Freya India has become one of the most perceptive and quietly radical voices of her generation. Through her Substack essays and her new book Girls, Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything, she has emerged as a chronicler of a civilisation that sold adulthood—and especially girlhood—for clicks, careers and chemical coping mechanisms.
With rare emotional honesty and moral clarity, Freya speaks to the deeper crisis behind the Gen Z malaise: not just the collapse of community, religion and family, but the cultural refusal to name those losses for what they are. In a world that celebrates liberation but punishes vulnerability, her writing dares to ask what freedom is for—and whether it can survive without love, loyalty, or limits.
Why did we invite her on?
Because Freya sees what others miss. While many rightly critique the commodification of women, few have grasped its psychological, cultural and spiritual cost as fully. And fewer still have had the courage to say it in plain English.
We wanted to explore how an entire generation became diagnosed, disoriented, and dependent—not just on their devices, but on a worldview that treats every human feeling as a disorder and every body as a product.
What did we talk about?
We began with the feeling of alienation that led Freya to start writing in the first place. Unlike many commentators who arrive at conservatism through theory, she arrived through experience. The resulting insights are not cold critiques but hard-earned truths.
We explored how therapy culture has replaced moral language with clinical jargon: why Gen Z girls are taught to brand their sadness, pathologise their instincts, and outsource their moral judgments to mental health influencers. In Freya’s view, even conservative critics often miss the point. The problem isn’t just screen time or tech addiction, but the total loss of an ethical vocabulary to describe right and wrong, sacrifice and fidelity, love and betrayal.
We discussed the feminist paradox of our time: a culture that demonises masculinity while celebrating its worst traits in women. Young girls are praised for aggression, sexual detachment, and self-interest, qualities that not only alienate them from men, but from themselves. And yet, as Freya argues, the deeper tragedy is not anger but confusion. These are not empowered women, they are exhausted girls sold a vision of adulthood that promised freedom and delivered emptiness.
Watch here:
A great discussion. I especially liked the insight that women are being encouraged to adopt the worst attributes of men in order to prove their feminine credentials! Where did femininity go to anyway? Does anyone know?! 😔
This was an excellent interview. She is the real deal. She gets it. Maybe what I like most is that she consistently brings a balanced take when discussing issues of boys and girls. As one who writes mostly about men, this balance is greatly appreciated