Did you like being a teenager?

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Jlaw118@reddit

I started enjoying my life more when I was 16 and left school for college. I started developing more of a social life, had more freedom in general. But from being 13+ I wasn’t particularly happy. I hated school, I didn’t have any friends and my home life wasn’t the greatest at that period of my life either

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Living-Sport9185@reddit

Same here too. Experienced quite a negative atmosphere in school and then I would go home to an older brother who bullied me daily and basically hated my existence. Then I went to a new college in another city and my world opened up and my life improved, making friends I still have now. It balanced out the bad, eventually wiping most of the bad out.

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icemonkey92@reddit

Snap

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C0nnectionTerminat3d@reddit

On the whole, no. I was bullied by my friend group so badly i was pulled out of school when i was 13, so i lost my typical high school experience everyone is supposed to have. Consequently, I didn’t have a very good self image and was quite depressed between ages 13-16. I started a year 11s college course, but i only spent a few months there because of covid, so 🤷🏻‍♀️ ages 17-18 wasn’t too bad, and the closest i got to “normal”. I was in full time college, with friends and hit normal teenage milestones like my first crush etc. Then when i was 19 (assuming we count that as teenager) I hit severe burnout from trying too hard in college and had a bit of a mental breakdown due to home life. I also found out i was autistic during this.

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Max-8001-23@reddit

Wow, your story sounds just like mine! I was bullied by my "friend" group too. I was also diagnosed with ADHD as a child and I was seen a weird by both students and teachers. It messed me up. I have just finished working with a therapist in December after 3 years and I'm also away from my old town and starting to do a lot better in life and trying to find some fellow neurodivergent group of friends here where I am now. I hope you can get the right help you need and you can enjoy your 20s!

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TempAcc1956@reddit

Same happened to me bullied by my social group although I didn't leave school. You're lucky you got out at 13 though because staying leaves a mark on you. Sometimes I wished I was one of those kids that left in the early years.

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Intelligent-SoupGS88@reddit

I'm just glad I was a teenager in the late 90s / early 00's. The last generation able to experience life and freedom to express ourselves without social media, mobile phones and cameras recording our every move to compare and judge eachother. Whilst growing up was hard, life was free and full of colour.

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Fun-Shelter-4636@reddit

i always say this. I was born in 2001 and i’d say, anyone born before 2004 had the last good upbringing. My 2 year old cousin already knows how to work an iphone, it’s crazy. It kinda saddens me tbh. I have sm great memories growing up and being left alone with my imagination.

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anon733772772@reddit

I was born 2001 and wouldn’t count us to be honest I think 1995 or earlier. I had Snapchat at 14 and blackberry messenger before that and Facebook yeah maybe very early years I didn’t have social media but I remember having YouTube on my iPod touch at 10/11 don’t think it’s changed all that much tbh.

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Fun-Shelter-4636@reddit

ah you had stuff a lot younger than me so maybe that’s why you feel that way.

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_Jayman__@reddit

The thing is your cousin will likely the same at your age wherever technology takes us

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XihuanNi-6784@reddit

Unlikely that things will change significantly from this point onwards. The speed of technological change has massively slowed. If you compare the last 10 years to the 10 years before that very little has changed. Between 2014 and 2024 we got very little big change. Smart phones were already ubiquitous and social media was already pretty mature. It peaked a few years later but other than that there have been no major changes. Between 2004 and 2014 we got broadband internet, the shift of the world of work and school from primarily offline to primarily online, smart phones and digital personal photography, social media, and the truly 24h news cycle, as well as globalisation of information and algorithmic tailoring of online experiences through personal smart devices. There's no comparably large shift on the horizon. Even the recent AI craze is largely overblown and is mostly a smallish step in what algorithms were already doing for us, they just "talk" now. But they're large language models not genuinely "thinking" machines. That's not to say this won't have big implications for many jobs, but in reference to what you were saying about kids and their experience of the world I don't think it will change nearly as much as all that.

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_Jayman__@reddit

Neuro-link?

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James-StJohnSmythe@reddit

What?

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Bbew_Mot@reddit

Whilst social media has brought it's challenges, I wouldn't say that it ruined my teenage years.

