an open letter to gen z and teenhood

*I wrote this in 2020 when i was 19*

 

 It’s so interesting to think of my days as a teen.

This was such a golden age to be a teenager. 

There were vines to quote, memes to share, Alexas to tell to play Despacito, no fear for the future, social media connected us and gave us inside jokes with teens all around the world, the USA was a joke politically, and we just knew that everything we had in our future was certain. 

There was a sense of urgency to be young though. There was also a huge standard for teenagers set through social media, so we had that to live up to too. But it was all good, we had a pretty good grip on what was reality and what wasn’t for the most part I think. 

I feel like in so many ways my experience was unique. 

I had technology to help me through school. My generations had one life in person and one on the screen. 

We took our assessments mostly online. We had all of these wonderful resources, and with that came so much more pressure. 

A lot of those who came before us would critique the way we handled stress, our grades, and our dating lives, comparing it to their own experience. 

But the truth of the matter is that yes, we kind of have been a hot mess before. But did they ever consider that: we were raised in the very early days of the internet, which led to a lot of good, but also a lot of pressure with the new expectations set because of our gift of technology. 

We were always encouraged to chase our dreams, until it came to careers driven by those of our generations such as streaming/videography centered jobs. We were shown all of these amazing love stories as kids, and pretty much brainwashed into believing that affection and love can only be shown in one way. 

None of these movies and TV shows (that were aimed towards OUR age group at the time) were LGBTQ+ inclusive, and they were rarely realistic.They showed perfect people, girls who kept their mouths shut, and men who usually weren’t respectful and supportive of the female lead. 

We had to learn so much about this untouched frontier of social media by trial and error, and adapt to social rules that were never spoken aloud. Mind you, most of us were around the age of twelve or thirteen trying to navigate online personas!! We had so many anti-smoking commercials aimed to show us a new and better way to live, but absolutely terrible sex education in school. 

We were raised with old ideologies, but we embraced learning more about emotional and mental health as well as physical health. We went to school with the ever so present after effects of Columbine, and through the Sandy Hook shooting, and throughout the loss because of the abundance of death and violence. We grew up in the shadow of 9/11, and through the market crash of 2008. 

We saw the political turmoil of the 2016 election. 

 

But on the more positive side, we were the generation that created a new language through jokes. We stood up for what we believed in, even when it was hard or disappointing. We organized walk outs to tell people to wake up. In 2008 we saw the first President of the United States that was a person of color, Barack Obama. We educated those around us. 

We broke down walls in society that the older generations put up just because they didn’t want to have the hard conversations. We opposed the walls that leaders of our country wanted to build to keep immigrants and the foreign out. We gave women more of a voice about their bodies, the option of abortion, and how their bodies are treated. The #MeToo movement was started, with huge support from women and allies everywhere. 

In 2016 gay marriage was legalized in the United States, and our generation was the most empathetic and supportive! 

There were so many crazy things that had led up to where I was throughout the last few years. So many socially defining moments that made my generation the way that we are! 

 

I think there is something eternal about teenhood- it’s one of the basic and few things we have in common with the older more disconnected generations. Their teen years may not have been filled with Twitter notifications or Tinder matches, but I bet they were full of energy and youthful optimism. 

Hoping for the near, and dreams for the future. That’s something that will always be a factor I think. I may not be a teenager forever (unless I convince a vampire to bite me at this prime state of my life) but the young exuberance of being alive will outlive all of us. 

Nothing beats an exhilarating first kiss, a hype first dance, or driving around with friends talking and laughing the night away. And that brings me joy, even if it won’t always be me doing those things. 

 

I hope my kids get to experience being in a car full of friends driving with all of the windows down belting a Queen song into the night. 

 

They deserve that.