Teenage Trials And Tribulations By Amy Gleeson

Teenage Trials and Tribulations
Amy Gleeson discusses teenage rebellion (and why it’s not all that bad).

How often do we, as teens, hear the phrases, “back in my day…” or “when I was your age…” or anything else along those lines? On the daily, we are sentenced to the endless spiels of our elders reminiscing about the rebellious things they did when they were young. However, I guarantee you that the same people who would happily spend hours relishing in their nostalgia wouldn’t hesitate to insult today’s youth.

The teenage years are often seen as perhaps the most pivotal point in one’s life, as it is one of immense change and self-discovery. Not only are these years filled to the brim with physical and cognitive development, but also the weight of having to figure out who you are as a person. Taking this into consideration, teenage rebellion is vital at this stage in your life as it helps you to test the waters and discover just where you stand in society. So why, if the older generation is being glorified for their rebellious youth, are we being vilified for ours?

However, what the older generations choose to neglect is that not only is our generation expanding our horizons, but we’re also doing so while making smarter and safer decisions. For example, a recent survey conducted by the US federal government shows that today’s teens are behaving vastly better than their predecessors, with 24% less teens smoking cigarettes, 17.2% less teens having tried alcohol and 15.6% more teens regularly wearing seatbelts (Kliff, et al., 2016). Despite the statistics proving that we’re doing so a lot more responsibly, our elders are doing whatever they can to prevent us from doing anything that could be considered as potentially