Straight Outta True Story

Teenagers today face a number of problems, ranging from peer pressure and alcohol, to depression and rape. These severe topics can have an intense effect on a growing child, now, and in the future. Many modern teenagers face the daily struggles of harmful situations, and the good and bad in them. In The Perks of Being a Wall Flower, Charlie faces almost every bad situation imaginable, in a heart breaking and realistic coming of age story. Charlie does not have the grandest high school experience, but the book represents the harsh and cruel reality of what so many students face today. Charlie, also being on the unclear side of what he was experiencing, was also hit hard with the outcomes of his actions. Drugs, alcohol, and sexual interaction contributed to the difficult standards that are held to growing students, in their fight to fit in. Every teen has faced the harsh reality of peer pressure and abuse, which takes a harsh effect on its victims. In the beginning of the story, Charlie faces the death of one of his friend Michael, to suicide. Starting the beginning of Charlie?s coming of age story, also known as a freshman in high school. Throughout the book, peer pressure, substance abuse, the fight to be normal, and the hope to have friends in the first place pushed Charlie to take the wrong path in some situations. Charlie?s coming of age story represents the teenage life today

In the book“Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character is “Melinda Sordino who is a freshmen in highschool that is having tough times fitting in after she called the cops on a party she was in and now almost everyone hates her, but then along the way she finds some friends who help her out. The message of this story is that no matter what you do you can always come through and defeat your fears of high school.

When I was fifteen, I was an ordinary girl. I got stressed about fitting in at school, worried about grades, had a secret crush, and had a not-so-secret addiction to Doctor Who. I had body image issues and was insecure, but knew that it was something everyone worried about. The only things that I cared about were the banal subjects that mattered, and will continue to matter, to every teenage girl in this American society. I loved going to school, if only to talk to my friends, and the only characteristic that made me different from any of them was my love of winter guard. All that my sweet little life consisted of until I was sixteen was my dream of becoming a lawyer and a vast array of minuscule problems that could probably have been fixed with a few kind words, or at least a little bit of chocolate. That all changed two months after my sixteenth birthday, when an unfortunate turn of events landed me in the hospital.

Arizona seventh-grader Olivia Vella choked up as she stood in front of her last week, delivering a powerful six-minute monologue about the reality of being a teenage girl today.The 13-year-old openly discussed the struggles young people face during those "awkward" middle school years. The peer pressure to look and act a certain way, the bullying ,all the challenges of transitioning into adulthood.

Teenagers are young, naïve and impressionable. They are also insecure and usually sometimes unable to express themselves so they put others down. They are pressured daily to do things they really don’t want to do. They often find themselves doing something they said they would never do. Because of the influence of those around them, they are trying to cover their insecurities by saying things to make others feel bad about themselves. The traits above describe the two main characters in the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”. Both Bernice and Marjorie are young teens dealing with the pressure of being popular and fitting in. Bernice, being the quieter, shyer girl, deals with trying to fit in in a place she feels she doesn’t belong.

A teenager Carrie White faces abuse from her disconnected, horrifying, devotedly religious mom. When weird incidents start to happen around Carrie, she begins to think that she has telekinesis powers. Her life starts to go down hill when she is invited to the prom by Tommy, a jock from her school. She tries to let her guard down, but when she gets pranked prom turns horrific. With her killing many students from her school she also kills her mom.

The novel “Speak”, by Laurie Halse Anderson captures the thoughts of a new high- schooler caught in some deep drama of the past. From the start of school, Melinda Sordino is shunned, glared at, talked about, and poked at because of one incident at a party from the end of last summer. With her friends turned away, her grades down, her family combative, and her looks deteriorating, what does she have left? Nothing has been seeming to go right for Melinda in and out of school since that night. She has silently appointed someone responsible for this situation, someone named “IT”, Andy Evans. Every time he’s around she feels sick. The protagonist of “Speak”, Melinda Sordino has become depressed, insecure of herself, and flustered around others.

