“And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations. They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.” – David Bowie

When you’re a teenager, all you get is words being spewed at you: lectures, advice and pep talks, not to mention you’re pistol-whipped with “When I was your age” stories. Don’t get me wrong, some of them are entertaining and helpful, but it feels as though society is trying to tell us about life rather than letting us experience it ourselves, like some weird yet intriguing science experiment your teacher shows you, but doesn’t let you attempt. Growing up watching stuff like The Breakfast Club, Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About You, High School Musical, Project X, Awkward, Degrassi, Teen Wolf and Drake and Josh, your expectations of high school and your teen years were raised to the brim.

You question what clique you’ll be part of, or if you’ll be the rebellious loner, the nerdy girl who after she takes off her glasses and her ponytail is actually uber pretty (wait, wearing glasses isn’t cute?) You question who you’ll go to dances with, what you’ll wear, what parties you’ll go to, blah blah friggin’ blah. Through high school, we’re all stuck wondering who are we? What’s our purpose? Is there more to life than what we’re doing? Is this it? Can the person next to me notice I’m talking to myself?

We crave fun, happiness, adventure, mistakes, and experiences, milking all we can from “I’m a teenager; I’m supposed to be like this.” But, there’s more to being a teenager than all that. We’re trying to fit in, but at the same time, wanting to be avant-garde and different. We feel as though we’re perpetually wandering this world alone with confusion and sadness in our hearts. We could fall in love and trick ourselves into believing that this is it. This is all we’ll ever be. We get our hearts broken and we’re stuck this way forever, but we’re not. As teenagers yes-yes-yes we overreact. There’s the long and multiple periods of existential crisis and questioning our existence and it becomes the end of our worlds. But, it’s fine. That’s the absolute beauty of having films, books, tv shows and music purely dedicated to our tortured, overdramatic, melancholy, intrepid souls.

Film                          TV Shows 
Mean Girls                    Daria 
The Breakfast Club            Drake & Josh 
The Art of Getting By         Boy Meets World 
Donnie Darko                  Degrassi 
Fight Club                    Freaks & Geeks 
Dazed and Confused            Awkward 
10 Things I Hate About You    That 70’s Show            Footloose                     Skins 
Perks of Being A Wallflower   Teen Wolf 
Fast Times At Ridgemont High 
Juno 
Grease
Bring it On  
Heathers
The Craft               

Books 
Thirteen Reasons Why- Jay Asher              
Trainspotting- Irvine Welsh Heathers                    Invisible Monsters- Chuck Palahniuk 
Good Enough- Paula Yoo 
Catcher In The Rye- J.D. Salinger 
The Madolescents- Chrissie Glazebrock                   Less Than Zero- Bret Easton Ghost World  
Hate List- Jennifer Brown Little Miss Sunshine          If I stay- Gayle Forman Submarine                       Ghost World- Daniel Clowes Easy A                       The Outsiders- S.E. Hinton Whip It                      Youth in Revolt- C.D. Payne                             Hairstyles of the Damned- Joe Meno
 
Music 
Ocean Avenue- Yellowcard Teenagers- 
My Chemical Romance Dammit- Blink 182 
Teen Idle- Marina & The Diamonds Kids- 
MGMT Spirit Desire- Tigers Jaw 
Teenage Riot- Sonic Youth 
Killing In The Name- Rage Against The Machine 
Rebirth of Slick- Digable Planets 
Creep-Radiohead 
Bullet With Butterfly Wings- The Smashing Pumpkins 
Loser- Beck 
Heroes- David Bowie 
Purple, Yellow, Red and Blue- Portugal. 
The Man Stressed Out- Twenty One Pilots 
I Wanna Get Better- Bleachers 
17- Youth Lagoon 
No Hope Kids- Wavves 
Teenage Dirtbag- Wheatus 
Teenage Lobotomy- Ramones 
Helena Beat- Foster 
The People What's In My Head- 
Fuzz Afraid- The Neighbourhood 
Where I’m From- Digable Planets 
Grown Up- Danny Brown 
Opposite of Adults- Chiddy Bang 93 
‘Til Infinity- Souls of Mischief 
(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right- Beastie Boys 

We're in the middle of life, the mid-beginning. We have all these ideas of what we have to be, but the truth is;no matter how much we attempt to brainwash ourselves into thinking that we're all better than everyone else, below everyone else, alone or stuck and lost, we're not. This is part of growing up. The beauty of angst and clichés is that they're over used and typical, but they're real. The comfort of having all this entertainment to relate to, is that they remind us that we're all human and we're all going through this crappy, confusing and exciting time together.