Why Gen Z are going teetotal - they've seen their parents' drinking habits and decided they don’t want to be the same By Jo Macfarlane and Rebecca Whittaker Published: 11:51, 7 July 2024 | Updated: 11:51, 7 July 2024 e-mail View comments When Henry Thornton-Izzard’s younger sister Camille turned 18 last month, the family went to a restaurant for a celebratory lunch. Handed glasses of champagne to toast the birthday girl, Henry’s mother Sara Thornton was ‘flummoxed’ when 19-year-old Henry – who, despite his tender years is a dedicated teetotaller – immediately handed his own glass back to the waitress. ‘I thought, “Can’t you at least have a sip and toast your sister?” a bemused Sara, 49, says.
‘Also, never give a glass of champagne back when I’m in the room – I’d have happily drunk it myself.’ It’s an amusing anecdote which perfectly illustrates a very modern generational divide being played out in families across Britain – while parents such as BBC presenter Sara and her husband Jack Izzard enjoy a tipple to relax or to socialise, Henry is part of a growing cohort of young adults who choose not to drink at all. Sara Thornton with her son Henry Thornton-Izzard, 19, who says that alcohol doesn't appeal to him and he can have fun without it In what experts are describing as a ‘hugely significant cultural shift’, the latest statistics suggest one in three under-25s, known as ‘Gen Z’, are shunning alcohol completely, while the rest are d.
