Media Representation: High School Students/ Teenagers

       The media is known to represent High School kids and teenagers in an unrealistically and inaccurately. The media usually represents teenagers as lazy, rebellious, rude, and often portray them as being separated into different cliques. In "Mean Girls", the teenage girls are seen as moody, vengeful and petty, and the entire school is separated into exclusive groups. They describe teenagers and high school as the most critical moment in one's life, filled with drama and problems they must resolve. Another film, "Bring it On", also portrays high school girls as competitive and petty, and makes cheerleaders the stereotypical "queens of the school". It does not show these teenagers worried about school or any other responsibility teenagers usually have, but rather they are focused on drama and school gossip. It is important to note that in both of these films, romance is a major driving factor in the plot and the characters' decisions, and the teenage characters are played by full-grown adults.
      I believe that these representations are neither fair nor correct. Although friend groups may revolve around similar interests, they are never as exclusive as portrayed on film. Most high school students worry about their SAT scores and test grades to be caught up in petty drama, and overall, the high school experience is not as dramatic as portrayed. All in all, most high school kids worry more about their grades and college admissions than they do about relationships, drama, or revenge. It is also worth noting that your seat in a high school cafeteria is not the most important decision of your entire life.
    One representation of high school teenagers I would retain is the trope that at the end of the day, everything is resolved and that everything turns out okay. It is a nice change from all of the negative representations of teenagers in the media. It also tends to overturn all of the negative representation from earlier in the film. Although I would challenge almost all media stereotypes of teenagers, the two I would focus on is body image and laziness. Although there are many reasons why actual teenagers cannot be hired to play high school children, hiring adults may be harmful to teenagers' body image. Adults with clear skin, fully developed bodies, and a slim, mature figure may cause insecurity and doubt in many teenagers. Girls may question why they don't have the same body type or skin as the model we constantly see on screen, and high school boys may wonder how this "teenager" presented in front of them happens to be over 6 feet tall and extremely muscular and developed. I would also challenge the stereotype that teenagers are lazy in nature. Although there are lazy teenagers, most students must balance school, work, homework, extracurriculars, sports or physical activities, family time, and sleep all into 24 hours. Being a teenager is exhausting, and not seeing the hard work represented in the media makes teenagers feel as if though all the things they juggle in a say are not enough, and they are still lazy, unmotivated creatures.