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Pen_dragons_pizza@reddit

I guess it’s that kind of case of not knowing if it’s better with or without though. Personally MySpace came around when I was 15, so I got a good amount of childhood/teenage years without before life became consumed by social media. I often think back to a time before and honestly it was better without, yes we were without connection, information and ease but life had more mystery and I sure as hell felt better about myself before I had a chance to slowly compare myself to others.

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XihuanNi-6784@reddit

My space is also very different to the social media we now have. That was what I would call 'true' social media, which was designed to connect you to people you already know or are likely to already know or want to know soon. Modern social media is largely focused on advertising, rage bait, and contentious interactions with strangers. Just think about how Facebook has changed. I now only see updates on my friends if I go directly to their pages, the algorithm no longer shows me their lives by default, and I haven't interacted with someone I know on Facebook directly in years.

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hyper-casual@reddit

Myspace being at its peak as I was a teenager enhanced my teen years. I've got so many in-person mates I met via MySpace that I still see now, 2+ decades later. Although if my nephew told me he was going to go meet a person he'd never met off the internet I'd 100% assume they're on their way to get nonced. It was also the thing that had the most influence on my music taste.

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MDL1983@reddit

Agreed. I think I peaked @ 13 😂

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Affectionate_Hour867@reddit

I was born in 1991 and phones with cameras were a staple of our last years at High School. Thing is it never seemed to much and we didn’t sit on our phones as they were pretty much just a phone, camera and mp3 player at that time. Now you can control your whole life through your phone and can get anything pretty much instantly from it. There’s no need to put it down and it will have such a huge impact on future generations.

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Tulcey-Lee@reddit

I agree with this. We must be a similar age as I was a teenager around that time too. So glad we didn’t have social media.

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CarolDanversFangurl@reddit

Nope hated it. Best years of your life my arse.

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St2Crank@reddit

If anyone thinks being in school is the best years of their life, I feel very fucking sorry for them.

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Other_Exercise@reddit

It's hard to understand when someone's highest gleaming mountain peak is our lowest, darkest valley.

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St2Crank@reddit

It’s not even that. You’re comparing a time when all you did was go to the same place everyday and basically had no free agency. To all the years that came afterwards where you could have done literally anything you wanted to. You had the whole world to do whatever you wanted, and nothing compared to English followed by chemistry on a Monday morning.

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theivoryserf@reddit

Conversely, for some people it's being surrounded by friends and peers, discovering lots of things for the first time, having few responsibilities and lots of time to muck about

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St2Crank@reddit

There’s literally nothing stopping people doing that when they leave school though.especially the 16-20 age bracket. People get extra responsibilities through choice, if those choices have got them to a place where they are not as happy as when they were in school I feel sorry for them and hope they can find what makes them happy.

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St2Crank@reddit

So can your time after school, it’s not limited to that. As I said, if that was the best time of your life I feel sorry for you. My life has got consistently better as I’ve gotten older, I want that for everyone.

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XihuanNi-6784@reddit

This is highly tendentious framing. It's also a time where you spent 90% of your time with friends and other people your age - yes, even in lessons, there was plenty of mucking around and enjoyable times even when you were supposed to be working. You could select, to a large extent, who you hung around with. If you were lucky you didn't have too many responsibilities when you got home because you had decent-ish parents who would do major household tasks like cooking and child care of siblings. My parents were lower middle class (dad was a skilled tradesman, mum was a teacher) lucky enough to own our home. Minimal social capital but we were economically stable and while we didn't have luxuries we went on holiday every other year, sometimes abroad sometimes not. And personally while I wouldn't say it was the best time of my life, school was remarkably carefree compared to having to work 9 to 5, with a much longer commute, as well as handle all the household tasks, organise my life, plan ahead, etc. To suggest that you have so much freedom afterwards is only true for some people. You cannot just go anywhere and be anything. Your upbringing, social class, and grades *heavily* affect what and where you can go once you leave school. And now I see my friends WAY less than I did before.

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St2Crank@reddit

But you do have the freedom to go anywhere and do anything you want. You literally do, I’m not saying everything is easy, you may have to work hard but that’s your choice. This isn’t me talking from a position of privilege, I grew up in a single parent family in a tiny terrace house in Salford. All the responsibilities you’ve got now are the result of a choice you’ve made, and if you’re not happy with it you can change it at any point. Anyway, kids will be up in a minute, hope you have a nice Christmas and you find what makes you happy.

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Electrical-Curve6898@reddit

Same here. Not to sound edgy but even my 20s have felt like an extension of my teenage years.

