Letter to the Editor of the Guardian
'F*ck off". 'Scumbag'. 'W*nker'. This is the lasting impression readers of other popular newspapers are given about teenagers. It's not just limited to newspapers either. It is an ever-growing problem in the journalism industry. Facts are being twisted for the sake of entertaining the reader, are being portrayed as blood-sucking leeches, and teenagers are seen as Red-Bull guzzling degenerates. So how are you going to change this?
Many peoples' opinions of teenagers have been based on a select few shows such as Waterloo Road, Skins, and, more recently, Excluded. While many understand that these teens are in the minority many still believe that teens are like this. Fear-mongering news-channels do not help this; rather they serve a daily dose of gang crime and teenage stabbings, which only fuel a stubborn flame that is quickly growing out of control.
On the 23rd September 2011, the Daily Mail published an article titled "What sort of example is this to set our children?" about the new TV show "Educating Essex", I will spare you the trouble of reading an insane journalist's lunar ravings and give you a few extracts. 'Insolent children talk back to teachers'. 'Bullying, teenage pregnancy, and young girls caked in makeup.' 'From cyber-bullying to playground scraps'. From this, a less informed person may conclude that this is the case with most teenagers. And the fact that we are called "unruly” and "scumbags" only reinforces the idea we are menaces to society. We are made out to be public enemy number one and the idea that we “go off the rails” at the slightest provocation is yet more slanderous lies but forward by incompetent journalists. However, as a teenager I can tell you the following things: I have never been pregnant, bullied someone or been bullied or have I been caked in makeup. I have never talked back to a teacher nor