AAA<\/p>\n
In 15-year-old Olive Berlach\u2019s Central Coast bedroom, knick-knacks from a distant era live strewn across every surface and wall. A Dirty Dancing vinyl, stacks of CDs, a Vogue magazine collection, jars of sea glass and shells, a Luke\u2019s Diner coaster from Gilmore Girls, a lamp with coloured scarves sewn into it and posters of teen heartthrobs (young Johnny Depp and Australian singer Ruel).<\/p>\n
Olive wants to live like she\u2019s \u201cin the \u201990s\u201d. The front cover of her first self-published magazine, Olive, says it\u2019s \u201cfor teens who want to live offline\u201d.<\/p>\n
Inside, there\u2019s a kaleidoscope of ideas and topics. There\u2019s a pancake recipe you can cook at \u201cyour bestie\u2019s house\u201d, a profile on Allana Ferguson (Olive\u2019s favourite rugby player), as well as Su-Elise Nash from 2000s girl band Mis-Teeq, \u201990s fashion tips, a guide to a perfect screen-free day (and how to \u201cput it down. Seriously\u201d), a skincare edit and an interview with her mum, Emily.<\/p>\n
![\"Olive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a647a2f5fc81636c923f20f3dc86c92df7530163.jpeg\")
Olive reading her magazine, Olive.Audrey Richardson![\"Olive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/610355314c0a0fe9961a832dffb1211e2f0788df.jpeg\")
Olive is wearing an outfit inspired by a \u201990s Katie Holmes, featured on the magazine page about \u201990s street style. It\u2019s pinned on her bedroom wall.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n
With a dream to one day work at Vogue, Olive has spent two months putting together her first issue, which retails for $20 and costs roughly $8 to print. Olive sold out of her first run of 100 issues after one week \u2013 and is halfway through the second, called The Cosy Issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am doing a photoshoot with my friends this weekend for the cover of the next issue. I interviewed Eleanor Pendleton. I\u2019m doing a showcase with Luke Shadbolt\u2019s photos. He was like an early noughties bodyboard photographer,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Olive, who doesn\u2019t have a smartphone but uses a computer to create her magazine, says a lot of her peers are \u201creally addicted to their phones\u201d. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll be like texting their boyfriends, scrolling TikTok while we\u2019re hanging out, and I just don\u2019t think that\u2019s very fun, and I think there was a lot more freedom in the \u201990s with not having the opinions of so many other people just pinging at you while you\u2019re with your friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought I would try to bring back living in the moment.\u201d <\/p>\n
Teens like Olive have never known a world without social networks like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and the phones that house them. They are, by all accounts, true digital natives \u2013 even as the Australian government has moved to change this through its world-first social media ban (the UK looks set to follow suit<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In the six months since Australia\u2019s social media ban came into effect, about 70 per cent of children retained their social media accounts \u2013 mostly because platforms hadn\u2019t asked them to verify their age.<\/p>\n Despite this digital upbringing \u2013 or perhaps because of it \u2013 Generation Z (aged 14 to 29 today) are increasingly rejecting technology and embracing analog culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n They\u2019re documenting the world through film<\/a> and digital cameras, rejecting streaming services for CDs<\/a> and DVDs<\/a> and hand-writing letters<\/a>. Many of these are marvels from an era they never knew.<\/p>\n A recent study<\/a> commissioned by music video platform Vevo of 1800 teens, evenly split across Australia, the US and UK, found 65 per cent of Gen Z feel nostalgic for a time in which they weren\u2019t alive or were too young to notice (referred to as \u201cborrowed nostalgia\u201d), while one-third felt they were \u201cborn in the wrong generation\u201d.<\/p>\n And they are, despite what others may think, the generation most wary of AI, some emerging research suggests.<\/p>\n According to a Gallup study from April<\/a>, for example, Gen Z\u2019s adoption of AI has remained steady in the past year, but enthusiasm for it is dropping and scepticism is on the rise.<\/p>\n For some teens, access to creative mediums is still a barrier.<\/p>\n Inside a University of Technology Sydney workshop, 16-year-old Charmonix Vaatuitui from Liverpool has applied the finishing touches to her first short film, titled Plastic.<\/p>\n She created it via an incentive the university runs, whereby any student from western Sydney who completes the week-long creative course is guaranteed entry once they finish their HSC. They can choose from filmmaking, animation, photography and music production, all using the university\u2019s equipment.<\/p>\n \u201cMy film was just talking about how I feel very connected to my [Samoan and Tongan] culture; however, I can\u2019t speak my language, and then I\u2019m called plastic, which is basically [challenging the stereotype when people say], \u2018Oh, you can\u2019t speak your language or not that into your culture\u2019, and just basically feeling ashamed of not being able to work on it,\u201d Charmonix, who is in year 11, says.<\/p>\n \u201cPutting like all my thoughts and my own footage into a video has made me open my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n The experience of learning a craft with her peers, socialising each day and having a reason to be off her phone has been a highlight for Charmonix, who wants to keep pursuing filmmaking but sees herself in the media industry.