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SentientWickerBasket@reddit

They kind of are nowadays, certainly until you find your footing and start building your life in a solid direction. It's a pretty common mistake - I know I made it - to assume that your 20s are what adult life is like, especially It's not, really. Despite what Reddit says, we do live in a country where some effort still generally pays off; it's part of living in a liberal nation that nobody's going to come and build you the perfect life, and it's up to you to climb out of the minimum-wage flat share situation. It's not a perfect system, but there is a path through it. God, it's so annoying when I see people on this website going "the only reward for hard work is more work" - no, it's more skills that you can put on your CV and move on up. Take opportunities, guys.

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Loud_Fisherman_5878@reddit

Agreed. All the responsibilities of an adult (at least a childless one), as you are expected to set up the rest of your life with the exams you’re taking and the choices you’re making but with none of the freedom. As an adult if you are in a miserable job or relationship you can leave it (not saying it is easy). As a teenager if your family is awful or your school terrible, you are mostly stuck with it.

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XihuanNi-6784@reddit

I had a good time personally. My friend group was stable with minimal drama. I was too lame for girlfriends so there wasn't much going on there. No one died or got shot or got pregnant or got disowned. My parents were overall supportive and not too strict. I was lucky tbh.

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Agreeable_Fig_3713@reddit

I dunno. I was just normal. I was fine in highschool socially but never liked school, I had plenty pals and was always out with them. I left school at fifteen and left home at sixteen for vocational training. I was qualified and married at nineteen. Teen stretches over several life stages to just be the one thing. Being thirteen with my pals and boyfriend smoking in the school toilets or going to discus and raves was so different to being nineteen with a job and a house and a husband

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commanderdiana@reddit

I hated it at the time, but I’d do anything to have that back again. I think I just miss having a promising future, instead of the depressing reality of the present.

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RangeLongjumping412@reddit

Teenager in late 90s and I hated it. Yes there were fun moments but I was so stressed out I had to take tablets to try and reduce the amount of mouth ulcers. Girls were so bitchy, boys just tried to undo your bra or constantly asked if I was an aeroplane blonde. I was so shy I couldn’t get a boyfriend when everyone else did. I had braces. Ewww!!

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EverybodySayin@reddit

My later teens were the best years of my life. My earlier teens not so much. I really struggled in secondary school due to ADHD as I found my ability to focus and produce work completely tied to my interest in the subject. My highest and lowest grades on my GCSEs varied wildly and I just fucking hated most of my lessons. I had a good social life at least but I just always had this dread of going to school hanging over me. When I got to college to study a topic I had a lot of interest in, I was excelling in classes, I got out of my ugly duckling phase and started becoming quite successful with girls, I went from my awkward weird kid phase in school to being pretty popular and I have a lot of great memories from that period in my life.

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Other_Exercise@reddit

I really don't think anyone's early teens are the best years of their lives, unless they are an anomaly. No one I've met wants to be 14 again.

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Psycho_Splodge@reddit

No. Plenty of drinking and sex. But everything else was just so much hassle.

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GruffScottishGuy@reddit

Yes. Things definitely started looking up from my early/mid teens onwards but I still had my struggles. Leaving school at 16 was when things properly got better as it felt like I was finally able to make decisions for myself and from 18 onwards into my early 20's was probably the happiest period of my life.

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SpecialUnitt@reddit

Yes, I had ample time and freedom. Wish I savoured it a bit more

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UrMomDotCom666@reddit

i'm 18 right now so not fully done yet. but i don't think there will be a worse period of my life than what my teen years have been, and 1/2 years of childhood. there hasn't been a single day in the last 6 years that i didn't want to shoot myself in the head

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springsomnia@reddit

The worst point of my life. I was bullied as a teenager and most of my current mental health problems stem from that period.

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Interesting-Scar-998@reddit

I hated it. The bodily changes were terrifying to me, and so was how I was treated by.my peers and adults. I looked like an adult but was treated l8keca baby by older people.

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notThaTblondie@reddit

I was a teenager in the late 90's. Lots of bits of being a teen sucked, the UK in the 90s was the pinnacle of human existence, the greatest era we have known. I'd go back in a heartbeat if I could.

