To be so glad I'm not the youth of today!

[SamuelWestsMistress]

Especially with the young girls. The big hair extensions, full make up, fake tan, huge eyelashes, drawn on eyebrows look must be such high maintenance! It looks lovely, but I just can't imagine ever being arsed. I'd never have pulled! I'm so glad we never had Facebook or mobiles either. I was a teen in the early/mid 90s and thought that was traumatic enough with tie dye, dms and those heat changing tshirt things.

[ppeatfruit]

Poor or not Melika DD2 loves the 'chassers' or charity shops she buys and wears lots of her clothes from them so in a way nowadays the DCs have the option of dressing in a cheap retro style so there's more flexibility.

[marriedinwhiteagain]

But can you have what you want now Melika?

[Oblomov]

Laughing ta the pressure to look like Lady Di or Madonna.

Yes I do think its crummy these days. Lads have seen porna dn think you should be 'hair-free', and you won't get a job, (because apparently there are less)or a house, even if you have got a spray tan and extensions. so those hair extensions will eb the only extension you get, coz yopur'll never get the chance to do a house one.
How depressing.

[melika]

The thing is I couldn't afford what they have now if I had tried. I couldn't afford a mobile, to run it etc. I only got my hair cut once in a blue moon, certainly would not of afforded GHD straighteners, make up or clothes. I had hand me downs from neighbours, even a cousin who lived in USA sent her left offs.

Mom was widowed when I was 15, but even when Dad was alive he was bread winner with a family of 5 kids to feed, house and look after.

I feel jealous of kids today, with their fake Louis Vitton bags, I wouldn't even of got one of those. I was a teen in the 80's and I missed out on a hell of a lot by the sounds of it.

[marriedinwhiteagain]

That one's fading out now though isn't it? It is in London where the girls are wearing fawn leggings with skimpy tops and you do a double take of OMG she's naked from the waist down - eeow. Or where the ones with the biggest legs have been wearing fairisle woolly tights with long belts.

[ppeatfruit]

Oh that fashion (the baggy arse showing trousers) has been around for SO long they must really enjoy pissing off the grown ups with it ; There was a funny sketch on Miranda showing the lads unable to run and falling over wearing them.

[marjproops]

laughed my socks off today in town. a group of yoofs were running to/from somewhere and one of thems trousers that were already halfway down his legs fell down to his ankles! he splatted down.

thing is he was embarrased....but not so embarrassed to show his pants?????

[stripeyjimjams]

We were discussing this at work the other day. Yes, there's the sunbed massive (I'm in Glasgow) and there has been for a long time, but I think a lot of the teen girls round here look lovely! Lots of them wear great day dresses, seem to just throw their hair back and it looks great, checked shirts, nice jeans. They're a hell of a lot more chic than I was at their age! And at least a lot of them seem to be letting their eyebrows look fairly natural (Cara Delevingne style). When I was their age (late 90s), it was plucked chicken brows. And hideous combat trousers. Chokers. Baaad straightened hair with terrible highlights. We didn't have access to Uniqlo or Zara or any of the reasonably priced shops with lovely stuff that girls do now.

[ppeatfruit]

The media is to blame for a lot of it marj but although it's frightening to know that there are a lot of perverts about; its better than being completely ignorant which we were in the 60s (think of all the Saville/priest scandals it was certainly going on then) the DCs were scared to speak out which they're not now. (Hopefully)

IKWYM about idolising glamour models (I agree it's mindless and so are they) but it really isn't any different now to how we were about Marilyn Monroe.

[marjproops]

thing is in this day and age (not that it didnt happen before but these days with so much internet/apps etc) there are so many alleged phaedos around and some of these girls are not even teens (i blame the spice girls)and some dressing provocitivly and have you seen some of the latest slogans on tshirts and tops now?

saw some in a shop window this morn....'slut and proud' 'playboy bunny' and the like.

its one thing to be trendy but another to look like a glamour model???? and the 'role models'....the towie/jordan lot?

oh marj the old grumpy judge is back......

[ppeatfruit]

It sounds weird chrome but they're not harming anyone are they?

