US Teens Back Gender Equality, But Online Harm Holds Them Back

Gender equality has the backing of more than nine in ten American teenagers, according to a new national survey from Plan International USA — but most of those young people say they do not see gender equality in practice yet, and toxic online spaces, body-image pressure and the fear of being judged are holding them back.

The study, titled "Listening to U.S. Adolescents on Gender & Equality," surveyed more than a thousand U.S. youths aged ten to nineteen and was conducted by the nonpartisan research firm PerryUndem, with a margin of error of about three and a half percentage points, according to Plan International USA. Released this week, it is the organization's first update on adolescent attitudes toward gender equality since its 2018 research.

The topline result reads like a mandate. But the detail paints a more complicated picture: about two in five older girls rated their mental health poorly, compared with one in four older boys, and more than a third of older girls on social media said they had experienced online sexual harassment, according to the study.

Gender equality has support, but teens feel they can't be themselves

Asked to rank their priorities, young people put living authentically and feeling at peace at the top — each chosen by about three in four respondents — while marriage and parenthood ranked far lower, at roughly a third and less than a third respectively. The takeaway is generational: today's teens are less interested in checking traditional life boxes than in simply getting to be who they are.

That desire to be authentic collides with daily digital life. Nearly eight in ten adolescents said being their authentic selves matters, yet half of the girls and more than a third of the boys said they had chosen not to share their opinions online because they feared negative comments or backlash. Support for gender equality, in other words, is not translating into voice.

Body-image pressure is part of the same squeeze. Plan International USA frames toxic feeds, appearance pressure and fear of judgment as a combined drag on young people's wellbeing — one that lands hardest on girls but is increasingly felt across genders, according to the release. The result is a generation that believes in gender equality in principle while navigating an environment that punishes them for living it.

Trust, though, is in short supply. More than six in ten teens said they distrust social media companies to take sexual harassment and assault seriously, while almost three quarters said the same about government — a striking verdict from a generation that lives much of its social life online. South Africa's government has made a similar case: that keeping kids safe online should not be a kid's job.

Civic ambition is slipping while gender equality support holds

Perhaps the most sobering trend is civic. The share of young people who said they had considered running for elected office slid from about a third in 2018 to roughly a fifth in 2026 — a twelve-point drop that suggests teens see public life as less, not more, welcoming than the generation surveyed eight years ago.

That comparison matters because this survey is designed as a sequel. Plan International USA's 2018 study, "The State of Gender Equality for U.S. Adolescents," set the baseline; the 2026 follow-up was commissioned specifically to measure how young people are internalizing inequality, experiencing online environments and shaping their ambitions. On belief, little has moved. On willingness to step forward publicly, the needle has moved backward.

"It is a threat not just to youth today but also to the future of our democracy," Shanna Marzilli, president and CEO of Plan International USA, said in the release. "This study is a wake-up call, and it's telling us we must do better," she added.

The self-censorship finding carries a counterpoint worth sitting with: boys are stepping back too. More than a third of boys said they had held back their opinions online for fear of backlash — meaning the silencing effect is not a girls-only story. Gender equality has broad, cross-gender support among teens; what it lacks is a public square where young people of any gender feel safe enough to say so.

A sports field may double as a leadership pipeline

One bright spot in the data involves athletics. Girls who play team sports were more likely to view themselves as leaders, to consider political leadership and to report better mental health than girls who did not. Yet participation fades with age — only about two in five girls aged fourteen to nineteen play team sports, compared with half of boys.

To respond, Plan International USA is relaunching its global movement Because I Am a Girl, active from 2012 to 2018, on International Day of the Girl 2026, with the stated aim of locking in gains for girls that overlapping crises — from the pandemic to surging global conflict — have put at risk, according to Plan International USA. The organization says the movement supports girls' safety, education and ability to shape their own lives. Read more of our coverage at Social Justice.

For a generation that overwhelmingly wants gender equality, the barrier is no longer belief. It is the safety to speak, the confidence to be seen, and a public life that feels worth entering.