They are dangerous and disrespectful, stay away from them. This is usually the thought that comes to many adults mind when they see a teenager. For some reason we tend to frighten people who are far older than us. The assumptions that some adults make are terrible and demeaning to us teenagers. Sometimes I feel the need that I have to prove myself to them when I am out in public. These misconceptions are truly unnecessary and should be recognized.

To start off, adults find us to be reckless and dangerous. They believe that they majority of us are up to no good. For example, if someone were to take a walk in a park and run into an elderly couple wearing fur coats they would feel less threatened than if they were to run into a group of high school boys wearing baggy clothes. Some would make the excuse that the boys would be more capable of hurting someone than an old person but I find that to be absurd. Anyone is capable of doing anything that they set their mind to.

In addition, they believe we are all mouthy and disrespectful. There have been times when I will hold the door open for an adult or help them bag their groceries and the shock on their face is priceless. A woman once told me that not one teenager has ever held a door open for her. I was quite shocked and especially because after that she told me she never expected it to happen either. I very much so wanted to question her but I just said you’re welcome and went about my day. I guess you could say this is the first time that I realized that this prejudice existed. Also I have had teachers who say that most kids have authority problems whether it’s with a teacher or a parent. This is really hard to believe because all my life I’ve only had about one or two kids in each class that constantly got in trouble.

Furthermore, adults see teenagers as smokers, drinkers, and junkies. I understand that your teenage years are your experimenting years but that does not mean all of us try these new things. In fact, most teenagers are very well educated on most of these things from health class and they know better. Most of us are scared to do anything because of the effects and that it could lead to failure. What adults don’t realize is we don’t want to ruin our lives by partying because we know that these years are fundamental to our success in life.

Stereotypes are ridiculous. You can’t describe a large group of people with one word. Everyone is very different. Granted some of these stereotypes can apply to some teenagers but never teenagers as a whole. It’s about time people start making that differentiation. I am sick of feeling like I have something to prove to people that I don’t know anything about. It’s not a good feeling being judged while out with your friends because adults think you are going to start chaos. As soon as people can accept this I deem that teenagers and adults will understand each other much more.