What’s the worst thing you ever did as a teen/young person?

Roxietrees · 2025-04-27T14:36:52+00:00

Just thinking about some of the truly insane things myself and some of my friends did/thought at that age. I’m sure I’ll get judgement for this - and I probably wouldn’t actually have done it, and I would of course never, ever even consider anything like this now, but I guess it just goes to show how different teenage brains are to adult brains (or maybe it’s just me!…we’ll see) I was relentlessly bullied by this one girl in my year. I was 13/14. I wasn’t an easy target, she was actually part of my group of friends, none of my other friends ever stood up for me but I usually stood up for myself, often leading to nearly getting into fights etc. but she always seemed to get the upper hand, probably cos she was better with words and quick witted put downs. She made my life hell for years, often getting her friends I didn’t know to harass me with constant creepy phone calls and abusive texts with death threats etc. Kids can be so awful. Anyway one day I decided I’d had enough, and as I hung round with a pretty dodgy crowd I knew of some pretty shady people. I decided I’d “hire” one of them to kill her, started saving up 50 quid (as clearly I thought that’d be all it’d take) and intended to ask around for someone to do it! I never got the nerve to actually ask anyone but I really convinced myself I was going to. It kinda scares me to look back on how insane I was! I’m sure many people will say maybe I really was insane and this is not normal for anyone at any age. But I’m curious- as this is an anonymous platform, to hear some of the truly awful things you did/planned to do as a teen.

BobbyBiscuits · 27/04/2025 15:47

We put up a load of our classmates phone numbers in phone boxes in the west end on mock prostitute cards. Then someone did the same to me, unsurprisingly. There were pervs phoning my mum's landline at all hours!?

Also lots of prank calls. In the early days of the internet we tried to give out one boys number in a gay chatroom. This was before the internet even had pictures?!

Then obviously a lot of lying and a bit of shoplifting. Nothing that horrendous really.

StrangerOnline · 27/04/2025 15:50

My first thought was lying about homework and bunking off school – does that make me a goody goody?

GroovyChick87 · 27/04/2025 15:53

Had sex with unsuitable boys in unsuitable places. Got drunk at school.

Okrr · 27/04/2025 15:54

I told so many lies. I literally made up friends, adventures and dramas, and told some people and not others. I think it was low self esteem or stupidity. Some of them bit me, most of them were undiscovered. I was a problem child at school in my teens, breaking rules, uniform, makeup, bunking.

Original poster

Roxietrees · 27/04/2025 15:57

I also remember telling everyone at primary school (about yr 6) that I could communicate with animals in a special language only me and the animals could understand. Everyone believed me!

OP posts:

the80sweregreat · 27/04/2025 16:01

Friends asking me to ring up a boy they liked from a phone box.
The boys dad answered and I had to hang up. It was so embarrassing and I feel sorry for the parent answering the phone to an empty line! My friends thought it was funny , but upset the boy they actually wanted to speak to didn’t answer the phone. Crazy really and I only did it once! Still feel bad fifty years later and wasted my 2p on other people.
don’t be a people pleaser is the moral of that story.

Crushed23 · 27/04/2025 16:02

I used to wish a school bully would die. I never did anything about it, of course, but I actually fantasised about how great it would be if she were dead. She hardly ever bullied me, but she brought so much misery into the lives of various people and was particularly vile to a couple of girls who she was clearly very envious of. She is now living a life of, at best, mediocrity (not a great life actually, but it would be outing to say why) while one the girls she relentlessly bullied is an Oxbridge-educated consultant surgeon.

My advice to distressed teenagers is: wait it out, bullies usually get their comeuppance.

emmatherhino · 27/04/2025 16:28

I can hand on heart say that other than answering my parents back, I didn't do anything bad as a teen. I was incredibly studious, well behaved, a bit of a goody goody.

It was after I graduated from uni it went downhill...

