The invention of the "teenager".

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It was an early 20th century invention. At that time "teenager" was coined and there came the concept of the teenager.

This is what I think, thought ever since at 13, I developed the ability of abstract thinking, not changing later on as such in this respect but barely developing and deepening what there already was in me and will always think.

"Adolescence is a 20th-century invention" as the Governor in The Walking Dead says at one point when someone (Andrea?) protests against the fact he wants to have guns to anyone who had turned 13 to protect Woodbury. You see, throughout the whole history of our human species it looked like that: when you were not a child, you were an adult. Just younger and less experienced, that's all.

My country, Poland had a twelve year old queen, Jadwiga - I know it was back in the 14th century but still, human nature doesn't change per se. She ruled without an adult regent, just with advisors in spite of her extreme youth. As Jan Długosz wrote in his Chronicles, "whatever the queen said or did, had the maturity of an old age". She was actually the king of Poland and not the queen, her husband Władysław Jagiełło was like 25 years her senior. She died at about 25 in childbirth and the baby named Elżbieta Bonifacja died with her. Baldwin IV in turn, the leper king, was 13 when he became the king of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the same was for Gordian III, the emperor of Rome. Speaking of the emperors of Rome, also Heliogabal and Alexander Severus became ones at merely 14. Back in the Middle Ages, one was an adult at 14; a woman of 12 and a man of 14 could get legally married. It worked like that up until quite recently

The concept of being labelled as a teenager was invented for a good reason. Because 13 to 16 year olds don't have the reasoning power of mature adults. Just because it was ok in the "ol' days" (and less progressed countries today) to marry your daughter off at 13 or send young boys off to die fighting in a war at 13 years old does not mean that it's now or ever was OK.

I'm glad that the term teenager was coined. Kids have a few more years to figure things out. Also, a teenager is a pretty cool thing to be.

If you lived to 113 years old, would you be a teenager again?

Only if you've got the energy for it.

Speaking of, we've got a new demographic to market energy drinks to.

In Poland teenagers are also considered 11 and 12 year olds. That's because naście means teen in Polish and jedenaście and dwanaście mean literally eleventeen and twelveteen We don't have the preteens here. Childhood per se ends at 10 and later we already have teenagers

Being a teenager sucks, especially if you're a girl. You get your period and then the entire world treats you like garbage for having cramps and bleeding every month, you're in constant danger of being SA'd, you're either too old for kid stuff you might still like, but too young for adult stuff. Your body turns into one big greasy acne farm and people blame you for not washing enough or eating chocolate, even though there's really not much evidence that proves such things cause pimples. You're pressured all the time to fit in with your peers and to not be yourself and to spend your life being at least 20 pounds underweight and looking 18. And yet people keep saying these are supposed to be the best years of your life.

Teens are insanely cruel and idiotic to people who are different. They drive people like us to suicide all the time because of cyberbullying, so I'm glad we didn't have internet at least until I was in my 20s.

Teens and young people are unhappier than ever now, and "social" media is just one of the reasons why.

Many adults don't have the reasoning power of mature adults.

No one knows you are on your period. And not every girl suffers from painful and profuse monthlies. Anyway, even an adult woman can have those. No one treats her like a garbage for this.



I had to check what this acronym stands for. And it can happen to any woman not just a teenage girl.



At any age you are too old and at the same time too young for something. And a teenage girl liking kid stuff looks well... let's say that it looks weird to say the least. Anyway the nature of teenagehood is that you think abstractly unlike children so things dedicated to children (toys, children's books etc.) aren't interesting for you any more. I'm not actually sure what you mean by adult stuff (wearing make up? being in a relationship? having sex?) but many girls do it. And adult teens can do whatever they want legally.



Depends. I never had pimples.

Adolescence was a great period in my life and what a pity I can't repeat it

Yet still they have all the right of adulthood. I have a counsin who recently turned 60 and she is a woman with VERY low cognitive abilities, almost borderline mentally challenged. Yet she still has all the rights of adulthood, like any other adult. Danielle Steel describes in turn in her biography of her highly gifted, currently deceased son Nick Traina, entitled "His Bright Light" that as a twelve year old he managed to convince some lady who didn't know him, that he was actually an adult guy of 21 (I believe that also a Harvard student) with some hormonal problems causing him to still look like a kid. Said woman believed him because as she later told his mom, "It's enough to talk to Nick to know he's an adult man". So it depends on a teen. I saw cases of 12-14 year olds online who talked in discussions (so also, as we can guess, also thought) like any other adults. Anyway, I once participated in an online discussion - as an actually adult woman of 26 - and some creepy lady said to her buddies from the message board (I was new on there) that "a girl of 26 doesn't write like that" so I'm a much older troll, pretending I was a young woman - sorry; a GIRL

Great that the limitations concerning one's power over their own life don't last long and even as a teenager, you have some such rights. Like: at 16 you can get married (as a girl at least) here in Poland and if you do, you instantly get all the rights of adulthood, even after a divorce or if you became a widow the next day after your wedding. At 15 you can have legal sex with adults - and in some countries, the age of consent is even lower (like 14 in Austria or 13 in Spain). At 13 you can also decide in the court with which parent you want to stay after their divorce and so on. To the best of my knowledge, in Texas you can legally get married (with the court's permission, of course) at 14.