According to the Webster’s Dictionary, teenagers are a minority. The first listed definition of “minority” is: “the state of being a legal minor: the period of being under full legal age.” Teenage culture can also be described by Webster’s definition of “minority group”: “a group characterized by a sense of separate identity and forms or is held to form a part.” So yes, teenagers are a minority by definition. The issue with labeling them as such is the emotional connotation that is attached to the term “minority”. Our society views minorities as underprivileged victims of discrimination whose rights we must protect in the name of equality; they deserve rights equal to those granted to the majority group. Teenagers’ rights are not equal to those held by the members of the majority group of legal adults, and there is good reason for that.
When I was a teenager, which was not that long ago, I thought that I was emotionally ready to experience all the things that adults are able to experience, and I was quite offended by my parents’ restrictions. Looking back, I wish they had been more strict and spent more time talking about why I could not just live my life however I pleased. I wouldn’t have listened to them, and still would have spent the majority of my time sulking in my bedroom listening to Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins; alternative rock stars were the only ones who could understand me. But that was okay. I realize now that I was one of many, probably most, teenagers who feels oppressed by her parents and fantasizes about the day she can do whatever she wants.
That day has come, sort of. I can do whatever I want, but what I want is a decent life for myself, so I spent the past four years finishing a Bachelor’s degree while working and raising a child on my own. My free time consists of trips to grocery store, laundry, scrubbing toilets, mopping floors, cooking, and, last but not least, caring for my son’s needs. My hard work earns me the right to “do what I want” when I have a chance.
The biggest problem facing today’s young people is that parents are not stepping up and doing their job, because they are too worried about being the nice guy and befriending their children. That mindset of being a cool friend rather than a mean, restrictive parent is especially detrimental during the teenager years when what the child needs most is to be protected from their own impulses. If labeling our teenagers a “minority” means that their parents’ restrictions will be viewed as oppression toward a less fortunate group, then we can’t do it.