A fellow hubber asked me to write about whether I think teenage life is going uphill or downhill in this day and age. The truth is that it depends on the area. However, I am hopefully going to be successful in dispelling a few rumours and opinions along the way.

In my area, the Midlands in the United Kingdom, teenage life is going uphill.

However, it is only possible to make an assumption on whether teenage life is up or down for someone who is a middleclassed, white and a grammar school student who lives in a small town in the UK. I cannot possibly compare other teenagers apart from what I hear from others.

We all know the saying that you should avoid to tarnish people with the same brush? Well this is especially true when it comes to teenagers. How can an 'adult' (note the quotation marks) tell a teenager what she/he is when the teen does not know for themself? The brutal truth is that they can't.

It breaks my heart when I read the papers and headlines slandering all youths stand out bold and proud. Here 'adults' are trying to teach youths in schools equality and yet they do not practice what they preach.

I live in an elitist society (I shall speak more about this in a bit); however, I socialise outside that and I can safely say that teenagers now feel more alone than ever. People presume that teenagers spend all day, every day, watching TV and smoking. The cruel reality is that teenagers don't watch half as much TV as a lot of 'adults' - those who smoke, smoke for attention.

As I mentioned before, I live in an elitist society of the best and brightest of the British youth. Yes, I am a grammar school student. Not only that, it is an all boys school and just down the road is an all girls grammar school. In the next town along there is a third grammar school. On top of this, in the area, there are two high schools, two private schools and three collages.

I can honestly say that the opinion that all youths are going downhill is really starting to irritate the 90% of us who try hard to get where we are.

Purely focussing on the grammar schools now - we have been given up on. The 'adults' around here don't help us out because they are too busy complaining at the 10% of youths who cause trouble and havoc. We are the unwanted. As a result of this we have all become competative and have had to seize our futures ourselves with little guidance from the schools or society - this is a situation where all teenagers have been tarnished with the same brush and the focus has been on 'cracking down on teenage crime'.

Teenage crime? Pah. Who do they think they are?

The sad truth is that we have had to motivate ourselves, not just the grammar schools but the high and private schools as well - something which is hard to do when biology is your enemy.

Of course there are always exceptions to every rule. There are those teenagers who cause trouble, there are those teenagers who smoke and spend all day watching TV. These are fantastic distractions for society to blame things on. There will always be that 10%.

However, there are also those teenagers who are published authors by the time they turn eighteen. There are those teenagers with film deals by the time they go to university. There are those teenagers who are so self motivated to become doctors, lawyers and vets that most adults could actually take a leaf out of their book.

Yes, it is true, the society I have grown up in is the top 20% of the country. However, it is also true that only around 10% of teenagers are trouble makers. Why tarnish everybody under than same brush? Why punish everyone with neolithic views on the rebellious teen?

This is why I post this blog, this is why I feel the need to liberate the teenage name.

Luke

RSC Actor - Aged 7
Published Author - Aged 11
Playwright - Aged 17
Screenwright - Aged 18

(Still want to tarnish?)