Teenage Voices #1

Hello!

Following the results of the EU referendum it felt like my generation had been ignored. Before the EU referendum I took part in the #teenbrexitchat where I found lots of teenagers had an opinion on the Eu referendum. 

This got me thinking, are teenagers opinions and voices listened to?

I'm starting a series called "Teenage Voices" where I will be asking teenage bloggers all about having a voice and are us teenagers actually listened to.

Teenage Voices #1- The Lonely Lion

The lonely lion got in touch with me and was eager to share their opinion. The lonely lion is a wonderful person and I love reading their blog (BLOG LINK: readthelionsblog.wordpress.com) Here are the answers the lonely lion gave me to the questions I asked.

The older generation often believe teenagers don't have any opinions, do you think this is true?

Yes I believe that the older generation looks down upon teenagers due to the media depictions because they're seen as all the possible stereotypes from moody, disrespectful etc. Even in films they're either depicted as too good to be true or the antagonists in some case. I also think that the older generation sees teenagers as a symbol of current times so mainly engrossed in gadgets phones tables and that so therefore because of these opinions and ideas they feel as if our opinions are invalid and we don't have the maturity to make appropriate decisions.

Do you think teenagers voices/ opinions are listened to? If not why?

They aren't listened to at all for me. Because as I said we're depicted as irrational and to have a very spoilt, bratty I want this and I will get it approach. We're in my opinion the worst treated parts of society in terms of age demographic because of a few of millions of teenagers out there who are incredibly immature and assign us the label in a way


What do you think needs to change for teenagers voices/ opinions to be listened to?

I think that to get more respect for teenagers the voting age should be moved down to 16 (in the UK at least) because at that age we can leave school and make life altering decisions that require maturity. That would lead to the so called "older generation" thinking higher of us because of the fact that we would have a say in how the country is run. I also believe that the media should stop their constant negative portrayal of teenagers because that's what's giving us a bad name. Like for example I'm sure you'll agree that what we see on TV we start to believe after a while whether it's the all Muslims are terrorist label that I won't go into or all teenagers are immature, moody etc. It's the same principle


How important do you think it is for teenagers to have a voice/ opinion?


I'm a firm believer that teenagers deserve a voice without sounding too self righteous. I'm even thinking of starting a project called #teenpower which is in a nutshell meant to inspire the world to open their minds to what teens can actually do if given the freedom and respect. Moreover these 13-17 year olds who aren't given a say in anything are the future of the world not the 50-60 year olds who are closer to retirement age. whether you like it or not that's the harsh reality. Therefore we should at least be educated in school about the real world because I know my opinions are strong and can offend. But I don't know much else apart from what I see in the media. Therefore we should be given a better idea of the real world so that we can use our voices and actually know what's possible and what is not

With issues surrounding teenagers what's one issue that you have a strong/ personal opinion on?

There are so many issues but these all stem from the you guessed it the media portrayal. For example this stem leads more authoritative figures to dismiss us as people and treat us more like zoo animals in the worst of cases. They provoke us heavily and they don't show us being calm and trying to reason with them but they show the part when we get angry like any Human being and turn cameras on then. Because of this, we're not trusted to have an opinion, a voice and the opportunities to make a difference and execute our visions.

We're just humans like the rest of them why can't they just understand that

Big thanks to the lonely lion for taking part! If you want to take part, please let me know!