KStockHERO · 27/04/2025 16:36

So much sexual activity with so many boys 😬

So much shoplifting 🫣

I set off the fire alarm several times in year 10, and let another lass take the blame which resulted in her permanent exclusion 🫤

StMarie4me · 27/04/2025 16:51

Crushed23 · 27/04/2025 16:02

I used to wish a school bully would die. I never did anything about it, of course, but I actually fantasised about how great it would be if she were dead. She hardly ever bullied me, but she brought so much misery into the lives of various people and was particularly vile to a couple of girls who she was clearly very envious of. She is now living a life of, at best, mediocrity (not a great life actually, but it would be outing to say why) while one the girls she relentlessly bullied is an Oxbridge-educated consultant surgeon.

My advice to distressed teenagers is: wait it out, bullies usually get their comeuppance.

Really?

One of the worst at my school ended up as a police commissioner. My DD’s worst bully is happily married with a baby and my DD has never recovered from the night the bully really tried to get her to kill herself(on top of other trauma).

So I really, really don’t believe that they do.

LilDeVille · 27/04/2025 16:55

Calling random number from a phone box, old man answered and I said ‘I’m gonna get you!’ And hung up. My friend’s idea and egged me on. I felt terrible and think of it all the time and feel awful! As an adult I can see hopefully he just thought ‘stupid kids’ and wasn’t scarred. So I think my ongoing 20 year guilt is punishment enough.

I also think ALL the time about how me and my friends did stupid walks (ministry of silly walks style) along the edge of a lay-by on a dual carriageway. So right next to the speeding traffic. All for the content - we were obsessed with making videos (cam corder to DVD, full of sketches etc). I often feel sick about how fucking stupid that one was!

Crushed23 · 27/04/2025 16:58

Crushed23 · 27/04/2025 16:02

I used to wish a school bully would die. I never did anything about it, of course, but I actually fantasised about how great it would be if she were dead. She hardly ever bullied me, but she brought so much misery into the lives of various people and was particularly vile to a couple of girls who she was clearly very envious of. She is now living a life of, at best, mediocrity (not a great life actually, but it would be outing to say why) while one the girls she relentlessly bullied is an Oxbridge-educated consultant surgeon.

My advice to distressed teenagers is: wait it out, bullies usually get their comeuppance.

As for things I actually did (rather than just wished), I used to truant in year 10 and year 11. I would pack clothes in my school bag, go into town, get changed out of my uniform in the shopping centre toilets and sit in coffee shops or a health juice bar place reading Chick-Lit, pretending I was a cool 20something, like a character in one of the books I was reading. I looked mature for my age so never aroused any suspicion from anyone. It was so fun and exhilarating - I was so desperate to be a grown-up when I was a teenager and this was a way to pretend I was for 7 hours.

RichWithNoSelfControl · 27/04/2025 17:03

I bunked off school, smoked cigarettes occasionally, stole from the Pick 'n' Mix section of Woolworths.

I'd rather not divulge further than that but let's say I had an interesting criminal record from a young age.

familyissues12345 · 27/04/2025 17:28

Bunked off a bit, stole money 🫣

bit of a cow really!

Poppymeldrum · 27/04/2025 17:42

StrangerOnline · 27/04/2025 15:50

My first thought was lying about homework and bunking off school – does that make me a goody goody?

I never even did that!

My mother would have killed me-my brothers (all younger than me) never bothered going to school and not a word was said until the education board got in touch

I once had two puffs of a joint and she found out

Jesus I was grounded forever (one of my brothers is now a druggie and she pays for them!)

Being the eldest is sooo bloody hard

Original poster

Roxietrees · 27/04/2025 17:57

RichWithNoSelfControl · 27/04/2025 17:03

I bunked off school, smoked cigarettes occasionally, stole from the Pick 'n' Mix section of Woolworths.

I'd rather not divulge further than that but let's say I had an interesting criminal record from a young age.

