Now, I am simply one teenage girl from England, but I am sure teenagers around the world must be fairly similar. As teenagers, we are expected to be overly-emotional, hormones raging wildly, shallow, superficial and, at least here in England, be the cause of most problems in society today. Is it just me, or does everyone else think this massively unfair?
I understand how people come up with this hormones thing, and I understand that it does affect our moods. However, people don’t seem to understand that, despite this, some of us are able to be happy, sensible, do our school work, have good friends (and yes, fall in love – but let’s not get into that!)
Adults often say ‘I know what its like to be your age,’ and yes they know what it is like to be our age, but they don’t know what it’s like to be our age, in 2009/10. It is so different to what it was like when they were younger, society has changed, something they are willing to admit, yet they are not willing to admit that things could be different for us than to what it was for them. We have different pressures, different worries. I’m not saying harder, or worse, because I couldn’t possibly know, because I didn’t experience it, just like they are not experiencing what we are.
As for being seen as the cause of most problems, a prime example is my mother. Normally a fair, level-headed woman. The other day we were in the car coming back from football (as in soccer!) and we saw some police riot vans. I said nothing, just ignored them. My mum, however, made the comment, ‘well, here we go, it’s probably a bunch of teenagers getting into a fight because of the result’ (we won!) Despite my protest, she was unable to see my way of thinking, that it could just as easily be 40 year old uber-fans getting into fights.
Another example is I was walking down the street of my town with five friends, all teenagers. We weren’t being particularly loud or intimidating. We weren’t taking up a lot of room on the street. But, still, an elderly couple looked at us, one said something to the other, and they walked across to the other side of the street.
What I am not trying to do here is rant, although I don’t feel I am being very successful. I am simply trying to point out that the few ‘bad’ teenagers there are out there have been mistaken for the majority, giving those of us who are perfectly capable of being good people, which is the majority of us, a bad name. The point of my writing this is to bring it to the attention of my fellow teenagers across the world and to ask them if they feel the same, and if they do, to stand up against it. If you hear a comment that illustrates my previous points, then question it. I am not saying be rude or even have an argument. That would just prove their point for them. Simply question their reasons for that statement, and try to explain that teenagers aren’t all like that, and even give examples, for instance your or a friends recent success in something, or even if you helped a stranger because their shopping bag split and their shopping went all over the path, and you were the only one to help. (That was an example, I am not saying lie!)
I am not an optimist, however, I believe, the more people we convince of teenagers ‘innocence’ so to speak, the less likely we are to be judged. We also need to make sure that when we are adults, we look back on our experience and make sure we don’t go down the path of hypocrisy. If we stand together, across the world, we should be able to begin to strip the world of this judgement, which is something, we, the next generation, deserve.