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Zanki@reddit

Yes and no. Being a teen, young adult is great, but my situation was bad. No friends, badly bullied and my mum was abusive. I had no freedom, had no autonomy. It was my mum's way or she was going to get violent if she didn't get her way. It sucked. When I wasn't in school I was cut off from my peers. I had a phone but I was only allowed to use it to contact my mum. If credit went missing she was on my ass unless it was just a monthly text to keep the line open. I didn't have a computer or the internet, so that was out. The worst part was I was expected to be outside of the house all day all summer with absolutely nothing to do and no one to talk to. I wasn't allowed to take anything with me apart from my bike. It was very lonely. She wasn't happy when I memorised my library card number so I could use their computers for an hour and get books. She screamed at me over bringing books home. I wasn't allowed to take books out of the library even though I'd run out of books to read. When I turned 16 I wasn't allowed outside alone at all. Not because I did anything wrong, mum was just coming down on me hard because she could. I couldn't even watch TV after 8pm, 9pm was my bedtime until the bedtime war when I was 17. I missed out on Friends, all the movies my peers were watching on the weekends and talking about. Generally I only got to watch kids TV and movie wise I had to beg her for dvds when we went shopping (I didn't get pocket money). My life was hell back then. I didn't hate being a teen, I haven't hated any age I've been so far, but I've hated the situations I've been forced into.

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anonymouse39993@reddit

Much prefer being an adult 30+ has been the best time of my life

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Dissidant@reddit

Circa early to mid 90's. It was fine but had an awful lot going on at home One thing I'll say is even if you were poor, extra curricular stuff (sports etc) were affordable

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aspieringnerd@reddit

Miss the lack of responsibilities and the enthusiasm I had, don't miss the hormones and the bullying

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Annual-Ad-7780@reddit

I was born in 1976, was 18 in 1994, one of the best years of my life that. The Internet as we know it wasn't a thing yet, the nearest to social media was writing in to various games mags etc.

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Tao626@reddit

I thought it was great, tbh. From 15/16, at least. My childhood/home life wasn't great, and neither were the years of mandatory education. At 16 where I could turn my back on most of that is basically when I really gained freedom and found largely all my interests and friends. Collage put me among a group of people who for the first time shared interests with me and thought I was "cool", I made lots of friends, found a hell of a lot of freedom as I became one of those teens that was never at home and went "missing" for days. I admittedly went a bit "off the rails", went a bit mad with how easily I was fitting in and finding popularity, but it led to some great memories. It was also what I feel were peak Internet days, where it was a wild west and you could really find anything for any niche, before everything became a bit sterilised and controlled. This helped to shape a lot of my less mainstream interests, especially my music taste, which as a musician was a huge thing for me. Pre-16, I had no interest in music whatsoever as I just didn't click with any of the limited "radio friendly" stuff I head which made me think "well, if that's what music is, I don't care". 16+ was basically good enough that if given the choice to change it, I wouldn't trade the 15 years of shit prior for the risk of not having those couple of character defining years.

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leclercwitch@reddit

It was fucking terrible, I was bullied badly all the way from reception to year 11 and for about a year or so after I left, too. Same kids all the way through (mum sent me to the same high school they were going to) as such, I don’t remember big chunks of my childhood because I’ve trauma blocked it all out 😂 it’s changed me as an adult I’m very wary of people now. It’s not a good way to grow up

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Aggressive_Revenue75@reddit

I hated how my mind became dominated by thoughts about the opposite sex and self consciousness. I loved how physically fit I was.

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bigfriendlycommisar@reddit

I'm two years in and it's been fun so far

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prodbybaz@reddit

13 14 was good. Just got into comp. Made some friends. 15 to 19 my life went to shit. Got into drugs and drinking. I actually don’t know how it could’ve got any worse other than dying maybe. Turned 20 in July and finally getting my shit together.

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Sammiebear_143@reddit

I hated being a teenager. I was bullied all through school, college, and even my early adulthood in work. My home life wasn't that good either. The only thing that kept me half sane at school was the school band. The only plus side is going through what I went through, I was able to help my kids negotiate through their much smaller bullying experiences, and I'm glad that they seem to have had better experiences as a teenager than I did.

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theglamgardener@reddit

Nope! I grew up in a very rural area with no public transport in my village, so I felt very trapped. My parents and I also lived in a tiny bungalow, so there was very little privacy. I've always been very independent, and I found that environment quite stifling. I left for uni and never moved back. I still sometimes have bad dreams that I am trapped in the body of a teenager, but with my 31 yo brain.

