Being a Teenager isn’t like being a lepor, and neither is being any other age. Not all people go through the exact same difficulties that a majority of their peers might. You could ask, “What do troubled teens find so overwhelming about being their age?” but just say “teenagers” in general…. and you’re talking out of your ass. Personally, the things that pissed me off as a teenager are still the sort of things that piss me off now. Most of it stemmed from not having a say in what my day-time life consisted of for ten months of every year of my life and being talked down to as if I were some sort of autistic moron who couldn’t make a decision for his own good if it smacked him upside the head. Being a teenager taught me that trusting a person with power is like punching yourself in the face. But like I said, not all teenagers are the same. Other things different teenagers may view as afflictions are:

-teasing or hazing from classmates -tedious homework assignments -getting cut from a sports team or cheerleading squad -wearing clothes that make you stick out because you come from a poor family -wearing really thick glasses and taking advance placement classes -disloyalty of cheating boyfriends and girlfriends -being smart enough to be in regular classes, but have a.d.d. bad enough to make you appear stupid -insensitive parents with unruly guidelines -strict teachers who favor students who suck up -etc. -etc.

But then there are also teenagers with happy lives and skip-to-my lou, sunshiney days. They use their friends, hobbies and interests to keep themselves occupied while they progress through life. Some of them create intimate relationships that last up through college and then into marriage. Some have extremely rich parents who buy them their every mind’s desire and live admidst the lap of luxury. Some get home schooled and honor their loving parents by attending the same church every weekend and never going out at night.

You will never love like you loved in your youth. You will never again trust like you trusted in your youth. You will never again believe in things with as much conviction. Never again in your life with someone hurt your feeling as much. Why? Because we get older, we learn we become jaded and cynical. Being a teenager in the hardest stage in life. You not young enough to be sheltered from the real world anymore. And you don’t know enough about life yet. How any of us make it is a mystery to me.

has its problems and its difficulties. We are given the maturity to deal with those problems and difficulties as they arrive. Teens have it hard for their life experience and for their maturity. That is my opinion.

When I was a teenager I didn’t have half the problems people said I have. I feel that the problems teenagers think they have are perceived problems, not actual problems.

Because first of all you have a school that forces you to have certain beliefs and if you don’t agree with the school than you get in bother for raising a fuss. This tends to be the time in your life where your opinions are the strongest so this is obviously bad. Secondly, you are changing. Are you an adult? Are you a kid? Ok- really somewhere in between but that means conflict as to how you should feel. Parents want to dominate you but at the same time you need them for stuff. Thirdly, other teenagers. Yes- the annoying shitheads that have either been indoctrinated by adults or are so full of their own self worth that they decide to bully you. Since they’re ‘only kids’ physical stuff is ignored by adults- I can’t see that happening in a grown up environment. This is just MY experience. I know kids have depression and stuff so maybe they can discuss that. But that’s my experience.

My belief on this subject is pretty simple; we’re new at this whole thing. 15-19 years is not a long time to be alive, especially when someone usually only becomes aware of the true concept of death between 10-13(my experiences at least) and we have limited experiences in everything. It’s like starting a new job, or going to school for something new. At first it’s hard to do because you don’t really know anything about it and as you go through the steps of it, you learn and it usually becomes easier. So is life. Teenagers have problems because they are young, adults have problems because they aren’t young, it’s not something that I find hard to understand, not when thinking about it like that at least. It’s not really fair to say that one age group has it harder than another, teens have discrimination by adults to fight against, adults have discrimination from teens to fight against.

(I am currently a teenager) It doesn’t begin or end at the teenage level. You have a problem when you get cought stealing a cookie when you are nine and you have a problem when your medication runs out when your 93. I believe the steryotype for teenagers comes from our usual type of problems. More relationship based, angstish problems. My theory on it: the emotions we begin to feel now are the extremes of human feeling, they are like a wine tasted for the first time. At first we dont take the small descreet sips of the experianced wine taster, we guzzle it down, and we cant handle it. So to sum this up, really the problems that we face in life are about the same in difficulty at all points, just at the teenage level we are less experianced and prepared to handle them, so it seems like it is harder.

it is because we are immediately discriminated against because of our lokks or just because we are a teen. business owner immediately look at us and catagorize us even if we are not bad…we get the wrap that other teens creat for us and it is hard to get over it, people just don’t understand us, i mean yes it i easy but with learning so many new skills in a few years it is hard.

_Ash

when we were children we wanted to be an adult thinking it would be better.now that we are adults some wish they could do childhood again. both sides have the same share of problems. some of the problems are the same either way. life as a whole has its share of ups and downs.

