It’s easy being a teenager. What adult hasn’t thought that?
Let’s face it, for most teenagers life is very simple: no work, very few rules (keep your room clean, don’t stay out too late, don’t make too much noise, etc), able to come and go as they please, pretty much.
But it isn’t like that – it isn’t like that at all for them.
Teenagers are hybrid monsters.
Teenagers are neither adults nor children. Their bodies are subject to enormous, sudden variations. Their mental states are unpredictably affected by massive amounts of powerful, naturally-produced, mood enhancing/mood destroying narcotics.
Hormones – and puberty – combine to give teenagers the physical appearance of adults, with all the pleasing features that entails, yet those same hormones give teenagers the emotional stability of a five-year old child.
For the vast majority of teenagers, every day is filled with conflict. Every day is a day of imbalance.
Trust/distrust.
Love/loathing.
Trust/distrust.
Teenagers are capable of feeling all of these things – and some are capable of feeling all of these things at the same time.
It isn’t easy, being a teenager.
Capturing the angst, documenting the uncertainty of being a teenager was, I used to think, an impossible job.
And then I heard the track ‘Teen Idle’ by Marina and the Diamonds.
This song is an accurate, insightful portrayal of the conflicts that inhabit the physical/mental systems of a teenage girl.
You think you’re messed up?
Read these lyrics and become, for just a few minutes, a teenager once again; experience the conflicts that become, to a teenager, routine…
‘Teen Idle’, by Marina and the Diamonds
I wanna be a bottle blonde
I don’t know why but I feel conned
I wanna be an idle teen
I wish I hadn’t been so clean
I wanna stay inside all day
I want the world to go away
I want blood, guts and chocolate cake
I wanna be a real fake
Yeah I wish I’d been a, wish I’d been a teen, teen idle
Wish I’d been a prom queen fighting for the title
Instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible
Feeling super, super (super!) suicidal
The wasted years, the wasted youth
The pretty lies, the ugly truth
And the day has come where I have died
Only to find I’ve come alive
I wanna be a virgin pure
A 21st century whore
I want back my virginity
So I can feel infinity
I wanna drink until I ache
I wanna make a big mistake
I want blood, guts and angel cake
I’m gonna puke it anyway
Yeah I wish I’d been a, wish I’d been a teen, teen idle
Wish I’d been a prom queen fighting for the title
Instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible
Feeling super, super (super!) suicidal
The wasted years, the wasted youth
The pretty lies, the ugly truth
And the day has come where I have died
Only to find I’ve come alive
Come alive, I’ve come alive
I wish I wasn’t such a narcissist
I wish I didn’t really kiss the mirror when I’m on my own
Oh God! I’m gonna die alone
Adolescence didn’t make sense
A little loss of innocence
The ugly years of being a fool
Ain’t youth meant to be beautiful?
Yeah I wish I’d been a, wish I’d been a teen, teen idle
Wish I’d been a prom queen fighting for the title
Instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible
Feeling super, super (super!) suicidal
The wasted years, the wasted youth
The pretty lies, the ugly truth
And the day has come where I have died
Only to find I’ve come alive
Only to find I’ve come alive
Only to find I’ve come alive
Come alive
Feeling super, super, super! Suicidal
Feeling super, super, super! Suicidal
Feeling super, super, super! Suicidal
Come alive