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Nyx_Necrodragon101@reddit

I hated it. I was spotty, greasy (turned out I had a skin condition) and an undiagnosed depressive. I stopped liking being a kid since starting school. Secondary was pretty rough I basically just spent my entire time reading, looking at pictures of dead bodies on [Rotten.com](http://Rotten.com) or playing post-to-play advanced D&D. My seizures also skyrocketed around that time. On top of that I was still being relentlessly bullied.

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eggpotion@reddit

Yea I'm actually enjoyed it. I'm 16. I've just watched myself slowly mature over time, and it's not stopping. It's kinda difficult to compare to adulthood because I'm only 16

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Cythreill@reddit

I really loved 13-14, but then I got hit by a car, parents divorced, and lived in emotional neglect. My primary feeling 14-17 was one of despair. I didn't even think about passing high school, and I had (through my depression) distanced myself from every friend I had. At 19 (close to 20) I went to uni and I very much loved life again, albeit with a little anxiety and social dysfunction because of not really being social the 3 prior years.

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pajamakitten@reddit

I could have done without the bullying at school. That said, puberty did not hit me hard at all and that meant teenage me found it all rather OK. I was just lonely really.

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a_sword_and_an_oath@reddit

I liked that time period. Carefree, so few responsibilities, friends around me all the time However I was a suicidal, hormonal, angst ridden mess. So man6 biological drives with very little ability to process consequences . It was ups and down, I don't think I'd like to do it again.

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WantsToDieBadly@reddit

Hated it, lived rurally so it was driven to school, come home and that's it. Spent most of the time on my Xbox and since we lived in the countryside there was nothing to do. Being a teen in the vountryside sucks and theres a reason im socially awkward now lol

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sjintje@reddit

A disproportionate number of redditors had unpleasant teenage and/or childhoods.

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BrieflyVerbose@reddit

It was my favourite time of my life. Not even up for debate.

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Academic_Rip_8908@reddit

I liked being 19, if that counts? Living away at university, being young and beautiful, having great hair, eating whatever I wanted and being reasonably skinny. But as for being a teenager in secondary school, fuck that! It was so toxic and other kids were shit to me because I'm gay. I love being an adult and choosing who to spend my time with.

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verybadgay@reddit

No, I really struggled. If I could do it again with the confidence of mid-30s me, I’m sure I’d have a great time.

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fuckingreetinnitbro@reddit

No it was awful, I was severely bullied and abused by older kids because we was poor, endured years of physical and metal torture since before I was a teen, it's probably why I'm an emotionless psychopath that has no love or time for anyone except my wife and daughter.

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hyper-casual@reddit

I hated being a teenager. I was popular and I got good grades, so school and social life wasn't an issue, I was just horrendously depressed and tried to end it a few times. My mates were great and stuck by me but you can't really explain to a group of teenage boys that you don't want to be alive and that's why you're not going to come out with them. I was actually trying to get help the entire time but I might as well have been speaking to a brick wall. Once I turned 18-19 I basically spent the majority of my time drunk which lasted close to a decade. I also grew up extremely poor, so from 16 onwards I worked 20+ hours a week while trying to do college, which significantly worsened my depression and I dropped out which put an end to my dreams of being a doctor. There was some positives from those years. I did make some great mates and my teens formed my taste in music which led to being in bands, touring etc in my 20s which was fun.

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miz_moon@reddit

No, I hated being treated like a child (eg having to ask to go to the toilet) but also being treated like a full on adult and like I should know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life career-wise.

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Apidium@reddit

Hated it. Was depressed and suicidal for most of it.

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BeastMidlands@reddit

No. I was ugly and awkward (still am). Bullied regularly. Gay and closeted which was utterly awful and I don’t think people who don’t experience that have any idea how awful it is.

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Emotional_Butterf1y@reddit

Being 50 and looking back, I didn’t appreciate being a teenager. Would i rather be a teenager? Yup, I’d sell my soul for it.

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Logical_Strain_6165@reddit

If you count 18 and 19 as being a teenager then yes. But broadly I hated it. My 20s were the best period of my life. For those that idolise times past then yes, some things were better. I cringe when I hear my college talk about how they can track their teenage son with his iphone, but there was plenty of stuff that was shit as well.

