In 2022, We Are Family launched an international panel of tweens which they call their ‘Tween Council’. This panel allows us to quickly and easily gather in depth responses to some of the most important topics and questions we have about tweens. 

Our tweens are 7-12 years old, a mix of boys and girls, and are from 7 different countries - UK, USA, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Singapore.

This research was conducted in Q3 2022 and looked at how tweens all over the world think about food - something everyone consumes everyday but the landscape of it is constantly evolving. 

Through online discussions we gathered hours of video footage of children sharing their thoughts and opinions on food. 

Specifically, we wanted to understand more about - 

  • What do tweens like or don’t like to eat in different countries?
  • What do lunchtime meals look like for tweens? At home or at school?
  • What influence do tweens have over the food they eat?
  • How independent are tweens in the kitchen? 
  • What do tweens think about healthy eating?
  • What are their thoughts on sustainable food? Do they understand what that means?
  • How tweens think food consumption might change in the next 50 years

We found 7 key insight areas, which are listed here - 

  1. It’s a melting pot - The local and international influences on food consumption 
  2. Tweenfluence - The influence tweens have over the shopping list, and the different meal times from breakfast to dinner and all the snacks in between 
  3. Lunch O’clock - The variety of lunchtime meals is vast and where kids are eating it varies between markets
  4. Cooking skills - Cooking skills increase as tweens get older, but some markets are still a bit more independent than others
  5. Holistic approach to health - Tweens believe everything in moderation but they also know what to eat more or less of in order to be healthier 
  6. Tweens and their foodprint - Tweens are very aware that some foods are harmful to the environment but are they willing to change their eating habits because of this?
  7. Future of food - Tweens got very creative when thinking about how food consumption might change in the future…

To see the results of this research in much more detail please get in touch via hellouk@we-are-family.net and we’d be happy to share!

Further articles