As a diversity and inclusion practitioner, I am often asked by people aren’t you being stereotypical by talking about people in generational categories. I tell them I am but in a positive way. The only approach to talk about the complexity of generational differences is within a framework that lumps people into generational cohorts. Otherwise, we have nothing to compare.

I also remind folks there are exceptions to these rules and for better or worse, generational distinctions are not the only core values that define who we are as unique human beings.

If just talking about generational differences is hard enough, things just got messier on the generational battlefield. A new category of generational labels has emerged not from some generational thought leader in an academic ivory tower but from the members of that generational grouping themselves-Xennials.

A Xennial is a person sandwiched between Gen X’ers and Millennials. They feel too young to be a Gen X’er and too old to be a Millennial. Most of them were born between 1977-83 with the advent of the original Star Wars trilogy. They are familiar with the computer games Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego. They had a non-digital childhood and a digital adulthood. They can program a video home system and operate a digital vertical disc player. In high school, they walked around with pagers not cell phones. They are comfortable in the world of dialup modems as well as broadband internet. They still know how to use a pay phone. They can find a book in a library using the card catalogue. The first Apple they ever touched was a computer. As one Xennial put it, they are financially secure enough to buy avocados for their favorite dish but not quite ready to put their culinary masterpiece on Instagram.

They carry around within them the glass half empty pessimism of Gen X’ers and the glass half full optimism of Millennials. They are what some in the literature refer to as a micro-generation; tweeners, cuspers or second wavers who represent values of multiple generations.

What to do with this new generation that has been among us all the time. Recognize and embrace their differences to understand them the best we can; even if their understanding of themselves is still evolving.