sponsored posts by roughly 20 percentage points as an initial brand discovery point.
The Trust Gap
Despite that reach, influencers rank well below personal relationships as a trusted source across every category the report measured. For fashion and style advice, influencers and creators (10.8%) sit behind friends and family but ahead of celebrities (5.9%) and social media generally (3.9%). The same pattern holds outside fashion. Asked who they trust for financial advice, news, mental health support and general life decisions, respondents again put family and friends first, with influencers registering 8.2% for financial advice, 10.2% for news and current events, and 7.4% for mental health or emotional support.
Gen Z Pulls Back From the Influencer Model
The report describes a specific generational pattern it calls a resistance to being shaped by outside influence, a theme it says also surfaced in Pacsun’s 2025 edition, when 32% of respondents said they themselves had the biggest influence on their own thinking and decisions. That resistance shows up again this year: Gen Z is more likely than Gen Alpha to say they don’t follow influencers or celebrities on social media at all, and among those who do follow influencers, Gen Z gravitates more toward unique or niche creators (39.9%) than the most famous celebrities (34.5%). The report notes this holds even though the most commonly named favorite influencers and celebrities among Gen Z, including MrBeast, Zendaya, Emma Chamberlain, Taylor Swift and Kylie Jenner, are mainstream, famous figures, a contradiction the report attributes partly to fame’s built-in visibility advantage.
What Gets an Influencer Unfollowed
The report also measured which influencer behaviors youth respondents said would make them unfollow a creator. Bullying or harassment of others topped the list at 49.5%, followed by racist or discriminatory content (47.9%) and scamming followers (46.7%). Failing to disclose paid partnerships or ads ranked far lower, at 22.6% overall, roughly half the rate of the top three behaviors, suggesting non-disclosure carries less reputational risk for creators among this audience than other forms of misconduct. Only 7% of respondents said they do not believe in cancel culture at all.
The report illustrates the limits of that cancellation threshold with the case of Clavicular, a TikTok creator tied to the “looksmaxxing” trend who has amassed 1.1 million TikTok followers and 903,000 Instagram followers as of July 2026. According to the report, Clavicular was hospitalized in Miami in April after a suspected overdose broadcast during a livestream, and later that month was charged with unlawfully discharging a firearm in a public place or residential property in connection with a March incident in which he was filmed firing at an alligator.
Google Trends data cited in the report shows both incidents corresponded with spikes in search interest rather than a falloff, which the report describes as the creator gaining a reputation for being “uncancelable.”
Image source: Pacsun
The full report is available here
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