Hayley texts a teenage girl

Hayley’s first text to her stranger is “Hi, stranger. Wassuuuup!”, noting that if they get this reference (from a Budweiser commercial which ran between 1999 and 2002) it will place them in an age bracket.

Hayley’s stranger is actually a young girl, who replies with “Heyyyy!”. Hayley says that the multiple ‘Y’s and the use of lowercase makes her think that the stranger is a member of Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012).

Hayley’s next text is “Whatcha doing?” and the stranger replies “Nothing much. Jss sitting, texting” Hayley picks up on the abbreviation and now considers that the stranger might be a Boomer (born between 1946 and 1964), as this is how her mum texts.

When Hayley asks the stranger if they love Taylor Swift, they reply “Hell nooo!”, so Hayley responds with “Me neither. She’s lame. LOL”.

Hayley then asks what they are wearing, adding “in a non-sexy way”, and the stranger replies with “baggy jeans”, making Hayley think they could be Gen Alpha (born after 2013), before changing her mind to Millennial (also known as Gen Y, born between 1980 and 1994).

Hayley decides to ask if they like skinny jeans, noting that she misses them. When the stranger replies “God no”, Hayley texts back “Jokes. So lame.” When the stranger reads this, they say they think that Hayley seems old.

When Hayley asks them “Who is the cutest celeb?”, they reply “Prolly Central Fee”, but comment out loud that they don’t think Hayley will know who this is. Paul notes to Hayley that he thinks it should have read “Central Cee”. Hayley doesn’t know who they are, so asks Paul what they look like, and Paul says “quite hot”.

Hayley says she’ll text back that she likes Jason Momoa, but her phone autocorrects this to “Jason Mimosa”. This gives her the idea to ask if they like mimosas, thinking that this might reveal whether they are under the legal drinking age. When the stranger responds with “yes”, Hayley asks them if they can legally drink them. When they admit that they can’t, Hayley replies with “Naughty naughty”. She then asks if they can legally drink next year, and after receiving an affirmative response, guesses that the stranger is 17 years old.

Hayley then sits back and says that she’d felt a real connection with the girl.

Hayley guesses the correct age and earns 5 points.

(Written by JoGo and proofread by Karl Craven)