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Electrical-Curve6898@reddit

Not really. It wasn't a nice time for me.

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screwfusdufusrufus@reddit

Yeah and I hated it. Real highs and lows, love and despair. I wish I could feel with that intensity. I don’t miss the violence, there was a lot of fighting. Being small and of vaguely bohemian parents, I had a target on my back for bullying. Combined with being argumentative, I got punched a lot.

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NumeroRyan@reddit

Not at all, it was confusing time trying to understand your place in the world whilst caring too much about trivial things. I was unhappy at home but moved out (kicked out) when I was 19 but never looked back. Being a teenage sucked.

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The_Sown_Rose@reddit

No. I wasn’t very good at being a child generally, my friend jokes that I was born old which had the effect of I didn’t really relate to other kids my age - the things most of my classmates liked I didn’t get, and my interests weren’t widely shared. I didn’t know then but I was going to be asexual so when the hormones kicked in and other girls my age were becoming interested in boys and getting crushes, I really didn’t understand because I didn’t feel the same, so the joke became Rosie is a lesie (as in lesbian; it wasn’t a fantastic rhyme) because this was when being homosexual was still a bit funny, but that wasn’t true either so I was very confused. I’m a lot happier as an adult, the things that made me a weird unlikeable child make me an interesting adult, and I have so many more friends now.

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-myeyeshaveseenyou-@reddit

I was 17 in 2001. It was absolutely the sweet spot in life. I love my life now but it has a lot of stress and financial worries. At 17 I was decent looking, had all my career dreams ahead of me, had a gorgeous boyfriend, saw my friends 5 days a week in school, had very few responsibilities. I started dinner and laundry when I got home from school as my parents got home later and I had a part time job but beyond that my only responsibilities were school. I’ve lived through some absolutely hellish situations in the 23 years since being 17. 17 was really the very last fairly carefree year I’ve lived

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Bbew_Mot@reddit

It was OK, it probably got a bit boring at times and wasn't as good as my years as a student for the most part.

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ChanCuriosity@reddit

I hated it. I was chubby (although looking back at pics, not the fat bastard I thought I was at the time — thanks, body dysmorphia!) and spotty, and trying to navigate life while being autistic but not realizing it! (I was 41 when eventually diagnosed.) I was shy to the point of terrified about approaching girls, too. You couldn’t pay me enough to go through my teenage years again.

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Meet-me-behind-bins@reddit

I liked being 17-19. All of the fun, none of the responsibilities.

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oudcedar@reddit

There was a lot of stress about exams as getting into uni was far harder, and I was unsure about my general attractiveness but having multiple parties every week from 15-18 and learning the whole pub and gigging culture in that time was great and set my life pattern for decades. I mostly loved it and was a bit more disappointed at Uni as I had to work a bit harder on the social side, with less success.

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Unseasonal_Jacket@reddit

It was varied. I seem to remember having a great time in the waning years of proper childhood year 7&8 but as soon as the majority (boys) hit puberty everyone was mean and moody and basically horrible. Then by about 16 when everyone was out the other side it all picked up again and I had a great time.

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Neither-Drive-8838@reddit

I loved the secret cigarettes.

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LithiuMart@reddit

Nope. I was a teenager in the 1980s, and hated secondary school. I was singled out and picked on by the physical education teachers because of my small size, something that would never pass today and get them involved in a law suit or a dismissal.

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BreqsCousin@reddit

No, being an adult is much nicer. Yes I have responsibilities but with those responsibilities comes agency.

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Equivalent-Night-581@reddit

Hated 13-16, loved 16-19.

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DimensionMajor7506@reddit

As a teenager I certainly wasn’t happy. Often felt suicidal and would hurt myself. Had pretty bad anxiety issues around talking in school, which were always brushed off as shyness. Don’t think I fully realised this until I left school; even now when I think back to my time in school I start feeling that same anxiety that I have seldom felt since leaving. Looking back, yes it was nice to have no real responsibilities and life was easier, but it didn’t feel like this at the time.

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Racing_Fox@reddit

Nah it was pretty shit

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Alwayslearnin41@reddit

I hated it. My teens were not the best years of my life. And I grew up in the 90s - which I would still say was the best decade. My 40s have been far far better. I'm happier, more free, no school, adult kids that I love being with. I love life now.

