The Kengaroo is a weekly newsletter that curates the latest on Gen Z culture in Africa and around the world. Subscribe to be among the first to get the next issue when it’s up.

We’re back with another issue of The Kengaroo! We’re sorry for being away for so long 🥺

During our hiatus, our feisty team has been reworking our newsletter strategy while putting finishing touches on our upcoming Silicon Issue. Exciting times! With this week’s Kengaroo, we’re happy to introduce our newsletter’s new home on Substack. We loved our old home on Revue, but it wasn’t giving; so we had to pack up. For those of you who are new to Substack, we highly recommend downloading the Substack app for an even more premium reading experience of The Kengaroo!

We hope you enjoy what we’ve curated for you this week!

🔥 Hot Topics

1 • Teen Trafficking on Wattpad

Sexual predators are reportedly using online literature app Wattpad to target and exploit vulnerable teens, in some cases leading to sex trafficking and assault.

Source: Forbes

2 • Mental Health Fatality

Mental health startup, Cerebral, was recently found to have provided treatment to a 17-year-old without the consent of his parents who found out on the day their son died. This sparked ongoing conversations on the relationships telehealth startups have with their Gen Z users, most of whom are currently minors.

Source: Wall Street Journal

3 • ‘Act Your Wage’: the New Gen Z Campaign

In the Gen Z-led war against corporate slavery, the ‘Act Your Wage’ movement for employees to put in the amount of work proportional to the amount of their pay as a way of reminding employers that trading their lives for their jobs is now a thing of the past.

Source: New York Post

4 • The Corporate Threat of Gen Z Side Hustles

Celebrity media entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk warns that companies should be more worried about Gen Z’s 6-figure creator side hustles that are providing more money with better work-life balance than about ‘quiet quitting’ or ‘working your wage’.

Source: Business Insider

⭐️ Z-Brand Spotlight

Founded by 24-year-old Ghanaian-American technologist, Iddris Sandu, Spatial LABS is a California-based VC studio developing wearable hardware products that can serve as physical entry points into the metaverse.

Spatial LABS counts as one of its investors rap legend Jay Z, who acquired a stake in the company through his VC firm Marcy Venture Partners.

Explore Spatial LABS »

✨ New on Kenga

1. ‘Gen Zs are Searching on TikTok over Google, but Is This True for Africans?’ by Mustapha Enesi

2. ‘12 African Sustainable Fashion Brands to Shop’ by Melony Akpoghene

🎭 Toon of the Week

🎵 Tok of the Week

📱 Tweet of the Week