<\/p>\n \u201cNot just having my head just straight into my phone and being out here, leaving home early, going home late, but also making new friends like on the way there\u2019s actually there; it helps with my personal identity,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like I did it because I was forced to do it \u2026 I wanted to actually make a film about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n She has since made another short film based on her and her boyfriend.<\/p>\n While Charmonix has begun learning how to create a popular medium, every Saturday afternoon, 17-year-old Arlo Temple spends hours cultivating a centuries-old craft.<\/p>\n The year 11 student is learning the art of cordwainery (bespoke shoemaking done entirely by hand) at Sydney School of Footwear in Leichhardt<\/a> \u2013 albeit with a modern twist.<\/p>\n Arlo started studying cordwainery when he was 14, and has since made three pairs (each takes roughly nine months, from sketch pad to finished product).<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always had an interest in shoes \u2013 and sneakers especially. I had a bit of a collection already,\u201d he says, adding he already had experience with leather work from school.<\/p>\n Arlo says he likes sneakers because they are more complex to design and make compared to a traditional shoe, like a brogue.<\/p>\n \u201cShoemaking is a bit of a dying art, and it\u2019s great it\u2019s being passed on to a younger generation. Otherwise, that knowledge would probably get lost,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Sydney School of Footwear founder Darren Bischoff has been keeping the art of cordwainery alive for 17 years. He has a large library of fabrics, which for Arlo is a rich pool of inspiration.<\/p>\n A pair of lace hightop boots with black trim, made for a school textiles assessment, started in such a way.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick \u201cIt\u2019s a really contrasting shoe, because it\u2019s a really rigid silhouette of the work boot contrasted with quite a delicate fabric,\u201d he explains, adding: \u201cit scored quite well in my textiles class\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I\u2019m designing, I\u2019m usually thinking about form, and the dynamism between forms. I like thinking about repeating patterns and fluid movement. I think very sculpturally\u201d.<\/p>\n In recent years, Bischoff has seen an uptick in young students, \u201cwho are quite uninterested in scrolling on social media. Some are even deleting their accounts and coming in here and learning to do something with their hands,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThey get really excited about it, and the next thing you know they\u2019re back making a second, third pair of shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n On the Saturday afternoon this masthead visits the school, Arlo is one of four young students each honing their craft.<\/p>\n One is Manus Senn, 24, who started attending classes four years ago, and is hoping to pursue a career in theatre production and costume design. He works in retail at a local footwear store.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just fun that every single time I\u2019m doing something different. I sort of just reset my brain every time I come in \u2026 no two weeks are the same,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n While several of Bischoff\u2019s students have gone on to successful careers in the industry, he acknowledges it\u2019s a dying trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell them as soon as they come in, that there isn\u2019t really a job in shoemaking unless you make it yourself,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Arlo hopes to funnel the skills he\u2019s acquired into a career in design. While he\u2019s still unsure what the future may hold, he\u2019s leaning towards furniture making.<\/p>\n But for some teens, it\u2019s not just channelling their creativity via the analogue \u2013 it\u2019s also living it.<\/p>\n Growing up with limited technology, Olive Berlach communicates with the outside world using a Nokia flip phone.<\/p>\n![\"Western](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1a781a0e7a61d661b3607d7bf202ceb19d7c331e.jpeg\")
Western Sydney high school students Phoenix Varu, Rettalia Fraser, and Wyntah Rose take a selfie during a photography lesson at UTS.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n![\"Western](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/c59a7355c2e4cd55357f78318cc90935b9ab5b62.jpeg\")
Western Sydney high school students learning photography at UTS.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n![\"Charmonix](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/57eb46b59cc0144f950b4754fdfa18e383cfe10c.jpeg\")
Charmonix Vaatuitui, 16, inside UTS\u2019 filmmaking lab.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n![\"Sydney](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4c87070ce4c0d15532d7e446c5cc7f288fbe4d67.jpeg\")
Sydney teen Arlo Temple, 17, has been learning the art of shoemaking at Sydney School of Footwear for three years.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n![\"Teenage](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/837b58f1a62e5a52b6bf1b73b63a486581de1e9e.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Arlo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26f5b6b22df2044917e2ece61141ecc71572d629.jpeg\")
Arlo performs upper stitching as he learns to make sneakers.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n![\"Olive\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2565ed76270c5ecd590fcb0266d40cef3b069b24.jpeg\")
Olive\u2019s flip phone, captured on a polaroid.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n
![\"Olive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/019515ad60321b4021c7acc7e621e4e00ba83d0b.jpeg\")
Olive Berlach, as captured by Audrey Richardson on polaroids.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n