[chrome100]

I came across the most bizarre thing in town the other day. Around 200 strangely dressed 16 year olds were gathered outside the town hall. I asked one what was going on and apparently they were waiting for the "celebrities". On further questioning, it turns out these are young people who are "famous" on facebook for doing fuck all other than having lots of friends. These "famous" kids turn up in taxis on red carpets and everyone mobs them and has their photo with them. I don't get it.

[ppeatfruit]

YANBU O.P. and marj with the orange look I hate that too but that's dying out now isn't it?

[MechanicalTheatre]

I think teenagers must be a LOT less innocent than we were. I mean, I knew everything about sex more or less before I did it, but I'd never actually SEEN an erect penis before one was in front of my astonished eyes when I first gave a guy a handjob. I had no idea what things could be got up to in the sack, beyond sex, masturbation and oral, so it was a lot of fun discovering!

I think it would be less fun now, there's no mystery when you've seen it all acted out in porn 5 million times.

Facebook would be both useful and awful. I was very shy, so it would have been easier for me to socialise maybe. But I imagine you'd get a load of shit as well.

[BeeWi]

YANBU. Regardless of looks, Facebook and the ability to text, sext etc has taken bullying to whole new extremes. As an Head of Year at a school before going onto maternity leave, an increasingly large amount of time was spent unpicking problems arising from spats on Facebook.

In our day, rumours could be written on a toilet wall and seen by a handful of other kids. These days they can spread rumours about other kids to hundreds of their peers with the click of a mouse. Imagine how horrifying it'd be if that happened to a teenage you, when what your peers thought of you was the be all and end all.

[Essexgirlupnorth]

Yes the bullying would have been ten times worse with Facebook.

I never really cared what I looked like as a teenager though did do goth light for a bit.

[marriedinwhiteagain]

My DDs 15. She and her friends aren't like that at all. Skinny jeans, nice top, preppy blazer or cardigan or leggings under a shortish skirt or shorts and pretty much the same on top. They wear docs, or thick soled things from Office, vans or boots (Uggs seem to have "died" here).

DD has baskets of make-up but doesn't use it much. She is having proper highlights in her blonde hair on her birthday and I have said she can dip dye the ends pink or blue on the first day of the holidays and it will have to be cut off when it's time to go back to school. She is also having her ears repierced.

[Bodicea]

Glad I was a teenager in the late 90s - grungy look and natural no make up look was in. Think all I ever wore was mascara and a bit of blusher most of the time. When I was a broke student that was an easy enough look to pull of and I left uni with hardly any debt. Didn't get a manicure till I was 22. Now they all seem to be able to afford to get their nails done etc and spend a fortune on maintenance. Seriously where do they get the money. When next generation complains about not beig able to get o property ladder and having no savings for future I don't have much sympathy.

[Snazzynewyear]

YANBU. Whatever the look is, it seems like it takes a lot more effort that I would want to put in (even though I did do plenty of slapping on make up and tottering around in heels as a teen). Add in the social media pressure, plus the ridiculously high youth unemployment rates and cost of university, and I feel I had a really good deal compared to current teenagers.

[stubbornstains]

All the young gels round here are sporting DMs, thick black tights, tiddly mini skirts, flannel shirts, brothel creeper shoes, big chunky cardigans, skinny jeans, tweed jackets and, as far as I can see, minimal make up.

The 1990s never did go away, you know. They just moved to Cornwall

[marjproops]

old age setting in.....and i agree that with the media pressure too....but other fashions dont look as ridiculous do they?

its the orange thing more than anything. you know when you'vebeen tangoed.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

Lots of my school year were high maintenance. In the late 80s they all had yellow crinkly perms and lots of green eyeshadow and stripy blusher.

I had short straight hair and looked like a boy. Until I got into 6th form and went a bit goth.

[Maat]

I was a punk rocker in the '70s and spent a lot of time back-combing my hair, applying lots of black eyeliner and attaching safety pins to all my clothes.

Teenagers today don't know they're born

[SamuelWestsMistress]

I do Marjproops. I know some make it look extreme, but I think that done well its really glamorous. But can't imagine how long it must take for them to put it all on AND take it all off!