Saw this on MSN...

[author_by_night]

(Cross posted to my other LJ).

 

Ten things teen girls think about.

.............

Have these people watched five episodes of Full House, read two Sweet Valley Twins books, and a few episodes of Dawson's Creek to form their opinions?

Things I thought about when I was a teen, and/or my friends thought about, and/or things my current friends think about:

1. The war in Iraq, and whether we should be there.

2. Finding a place in this world (which, Columnists, is not always as easy as "loving yourself").

3. God, and who He is, if He even exists.

4. College.

5. Fitting in 14 hour work shifts, five school projects, soccer practice, other homework, and time for loved ones.

6. Loved ones being sent/going to Iraq.

7. Harassment.

8. Family problems.

9. Depression. (And a surprising number of teens have been affected, either by having it or knowing someone else with it, myself included).

10. Bad grades. (People who think we who failed classes all failed due to slacking need reality checks NOW).

11. Horrible teachers. (Horrible meaning Snape-like, and I'm not exaggerating, though I doubt she would ever have been a Death Eater type).

12. "The Issues", as I call them. ("Should abortion be illegal?" "Should we be in Iraq?" "When is censorship going too far?")

13. Supersitions.

14. Illness.

15. Bighead Boyfriends.

 

Yes, there are teens who think mostly about perfume, but that's not all of them. And even they often had bigger stories behind the surface. I had a friend that was many things by stereotype, yet inside, there was a girl who was simply acting out all she'd ever been taught. And she was smart in her own way - she just never got many chances to show it, because her other friends encouraged her to do the things she did. Even I can't say I always stopped her. :(

So, please, people; as someone who is only a year past being a teen, and as someone who has many teen friends that are more intelligent and sweet than some adults I know, this article ticked me off.

 

Comments

[abbers44.livejournal.com]

*reads the MSN article*

...WTF. How incredibly cliched are those 'thoughts'? The only people whose brain is consumed by those thoughts are airheaded suburban kids who don't know China from Japan.

ZNAGH. This is the kind of thing that gives teens a bad name. We are not mindless drones who think about sex and love all day. We are not all scared of what's outside our frontdoor.

*fumes* Your list is far more accurate. You should go write for them. Well, that'd be a waste of your talent, but still.

[talimeeka.livejournal.com]

My Bob. As a teen myself those are hardly the top ten things I think about. More like school, world issues, friends, morals, colleges, and career choices. Oh, and Harry Potter. ;) Not to mention that I'm extremely close with my parents and sister. I'm lucky to have friends who have the same ideals I do, and wouldn't be able to relate to that list either. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of teen girls who do think that way, but I try to avoid them.

[kit-the-brave.livejournal.com]

One of the things I love about the Quill is being able to talk to people of all different ages. It sounds like the person who wrote this would have been better off reading the Quill than reading letters to the magazine she works for... :)

[farting-nora.livejournal.com]

She obviously got all her info from letters sent to some cheezy teen magazine that focuses way too much on how to look perfect and make everyone like you. I'll be 16 next month, and I barely think about any of those things. Your list was way closer. *shakes fist at crazy article writer*

[locked-door998.livejournal.com]

WHAT?!?!?!?

That list was awful. I refuse to think of myself as a celebrity-obsessed, anorexic, immature teenager. We're not all, as abbers put it perfectly, mindless drones who only think about wearing tight shirts and short skirts to impress boys. Some of us have already had to go through things adults haven't gone through. I had to deal with deaths in my family and the murder of someone I knew and loved before I even reached a single teen year. Things like this steryotype teenagers. No wonder most people won't take us seriously!

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I know. :( *Hugs*

[mysticblueside.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness...what WERE they thinking?

~9. Depression. (And a surprising number of teens have been affected, either by having it or knowing someone else with it, myself included).~

Oh, yes. That seems to be a much bigger issue lately than I had ever realized before. Another thing that seems to be springing up (in my neck of the woods, at least) is homosexuality, bisexuality. A LOT of 'experimenting' seems to be going on, even if it's not with me. It's actually kind of sad, since a lot of the teens have so many things in common (father/mother that they don't like/ran away etc..., therefore think that male/female relationships aren't very good).

And with all the worldly issues going on...well, I guess only those who take the time to read really understand them. Everyone else just pretends to understand everything and wear 'Down with Bush; he looks like an ape' shirts. *headdesk* That's an entirely different subject, though. ;)

[very-vogue.livejournal.com]

To me, the list seems to apply more to those teenagers who are in junior high/middle school or the early high school years. I'd wager that that's the age level actually writing into the teen magazines.

[farting-nora.livejournal.com]

That, and most teens don't bother to read those teen magazines because we know they are full of trash telling us how we should be, and telling us things we don't care about, like Justin Timberlake's favorite color of underwear.

The majority of the people who subscribe to and read those magazines on a regluar basis are the shallow, celebrity stalker types, who would do anything to make that cute boy from english class like them. Not because of any personality attributes, but because he is cute. Those people bug me. But if you walk into a regular high school, you will realize this is only about 10% of the female population. Not everyone who subscribes to teen magazines is like that, but the majority of people who care enough to write in probably are.

If the person writing the article had worked for a differant magazine, she would have gotten differant views on how teens behave, and what they like. Say for example the writer worked for Punk Rock Magazine, she probably would have found more people interested in music and politics. In Girl Scout Magizine, she would have found more people interested in being a good example and giving back to the community.

It is impossible to get a good idea of what girls like from such a limited and biased sample. If the writer wanted a valid article, she should have gone into an average public high school (not a religious school, and not in an upper or extreme lower class area)and observed the differant girls in there, then interviewing several girls of differant groups or "cliques". Ask a prep, a goth, a geek, and an athletic girl, and chances are they will all give you differant answers. A girl who has had an easy life will have differant answers than a girl who has had a hard life, then there is also the matter of no two girls being exactly alike.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I agree; I mean, I read those teen magazines, yet it was mostly to read the few good stories, and to laugh at all the ditzy stuff. ("My life was RUINED, I dropped my PENCIL in front of my CRUSH!")

[jaswanson.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of people, particularly the General Populace, underestimate children and adolescents. When I was of high school age, I certainly had a lot more going on inside my head and my heart than that - I even dropped out of high school because of it. Now, having graduated university, I continue to confirm that kids have a lot of incredibly adult issues with which to contend. My fifth grade students last year dealt with problems such as homelessness, (parental) drug abuse and manufacture of meth, being an unwanted child, physical and emotional abuse from parents, and more. It is a travesty to lump all children or adolescents together and claim that they hover on the surface of existance.

*deep breath* Obviously, I am righteously indignant. Anyway, yes. Thanks for sharing that link and your much more appropriate list in response.

Oh, and friended you, by the way. Hope you don't mind.