Jezebel: teenage wastelands

"Earlier Today I Had Two Friends Over: One Regular One & One Indian One"

Dodai — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:40:00 EDT

Later: As a teenager tells her Hindu "friend" she's "going down the wrong path" and tries to convert her to Christianity, she also says, "She's Indian — it's like, an African country in Asia." Update: Might be a joke. [Buzzfeed]

Teen Girls Join Britney In Tippling The "Purple Drank"

Jessica — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:30:00 EST

Teen usage of cold and cough medicines to get high is a major problem in the U.S., reports the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Any fan of The Basketball Diaries can tell you that barely legals have used over-the-counter meds to get high since the dawn of NyQuil, but a recent study by SAMHSA shows that the number of people age 12-25 who use large doses of cold medicine to create hallucinations is at about 3.1 million. Many adolescents are mixing the cold medicines with other substances — like Britney with her "purple drank" of vodka, NyQuil and Red Bull — but the key ingredient to cause hallucinations in large doses is the cough suppressant DXM.

The prevalence of cough syrup abuse (both over the counter and prescription) is high enough to have spawned a dozen nicknames, including, but not limited to: Sizzurp, Drank, Purple Tonic, Southern Lean, Texas Tea, Memphis Mud, Mrs. Dranklesworth, Tsikuni, Lean, Syrup, P-Flav, Slip, Purple Sprite, PG Tips, and Purp.

In the 12 to 17 age group, according to MSNBC, girls are the biggest abusers of the Purp, but after age 17, the majority of abuse shifts to young men. Let's just hope none of these young girls is addicted to the Sizzurp, because how lame would it be to have to go to rehab for your Robitussin habit?

Millions Of Youths Use Cold Meds To Get High [MSNBC]
Earlier: Britney Still Alive; Has Brunch With Paparazzo

Our So-Called Collective Adolescence

Jessica — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:30:43 EDT

When I was in college, I tried writing about how much My So-Called Life meant to me for a non-fiction class. I never handed in the paper because I couldn't manage to express how dreadfully important Angela Chase was to my coming of age without sounding kind of insane or aggressively sentimental. How could I describe the way that Claire Danes's voice would resonate through my head as I walked through the corridors of my suburban public high school (just like Angela!)? That when she said that Anne Frank was "lucky" because she got to be trapped in an attic with the boy she liked, I had thought the same thing? That I dyed my hair manic panic red in the eighth grade because I wanted to be exactly like her?

Good thing The New York Times was able to talk about Angela Chase this weekend without sounding nearly as gushy and obsessive as I do.

In a review of the newly released DVD box set of MSCL, Ginia Bellafante writes:

The series brought us the experience of adolescence outside the bounds of artifice, peril and pathology that had provided the context for nearly every other depiction of teenagers on television. Here what it meant to be 15 was not to discover that you suddenly had to raise your 6-year-old sister or that you might be pregnant with twins but merely that you suffered everyday indignities: overhearing people talk behind your back, the plop of a grim-looking lump of mashed potatoes on a pallid cafeteria tray.

Even more relatable to me than the quotidian humiliations of teendom was that Angela was always struggling between being a good girl and indulging her rebellious side. Unlike the late 90s version of teen sexuality, for instance, American Pie, where if you were "normal" you were having sex, Angela grappled with her decision to stay a virgin in the face of Jordan Catalano's overwhelming hotness. She was legitimately scared to have sex, just as I was for the majority of my high school experience. Though I must say, if there had been anyone nearly as sexy as Jared Leto in my graduating class, my virginity would have been tossed out the window quicker than you can say "where's Tino?"

My identification with Angela Chase was such that Claire Danes's personal life in the intervening years has seriously bummed me out. The Angela Chase... er, Claire Danes I knew would NEVER have fucked someone else's boyfriend, especially not while that someone else was seven months pregnant. In fact, I would go so far as saying that because of her dating foibles and overtly self-conscious obnoxiousness in interviews, ol' crumple face is dead to me. At least Ricky is still awesome.

A Teenager in Love (So-Called) [New York Times]
'My So-Called Life' Lessons — Q&A with Wilson Cruz [Entertainment Weekly]
Capital Danes [Telegraph]

Black Teens Resilient To Body Dysmorphia, Cave Into Peer Pressure

Anna — Mon, 14 May 2007 16:27:32 EDT

Researchers studying the connection between body-image and self-esteem among adolescents have discovered that young African-American males "have a unique resilience to the 'toxic' stream of media images emphasizing the importance of personal appearance" reports CNN (via Reuters). Lucky boys! But why the discrepancy? (And can we get some of whatever they're taking? -Ed.) Dr. Eliana Miller Perrin of UNC School of Medicine, the lead researcher on the study, wonders if black male adolescents escape the fate of their lighter-skinned (and female) counterparts because images in the media don't target them, adding that it's hard to say for sure because their demographic is — no shit! — a historically understudied one. Perhaps, however, Dr. Miller Perrin should check out the clip above, which — despite its title — seems to leave little doubt about this group's abundance of self-esteem.

Body Satisfaction Reflects Self-Esteem For Most Teens [CNN]