If you were to come across 27-year-old photographer Olivia Rose and her friends on a midweek night out, it would be difficult to distinguish them from any other group of young women from the past decade. Their conversations would be just as raucous, covering well-trodden ground – relationships, work, weekend plans – and they’d have the same laissez-faire attitude to being out on a Wednesday night.
But if you look really closely, past the laughing and the banter, you’ll see that it’s not a heady mix of pinot grigio and vodka tonics – or any of the usual behind-the-bar culprits – that are fuelling the excitement, because Olivia and her friends don’t drink alcohol. And it’s not as though they’re bound by religion or are recovering addicts, it’s just that drinking is not part of their social repertoire.
Thanks to this lifestyle choice, Olivia will be back at a reasonable hour to catch up on emails and prep lunch for the next day. She is part of a growing number of 20-somethings who really, genuinely, haven’t ever given alcohol a second thought.
Such committed non-drinking is a marked step away from previous generations, when partaking in an after-work glass of wine (followed by a G&T chaser) was an unspoken rule, and weekends meant sessions of steady alcohol consumption, not Ashram yoga. But it’s a movement that’s gaining momentum.
According to the latest NHS research, just half of 16 to 24-year-olds reported drinking in the past week – down from 71% in 1998. A 2014 poll by Channel 4 News also found that only 1% of 16 to 24-year-olds drink every night of the week, compared with 8% of 45 to 54-year olds. It also showed that a quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds consider themselves teetotal, along with 19% of the UK’s entire female population. The younger generation cited the effects of drinking on their health, fitness and judgment as the main reasons for steering clear.
For anyone who’s worked in or attended A&E at 2am on a Friday night, this trend towards abstinence is to be celebrated. A 2014 Cardiff University report showed that accident and emergency departments saw a 12% fall in injuries from violent crime in 2013, which is believed to be thanks to a decline in alcohol consumption.
Author of the report, Professor Jonathan Shepherd, backed up the findings: “Binge drinking has become less frequent, and the proportion of youth who don’t drink alcohol at all has risen sharply. Also, after decades in which alcohol became more affordable, since 2008 it has become less [so].”
Alcohol, it would appear, is no longer so deeply woven into UK lifestyles. Contrary to the popular belief that Britain’s youth is riddled with a toxic drinking culture, it seems this new sobriety is an increasingly popular option for young, successful women across the country. But is their dismissive approach to alcohol starting to affect the older generations?

