A Youth Talks Original Report · 2026 Edition
The brands young Indian women actually love.
The Gen Z Women Brand Index maps what young Indian women love across 20 categories and 200-plus brands — more than 3,500 brand preferences in all — and what their choices reveal about how they discover, judge and fall for a brand.
A Youth Talks Original Report
The Gen Z Women Brand Index
Which brands young Indian women love, across 20 categories.
2026 Edition
Young people are spoken about a lot. Brands study them, marketers chase them — but somewhere along the way, understanding them became about following trends.
So we asked. Across twenty categories and more than 3,500 brand preferences, young Indian women told us the brands they love, the brands they trust, and how they decide. Netflix leads the entire study; new-age D2C brands have taken over skincare; and the biggest surprise is a bank.
Two words run through everything this group says about brands: quality and trust. Instagram is the whole discovery engine. And no single brand has yet earned the right to say it truly understands Gen Z women.
Inside the 2026 Edition
The Top 5 most-loved brands — in every one of the 20 categories, each with a short read on what it means.
What young women want from brands — the values behind the choices — quality and trust run far ahead of everything else.
Where brands get discovered — the platforms that drive it, and which one actually influences buying.
The winners and the closest battles — the most-loved brands overall, and the rankings decided by a whisker.
The brand playbook — what it all means for brands, plus the master Top-5 table for every category at a glance.
Methodology: findings are based on an editorial survey of young Indian women — college students aged 18–23, concentrated in Delhi-NCR. “Loved” reflects each respondent’s most-loved brand per category. An editorial property of The Youth Talks — not a sponsored report.
Frequently asked questions
Everything else you might be wondering
What is the Gen Z Women Brand Index?
It is an editorial study by The Youth Talks of which brands young Indian women actually love, across 20 categories. It is built from more than 3,500 brand preferences and ranks 200+ brands, with the Top 5 most-loved names in every category and a read on what their choices reveal about how they discover, judge and fall for a brand.
Is the report really free?
Yes. Fill in the short form and the complete PDF is emailed to you immediately, along with a direct download link. There is no charge and no obligation — it is an editorial property of The Youth Talks, not a sponsored report.
How was the research conducted?
We analysed more than 3,500 brand preferences from young Indian women — college students aged 18–23, concentrated in Delhi-NCR — asking each for her most-loved brand across all 20 categories. It is a sharp, specific portrait of urban student India; as a focused non-probability sample, results indicate sentiment within this group rather than every young woman in the country.
Which categories does the index cover?
Twenty categories of young women’s brand lives: Skincare, Makeup, Hair Care, Fashion & Apparel, Footwear, Jewellery, Food Delivery, Quick Commerce, Coffee Chains, Smartphones, E-commerce, Banking & Fintech, Streaming, Ride Hailing, Fitness & Wellness, Beauty Retail, Personal Care, Beverages, Watches & Accessories, and Travel.
Who is the index for?
CMOs, brand and consumer-insight teams, agencies, and founders building for young Indian women — anyone who needs to know not just what this audience buys, but which brands it genuinely loves, trusts and chooses.
Can we study our own brand with The Youth Talks?
Yes. We run custom brand, research, campus and employer-branding studies with the same Gen Z panel. Write to connect@theyouthtalks.com and we will get back to you personally.
Beyond the index
Want to know where your brand stands with young Indian women?
Every ranking in this book was built by listening to young Indian women first. If you’re exploring a research, campus or employer-branding partnership, we’d like to hear from you.
Talk to us — connect@theyouthtalks.com