Where are all the ugly teens?

[PattyDuckface]

I want to preface this with Just For Fun. I don't judge people on their looks, I am just indulging my inner superficial anthropologist.

• Why are all teens good looking these days?

When I was a teen we all looked pretty random and not very polished to be honest, a few people were stand out stunners but most of us... struggled 😬

Sure we all turned out fine and beauty is absolutely skin deep but my chat post is about how/why teenagers these days look so much better than we did (80's 90's). Why is it? How do they all look like Insta models? Everyone is a 10.

Where are all the ordinary and ugly looking kids, a bit ok, a bit not - still figuring it out. Where's my people at 😀

Even the kids of my peers who were very ordinary looking (and even a bit ugly) have turned out to be absolutely gorgeous.

No, it's not filters. I have met them irl

There's still loads about.

But always been good looking people.

I was wondering this too the other day OP. They all seem so well groomed and well dressed compared to how I was at that age! I’m sure it can come at a cost though: so much more pressure these days to look ‘Insta ready’.

In retrospect I was very happy in the 90s with my baggy hoodie, jeans, DM boots and no makeup, but I would have been terribly self conscious if I was constantly comparing myself to people on social media. It was bad enough looking at the models in Just Seventeen!

This thread feels a bit weird.

Why are you judging teens?

I think they're still there but making the best (?? ) of themselves with loads of make up, lashes, brows, Con touring etc.. obviously that's the girls.

I was joking with my step daughter about this the other day. She watches a lot of YouTube videos on how to create “looks” and has skipped the crappy make up and gone straight for mine high end stuff. I said it wasn’t fair her and her friends always looked amazing and she replied “well duh, we aren’t going to look awful are we?!” Which to be fair, she has a point about. I only had just 17 to guide me, I’d of been a beauty too if I’d had access to YouTube tutorials

They have access to better housing, better nutrition, showers and a cultural expectation to use them daily (none of the bath once a week on Sunday and that's your lot), decent dental care, school staff picking up on whether they've been taken to the dentist.

And more than a few Gen X parents making damn sure that they don't spend their teens having the piss ripped out of them for being bucktoothed, covered in acne or stinking.

Plenty where I live, I see them walking to school every day with a can of monster and packet of onion rings for breakfast.

My best friends and I always laugh at our teenaged selves. Her dd is so well put together and has a good sense of what clothes suit her, which we didn't achieve until we were in our 30s.

I think fashion was pretty bad and we thought looking after ourselves was a face pack.

I am a million times better looking than when I was 18.

Although there was peer pressure before and people were still cruel towards others for what they look like, social media is a whole new game.

I think they are better groomed - so hair, skin, glasses, teeth - all in much better shape, so I do think it is more unusual to be actively unattractive, but I see plenty who are plain.

There's plenty of plain, average looking teens about. Can see underneath the heavy make up they don't have nice features. They all look the same, long hair, nails and show plenty flesh. So they look "gorgeous" and "stunning"

I think teens are all super aware of how they look and compare themselves with others because of SM way more than in my day. Hence the rise in MH issues ☹️

So this has totally turned into a 'let's judge teens' thread.

You're not superficial but judging on looks?

The likes and of primark and shein for cheap clothes, YouTube tutorials and better zit treatment.

Yeahhh it's not a good thing and it's really worrying as a mum of two daughters actually.

I don't want them spending all their time looking trying to look like 'a 10' at the age of 13 - they're children.

Kids mental health is at an all-time low. Eating disorders, body and gender dysmorphia at an all-time high and it's no wonder is it? I can't look that polished and I'm a grown woman, god knows what pressure these children are under every day to look like Instagram models.

The longer my girls can slob about the better.

Isn't it just because they're much younger than us and therefore youth=beauty?

That's and how much make up and stuff has come on. Mind you, the teenaged blokes look better too than my peers when I was 18!

Philip Schofield is that you????

Myself and my sister commented on this recently. So many young girls locally are absolutely stunning. So well groomed and polished. We have a lot of sports clubs locally so I see lots in the local shops presumably after training and they look like models. We walked the dog yesterday and it brought us past a local rowing club and again the teenage girls heading home all looking like something from the telly.

Part of it definitely is better acne treatments. I had to nag DH and his ex a few times to get DSD to the GP but her skin cleared up rapidly once she started treatment.

Well, this is creepy. 🤢

I would say there are a lot of ugly or average looking teens about. They look better than they did 30 years ago because of better makeup, YouTube tutorials, drinking more water, etc but that does not make them attractive.

I teach late teens and they're very very good at make up. Unfortunately many are already getting fillers....

I agree, so many are stunning looking, not a hint of a jawline foundation mark or heather shimmer Rimmel lipstick. Even the way they stand and pose for photos etc..it’s just so different to back in the 90’s where we all just sort of piled together and laughed, we didn’t pose or care that much..sad really, I’m glad I was a teen then and not now

When I was a teen, I judged myself and my peers pretty harshly (I was really ugly, in my opinion). But, looking at old photos, we all looked pretty good. Is this phenomenon not just a manifestation of our societal belief that young = beautiful, combined with a tendency to critique our peers (i.e., potential competition/mates) in a way we don't with those much older or younger?