Unfairly Stereotyping Teenagers

Selfie-obsessed, eye-rolling, Smart-mouthed, back-talking, living in their own world teenagers. Aren’t you sick and tired of the clichéd way teenagers are constantly being portrayed? Most adults do not fathom that being a teenager is rough. Teenagers experience many stressful challenges or struggles in this period of their life such as being trapped between childhood and adulthood. They often cope with those challenges in different ways. Adults tend to dedicate all their focus to the more negative and bleak coping mechanisms such as performing poorly in school, doing drugs, and other risky behaviors. However, adults take no notice of teens who demonstrate healthy coping mechanisms. Therefore, the actions of a few eventually became a norm, which ultimately laid out the “teenage stereotype.” This view on all teens is tremendously biased and irrational to the immense amount of teens who work hard to overcome their struggles. In my opinion, teens are relentlessly and unfairly stereotyped as the rebellious ones. However, they are commonly misjudged as they are creative and optimistic.

Each teenager is as intelligent as the other, we all think creatively, outside the box, and critically. Yeah, we sometimes use it to sneak out of class, to get out of chores and homework however, it regularly comes in handy for much more than just that. Many teens channel their creativity towards more productive ends such as artwork, problem-solving, movements of empowerment, and much more. What teens devote their main focus to isn’t necessarily what parents want them to focus on but, sportspeople, computer geeks, and entrepreneurial teens have accomplished outstanding things that adults struggle to achieve using only their imagination. Many of today’s most influential characters rose to fame when they were only teens struggling to keep up with school work and who avoided rebelling and fooling around. For instance, Greta Thunberg is one of the world’s most loud, heard, and well-spoken 16 year old. She is a Swedish environmental activist focused on the risks that were brought upon by climate change. When Thunberg was only 15, she took time off of school to demonstrate outside of the Swedish congress, holding up a sign calling for stronger climate action. As much as adults will dodge and try to deny it, teenagers are indeed the leaders of tomorrow. They should be recognized and acknowledged for what they do, all their backbreaking work and achievements should not be taken for granted and being put down stereotyping them as ignorant, rebellious, and free-spirited.

Teenagers look at life with their own particular view, they think of life as a new chapter, a fresh start, something that’s about to begin. they are usually full of hope, motivation, and optimism as they start to venture the world, maturing, and thinking differently. Recall that teenagers are at the stage between childhood and adulthood. They start planning their future and taking things seriously nonetheless, they still hold on to their fun and let loose alter ego. Teens are the most optimistic breed, they start discovering their passions, envisioning their families, prosperity, and most dominant to them which is their happiness. Many young influencers strive to spread optimism especially throughout the last decade, with the advancements of technology, activists and protesters have been decisively speaking their truth and stating their points of views. For example, Rowan Blanchard is well known for her role as Riley in Disney’s girls meets world however, she insists that she uses her huge platform to speak up about issues that concern her and many of her supporters. She generally speaks up about feminism, political activism, and human rights. Rowan was only 15 when she decided to take advantage of her platforms and talk about global issues as she is hopeful for a better future. This goes to prove that teenagers are much more than just reckless human beings who often love to play around.

Many people argue that the teen’s creativity and optimism aren’t important enough to cover up for their troublesome behaviors, however, there is indeed a scientific explanation as to how teens aren’t fully responsible or in control over what they might do or say. Reaffirming that not all teenagers find themselves in rebellious situations, those who don’t have fully matured and have disciplines and morals that they stick to. As I’ve mentioned, teenagers are constantly under a lot of pressure. Coping mechanisms differ from one person to another. There are those who cope by performing poorly in school and mostly rebelling (doing drugs, smoking, using foul language or profanity, etc.) It is scientifically proven that the reasoning as to why some teens behave this way is because as teens become more independent, they lack emotional maturity that they need to make reasonable and logical decisions. The parts of the brain that control the decision making and impulse control haven’t fully developed at that age range, the integration of those two factors lead to those impulsive decisions that some teens take. This goes to show that teens who do not oblige and who disobey aren’t under full control of their actions. In addition, since teens haven’t fully matured they tend to copy what others do especially when It comes to bad behavior. Exposure to aggressive behavior, profanity, sulking, pessimistic people are some of the most dominant contributing factors. There is a great deal of teenagers that work hard and strive to achieve their goals and avoid any setbacks that come their way and push them away from achieving their goals. As to the other bunch, they need more time to fully develop and mature.

Parents all around the world have their mindset that education is the only path to success. This is the situation that is happening throughout much of Asia. Parental demands, fear of failure, competition and pride are what’s fueling Asia’s academic expansion or ascension. In Asia, there is a belief that the higher education system will push the economy forward which is always on the top of the list of a country’s goals. Kau Yan, a fifth-grader said, “If I study hard and have good marks, I can go to some good schools and I can have good work to do.' This is the typical mindset across Asia, it isn’t about whether a person would or wouldn’t attend college, it’s a matter of where they’re attending and for how long. Similarly, a majority of Arab and European parents set very high expectations for their teenagers to fulfill. Arab teens are pushed and pressured to do well in school. They are expected to go to the best schools, be employed at the best and high paying jobs, and plan out a whole future at such a young age. Dr. Mishaal Al-Oqail, a mental health consultant in the Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University, said 67% of medical students suffer from stress, he says that this tension is most likely to be caused by the stress of workload as well as high expectations of families in the performance of their children. According to an article published by Saudi Gazette, it states “the students' stress level goes up when they score low marks compared to other students, especially relatives.” Parents frequently compare their kids with other students which creates depression and over-thinking. How Arab teens are being standardized is exceedingly biased of parents, students in other countries such as Finland do not experience such pressure that is being applied by their guardians. On international tests, Finnish students regularly rank the highest in reading, math, and science. Finns do this without overloading students with endless hours of homework or turning school into mindless drudgery. Finnish parents do not set high expectations for their kids to achieve on their own since the educational system has considered every little detail when it comes to education. Finland’s public schools all concentrate on making sure that every student achieves basic proficiency in the subjects that they study. Finnish children don’t start school until they are 7 years old, and once they’re in school they get almost triple the amount of recess time as Arab students. Finnish students are rarely assigned homework until high school and they almost never take standardized tests. Finns believe that less is more. when it comes to education, patience, and focusing on problem-solving are much more important than listening to lectures, mindless test preparations, and memorization of information that students will most likely forget as soon as they leave the exam room. Finnish parents completely rely on and trust Finland’s educational system and have nothing to worry about therefore, students are much more less pressured by parents, teachers, and adults in general.

As I have expressed in my article, I still stand with my opinion that teens are relentlessly and unfairly stereotyped as the rebellious breed. However, they are commonly misjudged as they are creative and optimistic. It is important to be fair rather than judging and stereotyping or being injustice towards large groups of people. In a sense, if you are fair to others, you are also. Being fair to yourself. Being continuously fair summons situations into your life where people will treat you correspondingly. Thus, being fair is a key element to prevail in fairness in our community. We all have to have fair opinions, points of views, actions, and decisions to partially attain a “utopia” like community. Adults must stop stereotyping all teens. Justice for teens!