did anyone else think being a teenager would be cool?

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When I turned 13 I thought being a teenager would be fun, exciting, and cool. Doing stereotypical stuff like going to parties, and hanging out with friends and all of the other teenager stuff you can think of. Basically the opposite happened, i'm lonelier than ever, and don't do much. Does anyone else feel this way? Guess I expected too much. Too bad life isn't a disney movie

No, I was afraid of stuff like having to give up things I enjoyed as a kid, such as playing with dolls and stuffed animals or watching cartoons. And that school would be much harder, especially math because of my dyscalculia. All NT teens seem to care about is fitting in and sex and doing stupid things like smoking and underage drinking.

I never really thought much about having to give up child stuff because in my eyes, teenagers are still children.

Being a teenager meant not giving up most of the things I enjoyed as a kid, while also having more independence and doing a lot of stereotypical teenage things like hook-ups and experimenting with intoxicants.

As Beavis and Butthead would say, it was pretty cool.

I was excited about the freedoms associated with adolescence (e.g. picking your classes, having a phone, etc) but afraid of what would happen with my peers. I'd seen fictional portrayals of teens becoming ruthless bullies, doing drugs, having sex, etc, and I didn't want to get caught up in the drama. I guess it worked out as expected; I love taking classes I enjoy and texting friends and such, but I hate how so many of my elementary friends took a turn for the worst.

It's weird. I remember hating my teenage years. They sucked. But it was mainly me that made them suck. The way I reacted to stuff. I have to take responsibility for my sh***y teenage years.

When you look back, all you can see is the freedom from commitments you didn't realise you had and how profoundly unimportant everything you worried about was and the excitement you should have had about a future of infinite possibilities, and how every new piece of writing or music or film made you feel like your brain expanded somehow and all the time you had to just do whatever you felt like and be whoever you wanted.

It was rubbish. But all the ingredients were there for it to be fantastic.

Or, more pithily, youth is wasted on the young.

The worst years of my life by a very long way were ages 11-16. I don't remember having many expectations of being a teenager, though - I hadn't read or watched much stuff that glamourised it.

Being a teenager was very hard