Ignoring stereotypes

I have realised that there is a lot of things that I do or think that does fit with the convention of being a stereotypical teenager. It frustrates me that the older generation all dub us with the same brush; For example, I am completely different from my older brother personality wise and we are blood so what makes people think that teenagers are anything like each other just because we happen to fit in the same age category? I therefore thought I would write this post to prove that actually no, not every teenager that walks past you is going to mug you, their hood could just be up because, oh look at that, its raining.

"Teenagers don't care about their education, they would just rather go out drinking and doing drugs"

I think this is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. I know that the majority of my school year are splitting hairs over our GCSE examinations. Obviously there are a few that don't care; but for the most part, our entire lives are taken over by the inundation of revision we are doing each night; losing sleep over exams, not eating because of stress and completely avoiding all entertainment so that we won't get distracted. So for someone to say this is absurd, the majority of us work hard and whilst the results may not always pay off that is by no means a reflection of the amount of work we have put in but a reflection of harsh marking from the exam board or simply just not knowing the answer. 

I personally wouldn't rather go out drinking and doing drugs, in fact I have never even seen a drug in real life. I'm fifteen years old and I have never seen a drug: so why should I be categorised under the 'druggy teenagers' that society has branded us with? Obviously I would rather be doing anything other than revision, but why would that mean that I would want to go out drinking? Only the other week I was offered the opportunity to go out and drink to celebrate leaving compulsory education, but I turned it down and enjoyed a night at a McFly concert along with several others in my year. I do understand that a lot of teenagers drink but not everyone gets off their faces which is what I think people honestly think that we do. Please do not offend us by saying that you never even touched a drop throughout your entire teenhood. You're just being hypocritical over something that you yourself did as a teenager. 

Yes, teenagers mess up and make mistakes, sometimes the mistakes that we make are irreversible and in that case we will accept responsibility for those actions but we are allowed to make the occasional mistake because that is all part of growing up. Adults mess up every single moment of every single day, well so do teenagers; so why do teenagers get more stick about it than your average adult? Why is there such a sigma around being a teenager in this day and age? 

This morning after my exam, I came home and as I was revising This Morning was on in the background. They were discussing lowering the consent age for sexual relations from sixteen to thirteen. These kinds of conversations really frustrate me not because of the actual topic (and for reference I don't think the consent age should be lowered because if it does it makes it easier for paedophiles to pry and if people want to have sex then they will do it, they wont care about the law.) but because of the fact that this subject affects us: teenagers. So where was the teenage person? Only adults that don't really have a clue what its like to grow up in the society that we live in today, they never will understand because time has moved on since they were teenagers and its bloody difficult. 

The same goes with the education especially, this affects us more than it will affect any adult, so why are we not asked our opinion on the matter? If you want to get teenagers more interested in politics then ask their opinion and make sure that it counts. I can guarantee that that would increase interest in politics. If it seems that actually you do care what we have to say about situations that will affect our lives then a more concious effort would be made to keep up to date with what is going on. It would also ensure that there would be less chance of the law being broken because it would have been influenced by ourselves. 

Fandoms- The good and the bad

I personally think that fandoms are brilliant in most cases and I think this because it allows you to see things that other people have noticed that you may not have (e.g. Sherlock death theories). You can also meet like minded people who enjoy the same things as you and in result of this you can become really good friends with people, my friend Molly is a prime example of this; she has met loads of people through one of her interests (which happens to be The Wanted) and through not only concerts but also just through following people on twitter she has met people who she would consider to be her best friends and that is because they were all brought together by one common denominator. Being in a fandom also allows you to basically make the most out of everything your specific interest whether it be a film, TV show, music or book or even just an actor/actress, through pictures, gifs, videos or just interviews. It is generally a positive and happy place.

However, people need to learn to draw the line especially, when people start hurting themselves because of something your favourite singer or actor has done, people need to learn that just because they have done something that you wouldn't have done and may have been stupid it is their life and not yours, even if you may love them just remember you don't actually know them and so to damage yourself just because they have taken drugs for example (Justin Bieber I'm looking at you, naughty boy) it makes no difference, you are only a fan of how much of them they want you to see, YOU DO NOT KNOW THEM AND YOU NEVER WILL, so DO NOT damage your life because of them, they will not thank you for it.  

*This post was inspired when I saw the trend on Twitter "CutForBieber" I'm sorry but this is absolutely disgusting and whoever thought of it should be ashamed, you are telling young girls (and boys) that it's okay to cut themselves because of something that Justin Bieber has done. Grow up and understand that there is a line and you have crossed it.*

The curse of being a teenager

This Christmas holidays should have seen me spending the majority of my free time revising for my upcoming examinations (English Language and ICT) however, being a normal teenager like myself, I completely ignored that and left everything until the very last day before I go back. This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have a maths booklet (which I don't even have, but he will still some how expect me to do) due in tomorrow that would usually take me about a week to complete, an English Language exam on Thursday which I have't revised for since I broke up from school two weeks ago and have since completely forgotten what techniques I have to use to answer the questions, and my ICT exam is next Tuesday which I literally haven't even picked up a book for, I also have other homework (probably but I cannot will myself to go and have a look, because if I see it I will have to do it, so I'm playing innocent). But yet despite knowing I have all of this to do I still refuse to except responsibilities and am instead reading blogs and looking through Tumblr and writing this completely pointless blog post, WHY do teenagers do this? I am one myself and I could not tell you the answer for anything (probably because I would be too lazy to tell you, even if I knew.)
Anyway I am off to pretend I am really doing my school work whilst doing everything I shouldn't be doing. Have a lovely day (And if you have no homework/work/revision I envy you with all of my heart)