Teenagers: Are they human too?

Sidney Martin (G8)

Published Issue 2 2021-2022

Opinion

The word teen·ag·er is described by the Oxford dictionary as “a person aged between 13 and 19 years old.” Over the past 77 years (the word was created in 1944) the word teenager has become mired in stereotypes. Today’s society believes that all teenagers are rude, dumb and do the most irresponsible things. But really adults and everyone else who are calling people between the ages 13-19 years old a stereotypical word, are the dumb and insensitive ones. Today, I am asking the community of Mulgrave school if the word teenager is still the correct word to call youth between the ages of 13-19 years old.

Today, everyone thinks girls who are within the ages of 13-19 years old or, a teenager, are described as being obsessed with fashion, scared of spiders and any other small insects, say “like” a lot, and are really rude to anyone around them. Even in the Oxford dictionary, there is an example of how a teenager would be used in a sentence. “She’s just acting like a normal teenager.” Although it doesn’t specifically say what a regular teenage girl would act like, it’s pretty clear as to what this sentence means. Boys are described as being into gaming and have no interest in spending time with there parents - girls apparently feel this way also.

Both boys and girls within the ages 13 and 19 years old all go through puberty - as we all know - which changes their emotions and this means their hormones are going 3000 kilometres per hour making them do things that they don’t mean to do or say. Since multiple generations of teenagers had emotions, this has affected how everyone else treats today’s generation of youth, making adults and others not within the “teenager” age range treat teenagers like they are dumb and irresponsible, and all the other negative words in the dictionary. This means that today’s generation of teenagers expects this treatment from everyone around them. The word teenager, and all of the people between the ages 13-19 years old, has been turned into a monster.

So next time you say “Oh she’s such a teenager,” remember that you were once a teenager, or are going to be a teenager soon, and the only reason why people or “teenagers” are this way is that:

1. People - meaning adults or anyone not the ages of 13 - 19 - are not treating teenagers the way they should be treated. Treating them like they are dumb and are obsessed with doing terrible things.

and

2. Teenagers’ hormones are going 3000 kilometres per second because that is what happens when kids go through puberty. Emotions get crossed and there are ups and down with everything, even humans.

But really, everyone should now be better than this. With that said, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and this can’t be solved overnight. I hope everyone looks at their actions towards teenagers, instead of screwing up the situation as we have for the past 77 years.