Do you know what is one of the most insulting things an adult can say to a teenager? That would be: “Wow you’re so young!” or “Aww you’re just a kid you aren’t mature enough to have experienced the world fully yet.” or “You seem so young! How old are you?”
There are many more ways to phrase this insult but I believe you get the idea. What is horribly insulting to a teenager is that you are calling them “young” and “immature”. I hate that, because it is in moments like these where I am talked down to, and I am not treated as an equal.
Usually when it happens to me, the person asks me how old I am, which is insulting itself generally unless said in the right context (as this goes with adults too). I usually ask “How old do you think I am?”
That usually stumps them, because they cannot answer without completely insulting me. If they say I am younger than I am, they KNOW they are insulting me. If they say I am older than I am, they are bull shitting because they just said I am so young. If they say my age correctly, they are saying my age is not mature.
While it may be true that adults have many more years of experience of life than a teen, many times they rub that experience into a teen’s face. We teenagers are not innocent, we face horrible things that adults don’t have to worry about. Many of us are constantly making sure our clothes are just right, that our make–up looks perfect, that we are not dressed in a way that gives people the wrong I idea about who we are.
Teen face pressure of “what everyone else is doing” and “what people think of”. We also face nasty rumors and cruel people who are not at all polite.
Teens have opinions about life, about politics, about the government, we have our own opinions, but often they are not heard, because people think we are so “young”.