Calling time

As unthinkable as it might seem to those in their mid-30s and above – a generation who prided themselves on their ability to drink from midday to midnight with little more than a bowl of peanuts for support – Generation Y couldn’t be happier with their decision to stay alcohol-free.
“I haven’t had more than a couple of sips of champagne in seven years,” says Olivia. “I just don’t buy into the idea that alcohol is an essential ingredient to unwind or have a good time. I tried drinking when I was younger, but I hated being drunk and my hangovers were horrendous. These days I don’t have time to spend two days hungover, so why bother?”
And you can’t argue with that. But what hasn’t been explored is the possibility that one motivator behind this new abstinence could be the behaviour of those who, a couple of decades ago, so wholeheartedly embraced heavy drinking as a standard activity. Take Sarah Peterson (whose name has been changed because she doesn’t want to upset her father), 22, who will only drink when she goes out with friends, and it’ll be a couple of gin and tonics at that. “My dad has always drunk heavily, usually Stella Artois. He’s 50 now, but even at his brother’s wedding three years ago he was doing all the things people do at uni – tying a tie around his head, sliding across the dancefloor, getting emotional and telling me how much he loves me, which he never does when he’s sober,” she laughs. “I’ve had that all my life, so subconsciously I guess I don’t drink because of dad. In my mind, it’s better not to start than end up behaving in such an unattractive manner.”
And she has a point. Think back to your first forays with alcohol. Were you 13? 14? In a park? At a school disco or parents’ party? You didn’t like the taste; you drank because it’s what everyone else did. So you found sugary drinks you could stomach – Smirnoff Ice, Hooch – and, subconsciously, learning to enjoy alcohol came hand-in-hand with learning how to act in non-school situations. Just as you taught yourself to like olives, you taught yourself to like wine, beer – even whisky. Yet, if all you’re witnessing during those tender years is your parents drinking and misbehaving, it’s hardly teenage rebellion to follow suit. Why would you put in all that effort learning to like something that makes you look foolish?
Today, for a lot of young women, financial pressures have also contributed to the decision to lay off the alcohol. If a glass of pub wine costs upwards of £6, a couple of drinks a night (plus snacks and bacon sarnies in the morning to stave off the hangovers) could set you back £100 a week. For those struggling to get by (a 2012 study showed that the average 25-year-old woman in the UK earns £14k a year), drinking alcohol is just not an option. “None of my friends have much money left over at the end of the month,” explains 24-year-old PR intern Nicole Asher. “Spending a fortune on a night out is no longer the matter of pride it once was.”
But it’s not just financial prudence spurring this revolution. Lucy Rocca, the 39-year-old founder of Soberistas, a social network for women with alcohol dependency issues, says she was compelled to launch the website in November 2012 after realising that her own drinking was out of control. Although she doesn’t believe she was an alcoholic, after 20 years of frequent binge drinking, she woke up one morning in hospital with no idea how she got there. She hasn’t drunk since.
According to Rocca, the popularity of the website, which allows women to anonymously discuss their issues with alcohol, has exploded, gaining 30,000 new members in the past two years. “Britain has always been a ‘drinking nation’ but people are beginning to question a heavy-drinking lifestyle,” she explains. “I was born in 1975, so the ladette culture hit me square in the face. I thought nothing of drinking several pints during the day, but I’m now horrified by the health impact. Western women in the Nineties were sold the idea that we could drink along with the boys, but the reality is that women’s physiology is different. We need to drink less and for a shorter length of time before we see the same physical damage.”
That’s a sobering thought in itself. But it is a fact that women are made of more fat and less water than men, meaning we end up having a higher concentration of alcohol in the blood if we drink the same amount. This ‘keeping up with the boys’ could explain why the number of women aged 35 to 54 dying as a result of alcohol-related damage doubled from 7.2 per 100,000 in 1991 to 14.8 per 100,000 in 2006. Similarly, a 2013 study from the Glasgow Centre for Population Research showed that alcohol-related deaths for women in their 30s and 40s are steadily rising.

Small changes 

Given the adverse effect alcohol has on our bodies and bank accounts, it’s no surprise the teetotal trend is starting to filter upwards. For 32-year-old writer Kelly Allen, her decision to curb her drinking came on gradually. “I still drink occasionally, but I have drastically cut down in recent years,” she explains. “I’ve become more health conscious and wasting a week’s worth of green juices and killing myself in the gym just didn’t feel worth it for the sake of a few drinks.”
It’s surely no coincidence that the explosion in cold-pressed juices and coconut water has arrived as the popularity of drinking has faded. Allen believes choosing not to drink is slowly losing its stigma. “However, I still sometimes pretend there’s vodka in my lime and soda if I don’t want to get an earful from my friends.”
So what about those of us who aren’t quite ready to jettison our wine habit? Then it’s time to think about your health says Dr Sophie Wilkinson of Kings College. “Cutting back a few drinks a week or switching to a lower percentage alternative will make a noticeable difference to how you feel and you will likely lose weight, as a large glass of white wine is the equivalent of almost 250 calories,” she says. Alcohol can increase your risk of certain cancers, too. “Cutting down helps prevent diabetes, protect cardiovascular health and reduce stress on the liver.”
In the long term, cutting back will help us be healthier and in the short term, it will make us look better too. “Alcohol is thought to deprive skin of vital nutrients leading to dull, spotty skin, as well as bloating due to water retention,” says Dr Wilkinson. “You’ll start to feel differently immediately and you’ll look much healthier by the end of week one.” Maybe a dry(er) January isn’t such a bad idea after all?

a glass a day…

Does it really keep the doctor away?

1. A 2010 French study showed that moderate drinkers have lower rates of heart disease, obesity and depression than those who don’t drink. But the authors note those who drink moderately tend to be from a higher socio-economic background and also look after other areas of their health such as nutrition and exercise.
2. A 2010 study by the Catholic University of Campobasso in Italy reported that drinking less than two drinks a day could reduce the risk of death by 18%, but only if consumed with meals.
3. According to NHS guidelines, adult women should not regularly exceed 2-3 units per day (3-4 for men). Higher risk drinking for women is defined as regularly drinking over 6 units a day (8 for men).
4. A 175ml glass of wine (depending on alcohol content) is the equivalent to 2.1 units, a pint of lager, 2 units and a 25ml shot of a spirit, 1 unit.