Lol I used to steal one of those “burgers” made out of sweets from Woolworths every morning. My dad somehow found out years later (maybe I told him) and now his favourite running joke is it was my fault Woolworths went bust 🤣

OP posts:

BlueEyedBogWitch · 27/04/2025 18:01

Did a sponsored fast and then spent the money on going out 😳

I paid it all back tenfold as soon as I grew up a bit.

DemonsandMosquitoes · 27/04/2025 18:19

When I was in the guides (1980’s) and aged about 12 or 13 we got a new leader that was volunteering her time every week. She was perfectly normal but for some reason us group of girls took a dislike to her. Her surname was Hind.

One meeting night we organised a protest with home made banners and the whole pack stood outside marching round chanting ‘Hind stays we go’. God knows what the poor woman had done to deserve this but she never came back.
Cruel and humiliating beyond belief in hindsight.

Soonenough · 27/04/2025 18:23

Terrible stuff. Thought we were being cool and daring but probably just antisocial little shits. And probably quite intimidating to the quieter girls in class. And irritating to teachers. I cringe at some of the things I said to show off.

LilDeVille · 28/04/2025 13:04

BlueEyedBogWitch · 27/04/2025 18:01

Did a sponsored fast and then spent the money on going out 😳

I paid it all back tenfold as soon as I grew up a bit.

God I’m so relieved to read this, I did a sponsored something for cancer research uk and while I didn’t spend the money on going out, I spent it whenever I needed money for XYZ, I don’t know what but whatever teenage me spent my money on. I felt so guilty! But yes paid it back and more when I could. I was such a disorganised and chaotic and incompetent teen I never got round to paying the money in and it just dwindled.

Piratejenny99 · 28/04/2025 13:34

I wasn't there (although I doubt I would have stopped it if I was) but a boy in my friendship group got willingly pushed down a very steep hill with a junction at the bottom in a shopping trolley. Luckily nobody was harmed but I shudder to think what could have happened to him or an unsuspecting driver if it had gone differently.

I put the name of a random drunken snog as the answer to a most embarrassing moment question in my school yearbook. I also put a horrible and probably untrue comment in the feedback form for one of the lecturers at University. Both of these still haunt me as unkind and unnecessary.

BlueEyedBogWitch · 28/04/2025 22:40

LilDeVille · 28/04/2025 13:04

God I’m so relieved to read this, I did a sponsored something for cancer research uk and while I didn’t spend the money on going out, I spent it whenever I needed money for XYZ, I don’t know what but whatever teenage me spent my money on. I felt so guilty! But yes paid it back and more when I could. I was such a disorganised and chaotic and incompetent teen I never got round to paying the money in and it just dwindled.

Show quote history

Yep, I never meant to do it. Just borrowed a fiver here and there…😳

eunia · 28/04/2025 23:05

I’ve name changed for this.

I was awful.

Broke into vacant houses and would spend days at a time doing drugs and having sex in them.

I used to take a bong in my backpack to school.

Drank alcohol at school.

At one point I was having close to a bottle of wine for my breakfast probably 3-4x per week.

Stole a friend’s parent’s car, took it to pick up drugs and joy rode it.

Threesomes.

I first tried a cigarette in primary school, it went downhill from there.

whatsausername · 28/04/2025 23:18

eunia · 28/04/2025 23:05

I’ve name changed for this.

I was awful.

Broke into vacant houses and would spend days at a time doing drugs and having sex in them.

I used to take a bong in my backpack to school.

Drank alcohol at school.

At one point I was having close to a bottle of wine for my breakfast probably 3-4x per week.

Stole a friend’s parent’s car, took it to pick up drugs and joy rode it.

Threesomes.

I first tried a cigarette in primary school, it went downhill from there.

You sound absolutely mental. I’d love to hear more of your stories!

ambercabs · 28/04/2025 23:22

I once waved at a family funeral car and I’m still deeply ashamed about it 35 years later