Because of all the peer pressure. I am just in my last year of being a teen. I don’t listen to those who pressure me of taking drugs or such, because I know it will only ruin my life, but the people who pressure have been pressured, but they wanted to take the risk, because the pressure was too strong, and many people were already doing it. A teen usually starts their problems, because of alcohol… well that’s what I heard anyways.

I agree with everyones concepts on why people say being a teenager is hard, but despite this I can’t help feeling that we just need to enjoy this time of our lives! Of course we’ve got pressure from school and home but what other time in our lives can we spend being young? And anyway, who knows, maybe anytime point in our life is equally hard but we just learn to put up and shut up.

I’m guessing that being a teenager will be one of the hardest times emotionally, but I do not know yet as I have not been an adult for very long. Now, I don’t think that the problems that arise in teenage years should be considered big problems but you have to think about who has the problems.

Think about the stage of life where you are a baby. Do you have problems? Yes. Are they significant to you? No. You do not have the mind capacity to understand your problems. This seems to last up until the time where you are just getting into your teenage years. At that point, teens will tend to think they have a good perspective of what life is, but they really do not. They think their problems are larger than they actually are, thus they are harder on the teens than they should be. A break-up, for example, could be devastating to a teen, while adults know that teen relationships are nothing special (in most cases, anyways). A bad grade on a test may seem like the world has ended to a teen, but an adult will see that it is just one grade and it will not affect the teen’s life that much. A teen will tend to blow the problem out of proportion, thus it is harder on them. That is why it is hard being a teen.

But so is life.

I think perhaps many teenagers are under the impression that—even if they’ve had some messed up times in life—that things might still work out for the best. That in spite of it all, they’re relatively invinvible and can run or fight their way through any problem and still come out strong and unscathed. It’s this realization period and confusion of finding who you truly are that can be so hard.

Being a teenager is hard because you're expected to act like a mature, responsible, adult, but you're still not tursted to do things that adults can do such a drink alcohol or sign a contract.

Do you want to know why being a teenager is so hard? Here it is, being a teenager is like holding a live wire. You have all this energy and all these emotions raging through your head that you can't seem to control. To make matters worse you hear about all these wars and rampant diseases, that no one will ever bother to explain, and your parents wail about how lazy you are, and bore you with stories of their youth. Being young sucks, cuz you're always reminded that it doesn't last.

Being a teenager is hard because that is when many of your facades about life begin to break down. The problems that you used to have seem trivial, just as your teenage problems do as you get older. I currently am a teenager and I deal with many of the typical teenage problems (saying no to sex, drugs, death, and just dealing). I believe it all has to do with the mind and how we were raised, so all teenage problems will not be the same.

It is during our teenage years that the things that our parents (hopefully) have taught us will actually begin to make sense. Like actually figuring out that “Look before you leap” doesn’t apply to puddles. While common sense may tell you that, there is nothing like experiencing first hand an ordeal where you must actually look, and think about what you’re doing before you do it.

You get so many new feelings, choices, responsibilities that it gets hard to bare them all without changing somehow. This is your first time having to deal with the death of someone you have known for 15-16 years, your first time actually experiencing the fuzzy-non thinking feeling that clouds your judgment when you are with your boy/girlfriend and making those choices is hard. Because you know what people tell you to do but in a society so messed up, where the majority of things that are done are wrong can the majority of people actually be right? You don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and you don’t want to put your problems on anyone else…

But who can you turn to? Someone who won’t judge you, look at you funny, or think of you differently. Most of the time, you can’t even think of anybody except for your friends and if they have problems of their own why put yours on them? So you just deal with it yourself and that is why it is hard for many/most teenagers. That’s why they go through the angst/moodiness/crankiness/wit because their trying to deal with things in their own way, on their own time because everyone else has their own things to deal with and if their dealing why can’t you?

Just the words from a fifteen year old, African-American, female who thinks she threw too much of herself and her friends into this piece. ^_^’

I'll tell you exactly why being a teenager is hard for me, at least. Because nobody will take me seriously. I'll be 18 next month, and yes 18 can be considered a stepping stone. But the problem is, even though I'm young ever since I knew how to talk I questioned. And after I starting questioning I started thinking. There are so many things going on in my head that are valid points that would actually help in a lot of situations. Every time I try to let my thoughts be heard.. I'm ridiculed. According to them, after all.. I am only JUST a teenager. It must be impossible for me to think up logical reasoning, a valid solution or an interesting debate because I am only a teenager. If the people who close off their minds to us would open them up, talk to us, and see what we really do have to say then there would be a lot less of stereotyping and judging. So to sum it up, the reason it's so hard for me to be a teenager: outside ignorance.