I’m just gonna go straight into this. From what I have experienced and seen through TV and Film, stereotypes are very prevalent in teen dramas. For example; in Gossip Girl, the main characters who are all teenagers are not necessarily misrepresented but are stereotyped. The rich teenagers are shown as snobby and ingenuine people. I understand why this wa done but at the same time I feel like this is unfair to those who don’t act this way. This representation just adds on to the negative connotation of “rich” teenagers.


To reiterate, Gossip Girl has a significant misrepresentation of teenagers. Not every teenager is so mischievous and rude. I say this because from what I can remember, every single teen in the show is completely irresponsible and obnoxious. This may seem sad, but I have seen all five season twice and each and every teen is shown in the worst way possible. Of course the characters have their moments where they shine and burst out of their bubble, but for the most part, it isn’t pretty.


Another media that has a lot of stereotypes with teens is High School Musical. This isn’t just for the first movie,but I’m talking about all of them. Again, in HSM the rich teens are seen as snobby and airheaded. The jocks are also dumb and are nothing more than just muscle with peewee brains. As someone in High School, I can safely say that this isn’t the case more many teens. When I say many, I mean the majority. Of course there are still teens that most definitely act this way.





As you can assume, I am not in favor of these representations. Although they may sometimes be accurate, this isn’t always the case. They are partially correct I would say. Personally, I know many teens who are incredibly responsible and that are extremely mature. I would retain the snobby characteristic because I have met my fair share of snobby teens. However, the idea of teens being lazy and jocks being dumb is absurd. This needs to be changed because many of the movies and TV shows that I know (which are primarily popular ones) express these negative attributes towards teens.