Kidult Phenomenon Moves to Build Young Leaders

About 400 youth from across the county ascended to a Manhattan hotel for workshops, speeches and one-on-on advice sessions that offered guidance on careers, education and success.

By Christopher Windham

Spurred by technology, today’s youth are exhibiting more adult-like behavior than previous generations. To help cultivate this growing group of young people, hip-hop producer/artist Pharrell Williams recently launched an online community designed to speak directly to such teenagers.

Kidult.com features edited and user-generated content covering current events, politics, science, the environment, technology, health, gaming, fashion and entertainment. The site was launched by Williams and co-founder Mimi Valdes, the former editor-in-chief of Vibe and Latina magazines.

Williams is the noted member of production duo The Neptunes and the alternative rock trio N.E.R.D. For over a decade, The Neptunes have been the go-to producers for such artists as Justin Timberlake, Usher, Jay-Z, Kelis and Britney Spears.

To introduce these “kidults” to successful professionals in a variety of fields, Kidult this past summer hosted its first Kidult Youth Leadership conference in New York.

About 400 youth from across the county ascended to a Manhattan hotel for workshops, speeches and one-on-on advice sessions that offered guidance on careers, education and success. Guest speakers included a roster of entrepreneurs, educators, marketing executives, media veterans and other professionals.

Kidult is a portmanteau coined by Williams. It generally refers to young people aged 14-21, whose accelerated adult behavior includes early career planning or deferred enjoyment. Most sociologists would place the kidults among members of Generation Y or the “Net Generation.”

At the conference Williams spoke of his early maturity and how he longed for a similar community that supported his vision as teenager. “When I was a kid, most people my age didn’t “get “me,” he said in a letter to the kidults. “I enjoyed talking to adults, and I’m willing to bet it’s the same way for a lot of you.”

Despite the advancement in areas of adulthood, kidults or others with accelerated adolescence could sometimes lack the social and personal skills that are key to successful professional relationships, sociologists say.

The Kidult Youth Leadership Conference was designed to offer the teenagers a healthy balance between interpersonal and professional skills. Program topics ranged from “Finding Your True Passion,” where the kidults learned how to discover their passion to decide on an appropriate career, to the “How to Change the World in 90 Days” session, which guided the kidults on how to launch and manage an organization. Other sessions covered personal branding-building, time management and life coaching.

To reward the students for a busy day of activities, the conference featured a showcase featuring comedian Damien Lemon and music from Williams. Instead of performing on stage, Williams sung and danced amid dozens of screaming teenagers on the ballroom floor as if it was prom night.

As DJ Jus Ske, Williams’ personal deejay, played a complication of the producer’s hits, including Nelly’s “Hot in Herre,” Jay-Z’s “I Just Wanna Love You,” and “Frontin,” the crowd sang along until Pharrell hit the stage, thanking the kidults for attending and carrying out his vision for the conference.