'Healthcare professional' has dethroned 'influencer' as the dream career for young adults

Influencer, YouTuber, content creator. In caller years, these person been the apical answers to the age-old question: "What do you want to beryllium erstwhile you turn up?"

That dream mightiness beryllium losing immoderate of its luster.

A caller study of American teens and young adults recovered that aesculapian and healthcare careers came retired ever-so-slightly connected apical of becoming a creator and influencer.

Clothing marque PacSun and analytics institution GlobalData surveyed much than 6,000 US teens and young adults ages 11 to 24. The study asked which careers respondents were willing successful pursuing, and they could take aggregate profession paths.

Last year, PacSun's study recovered that the influencer profession was the apical prime (22.2%), while aesculapian careers came successful 2nd (19.4%). In 2026, however, influencer declined to 18.8%, somewhat down healthcare astatine 19%.

Healthcare careers are seeing wide growth. Jobs from caregiver practitioners to psychiatric technicians could witnesser a boom successful the adjacent decade, according to a caller occupation projections study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Is the influencer dream fading?

Fancy trips, free things, and millions of fans — conscionable for posting to societal media? From the outside, the influencer manner tin look for illustration a dream travel true.

However, being an influencer is yet a job, whether it's a full-time gig aliases a broadside hustle. Like galore jobs successful the existent economy, there's plentifulness of uncertainty surrounding it.

For one, it's getting harder to make it large arsenic a creator, arsenic the virality jackpot grows much competitory successful a saturated space. Influencers successful the US are expected to gain complete $21 cardinal from marque deals and level gross successful 2026, according to Business Insider sister institution EMARKETER. However, an influx of influencers astatine the little extremity of the marketplace has increased income inequality successful the creator economy.

Meanwhile, platforms for illustration YouTube are making it tougher to suffice for monetization programs and rate out. Then there's the looming threat of AI.

Social media, broadly, is besides successful the throes of a PR nightmare.

Headline-making kid information and teen addiction lawsuits are shaping really a procreation views the societal media apps galore usage each day. In 2025, Pew Research Center recovered that astir half of teens (48%) said societal media has a "mostly antagonistic effect connected group their age."

There's an moreover bigger worry hanging overhead for Gen Z and Gen Alpha — and that's the job marketplace writ large. PacSun's study showed a diminution successful liking crossed each occupation categories, including art, fashion, skilled trades, tech, and entrepreneurship.

The 1 class that had an uptick: "Not judge yet."