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AonghusMacKilkenny@reddit

Early/mid teens no, late teens yes

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Realistic-River-1941@reddit

I didn't realise how miserable school was until I left and found life doesn't have to about constant low-level violence and always thinking "is it safe to do X?"

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dragonetta123@reddit

I was a teenager in the 90s, so yeah. I did things like air cadets and then TA. I had friends I'd hang with at weekends. Reading town centre was ok at that point. No phones. My son is 14 now, and his life is so different to mine (apart from sleeping in on non school days, that we both do).

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Stunning-Profit8876@reddit

No. They were the worst years of my life.

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District_Free@reddit

Total shit. Years of camhs and antidepressants and no one listening to me, believing me or valuing my opinion.

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Jazzy0082@reddit

16-18 was a great time for me. I went to an all boys school, but girls joined in 6th form. Life became a lot more fun, and I had absolutely no responsibilities.

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Oversteer_@reddit

At the time probably not that much. At that age i was optimistic that things in the future would only get better and better. Grass is always greener and all that. I mean my life is fine now but not exactly as i'd have pictured it going back then. I wouldn't say it's markedly improved now and looking back they were great times. Perhaps that is some rose tinted specs talking too....

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BenHDR@reddit

100%. I'm in my late 20's now but my teenage years were a lot of fun (*although idiotic - I wish I never dropped out of college and got some A-Levels*). 13-16 were pretty standard fare, I was lucky enough to blend in with the popular crowd for most of it. Had a blast messing around in school, although I wish I listened more and took advantage of what was available to me at the time. 17-19 was spent (*mostly*) working a really fun job, drinking far too much, occasionally doing drugs and eating a *lot* of food with my friends. Had a couple of beautiful girlfriends over that time period as well who were both really fun to spend time with. Once I left those years though, that lack of planning really bit me in the arse. Most of my mates were off completing their university degrees or had landed 'real' jobs by that point. Life went significantly downhill in my 20's, but I'm slowly getting back to a good place.

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Dramatic-Doctor-7386@reddit

After 14, yes. I stopped being so ashamed of myself and accidentally found friends who were also weird. I had the raucous early 2000s to enjoy. Lots of drinking, smoking and knocking about in the local parks. Probably the last generation with real freedom, I guess.

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AdSlow9476@reddit

Yes loved it. Mid 90s, wouldn’t be as keen now

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Sensitive_Ad_9195@reddit

I mean I had a lot of fun but it also was absolutely awful at times - it was like everything was much more intense (love, hate, joy, sorrow) and the weight of feeling like the decisions you make and grades you achieve during such a short period will determine the outcome of your life at large weighed extremely heavy for me. I wouldn’t re-live my teens if you paid me.

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Swimming_Possible_68@reddit

Early teens was awful - Uber geeky, completely lacking confidence. Late teens, especially once I got a car, was an awesome, party filled booze fuelled festival! Especially as I started working at 16 so had a bit of disposable income. House parties like something out of an American teen movie were not uncommon. Just wish I was a little more confident with the ladies. I look at pictures of me back then and realise I was nowhere near as geeky / ugly as I thought.

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JennyW93@reddit

Nah, I was deeply mentally ill and was brushed off as being a regular moody teenager (despite numerous serious attempts on my life). I was also subject to some pretty intense homophobia and conversion therapy by teaching staff at my school (the kids were always totally chill about it). Finally got proper help in my mid-20s, so I’d say my late 20s/early 30s were much better.

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cgknight1@reddit

Across my teenaged years, I had a lot of sex, some scrapping, some drugs and the usual emotional experiences. It was fine but being an adult with actual money and real agency is better.

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Hamsternoir@reddit

18/19 was a lot of fun, the rest was a bit shit although looking back at the lack of responsibility and the freedom it probably wasn't all that bad. As for the stereotypical teenage thing I actually wonder how accurate that is. Anecdotally my kids have been fine, none of the moods or other stuff, and all their mates seem the same.

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Happy-Bad-7226@reddit

Yeah it was the easiest time of my life especially 16-19

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Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit

Yes I did, had no responsibilities or cares in the world. Whilst having a little bit more independence and autonomy than when I was in primary school.

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hollow_metal@reddit

It's been so long since I was a teenager, I can barely remember it lol.

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IAmTheOneWhoReddits8@reddit

I loved being a teenager however I’m sure my parents would tell you there were moody/hormonal episodes that you might not have been self aware of.

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