Party, Study, Rinse & Repeat: The Myth of The Teenage Dream

Your teenage years can seem like the most important years of your life, despite the fact that they’re only the beginning. So, how did we get here, and how do we navigate this myth?

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Original Art by Krisha Soni

The average 13-19 year old is most likely incapable of partying, playing sports, in addition maintaining incredible test scores, all the while still being stress-free at the end. So how did so many teen dramas make these unrealistic expectations the norm?

“And I’m so sick of seventeen, where’s my _______ teenage dream?” belts Olivia Rodrigo in the opening lines of her song, “brutal”.

Where is our _______ teenage dream? For years, teenagers have switched on their TV screens, only to be faced with dramas and sitcoms featuring “teenagers” played by 20-something year olds with flawless bodies and impeccable social lives. Yet, when their thirteenth birthday finally rolls around and they blow out the candles, nothing happens.

It’s as if this precipice that we are promised is not truly there, leaving teenagers dangling on this impossible cliff. It leaves us all with so many questions: What really are our teenage years? How did we get to this point in media glamorization, and what lies beyond them?

I interviewed fifty teenagers from Bronx Science to truly understand how this glamorization affects us and how we can navigate it. 

Maggie Wan ’25 said, “You get the idea that teenagers in high school have drastically different lives than middle schoolers: you go out and party with a large friend group, go to the city together and stay up into the night, and it’s almost like school work just magically doesn’t exist – you rarely see anyone in those movies spend a decent amount of time on homework or studying for tests.” Wan brings up a concerning trend that emerges from all of this glitz and glamor that our television screens promise us when we reach thirteen. In the midst of all of the promises of parties and drama, we are failing real teenagers by discarding realistic depictions of teenage life when it comes to media glamorization. 

The teenagers on television screens rarely feel awkward and strange in their own body, despite that being one of the most common experiences out there. Through this focus on the “best parts” of being a teenager, an unrealistic ideal starts to take hold in many adolescents’ minds that their insecurities shouldn’t exist.  

When asked if they believed that they were wasting their teenage years, 72% of the interviewed students all answered “yes.” Nora Gupta ’25 provided reasoning to her answer by saying, “The media shows teenage life as something that should be spent out with friends, socializing sports, and still maintaining stellar grades. It confuses me on my priorities. I wonder if I am wasting my youth studying, or is it foolish to go and hang out with friends.”

The average thirteen to nineteen year old is most likely incapable of partying, playing sports, in addition maintaining incredible test scores, all the while still being stress-free at the end. So how did so many teen dramas make these unrealistic expectations the norm?

The answer lies within our minds.

In her article where she analyzed the allure of high school dramas, Eloise Raving wrote, “Teenagers in TV always have far more freedom then teens in real life. They never have to get parental permission to do anything. They risk their lives on a daily basis, investigate serial killers, and basically run the town. They have a strong sense of self. They aren’t lost and confused. They are teenagers designed by adults, and that makes a world of difference.”

Your actual teenage years don’t look like Riverdale, Gossip Girl, or Euphoria. In reality, it is the adults behind the screens who are writing out their fantasy teenage dreams. Teenagers are placed in a strange cusp between childhood and adulthood, and with the emphasis from the media, these years are often portrayed as the prime time of one’s life.

But they are not.

In reality, your teenage years are when the world can feel the most daunting. Emotions can run in extremes as hormone levels spike in abnormal ways, and it can be hard to differentiate between what is right or wrong. All the while, frantic thoughts of academics and college loom over teenagers’ heads. It can be practically impossible to have the perfect, Instagram-able life during these six years. So perhaps your teenage years are important – just like every other year of life. Spending them studying or just staying at home is not a waste of them. 

The memories made after teenage years can be just as special, if not more so. There will come a period of time where there is no longer the stress of tests and college looming around every corner. Even if that period comes with different hurdles, we will still be there to leap over them. The average human life lasts 80 years – there is time to do everything that the “Teenage Dream” promises while still studying and recharging. 

I know I’m not doing as much as I envisioned I would in high school, but that doesn’t mean I’m wasting my life away. High school is not the peak of your life, and I know that what I’m doing will give me good memories and is setting me up for a good future – even though it’s nothing big like winning Prom queen or getting a boyfriend,” said Kathy Le ’25, “I think that making friends and trying my hardest at my studies will be a lot more helpful in the long run than what the shows I watched as a kid prioritized. I’m not saying that those things are entirely useless or a waste of time, though; it’s important to have fun.” 

Making friends, having good grades, and maintaining good mental health are all important, but society should not dictate your life goals. Just because your life does not look like High School Musical does not mean that it is going to waste. Taking time to sleep and take care of yourself on a Saturday isn’t any less valuable than going out to karaoke with friends.

Bottom line: no matter what type of teenage dream is depicted in television shows or what the whole world may tell you about “the peak of your life,” life does not end after your teenage years. There truly is no “Teenage Dream.” If you ever find yourself thinking that you are not living the perfect teenage life, don’t worry.

Take heart. It will only get better from here.

It can be practically impossible to have the perfect, Instagram-able life during these six years. So perhaps your teenage years are important – just like every other year of life. Spending them studying or just staying at home is not a waste of them.