It presents teenagers as we see ourselves: complex beings with real thoughts and feelings. I found the accuracy of this description refreshing because teenagers are usually portrayed as selfish and incapable of thinking of real issues. Green also included real problems in his novel, rather than the typical cliché love story. Through his characters, Green presents the theme that life will contain struggles, but struggles are what make life worth living. As a teenager who thinks her life is over when she gets one bad grade, I found this to be a liberating

On the first day of school, students from Mica High in Arizona are talking about the new girl named Stargirl Caraway who has been homeschooled. They mostly talk about her behavior. She plays her ukulele and sings the song Happy Birthday to people who she doesn’t even know. Stargirl also carries her pet rat Cinnamon in her bag with a sunflower on it. Two boys named Leo Borlock and Kevin Quilan were interested in Stargirl. They both have a disagreement on putting her on the Hot Seat, which is a school television program. Leo thinks that the broadcasting is going to cause a problem and doesn’t want to do it, but Kevin thinks that it is going to very popular. Eventually, the do the show and it did not go very well. Although people don’t interact

The historical context of this story is set back in the 1960’s. Using the historical approach we can see that the main character Connie was an average teen-ager of the time, with an overbearing mother, a workaholic father, and a sister who everyone wants her to be like instead of being herself. This story takes us on a tour of 1960s suburban neighborhood, from the viewpoint of a teenager: drive-ins, dating, restaurants, shopping malls, movie theaters, and "ranch"-type homes.

Everyone greets her in the hallways, wishing to be her friend. Each morning she looks in the mirror searching for something she'll never find. Her eyes are sinking deep into her face and her smile no matter how hard she tries is always forced. Her mother hands her some uplifting pamphlets that tell her things get better and she's not alone. The colorful charts and pictures display signs and treatments for teens living with depression. She slides her hand over the glossy paper and slowly shreds it with her hands. Her friend of fifteen years watches her breaking from the

In this way, at its core, the problem at hand is one of power. Because she is different, she is a threat to their own identities and own position within the system of power. As a result, Jess’s peers must take her identity away from her. By creating a guessing game out of her gender gender [“a group of girls squealed as I passed, ‘Is it animal, mineral, or vegetable?” (24)], or letting her know Jess “[isn’t] a girl’s name” (25), her classmates deprive her of the option to define her own identity. As she and her peers “mature”, so does the caliber of harassment. When she’s young enough to describe the sky as “crayon blue” (17) the bullying manifests as tying her up and stripping her to “see how [she] tinkles” (18) and once she’s in high school, it progresses even further to the rape. The dissonance of needing to categorize her while at the same time being unable to do so is perhaps so conflicting they have nowhere to go but violence.

This novels plot of a girl transitioning her sexuality from a straight woman who is very popular within the school to discovering that she is a lesbian and her classmates outcasting her from the popular group proves to be the most interesting aspect of this novel. A strong point within this novel is Holland’s decision to cast aside her socially accepted image and explore her desire for Goddard. A weak point within this novel can be viewed through Holland’s classmates, who treat her as a stranger and outcast her from their “popular” group. Reader who are unsure about their sexual identity and seek novel that portray a courageous character that discovers a true definition of themeless may find this novel extremely interesting. The role model within this novel is Holland, who believes that although she has lost her past popular, but has developed into stronger individual through her loss. As for the age, I would recommend that only teenagers ages fourteen to adult’s should read this

MTV’s popular show involves a main character in high school named Jenna Hamilton. All Jenna wants is to live a normal life, but this comes as a struggle to Jenna. Especially since she had a misunderstood incident that people took as a suicide attempt. This really affected how people perceived Jenna, who already felt like an “awkward girl” in high school beforehand. She than receives a letter that is critical towards Jenna, which drives her to improve herself.

A story about a popular teenage girl that apparently has the perfect life, like in every movie. But behind the perfect hair and makeup there is a secret