Realizing Hollywood portrays an unrealistic depiction of high school life, Ariana Navarro opens up about her thoughts on it and how she’s making the most of being a teenager today.
I often find myself gravitating towards media and entertainment involving people similar to me. The latest coming-of-age movies help me find peace at an age where everyone around me is figuring themselves out, knowing that I’m not the only one experiencing this need to find my place in the world.
These movies typically play out the same: teenager begins high school, teenager feels like an outcast, teenager makes unexpected friends, teenager discovers their passion, and ends with said teenager finding their purpose. While these stories have without fail offered comfort in times when I needed a break, it had also left me with a question. Why isn’t my high school experience like that?
At first I believed this was just a personal dilemma, however, as I scrolled through TikTok I had come to realize that this thought had crossed the minds of many other teens. We had all collectively agreed that our time as young adults was not what it was cut out to be.
Living during a time where access into the lives of others is just a few clicks away, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by what everyone else is accomplishing. We tend to get lost in our expectations of what youth should be like, while failing to acknowledge that our lives are barely starting. We also have to remember the fact that Hollywood is all about embellishing and romanticizing stories for entertainment. The norm on television is entirely different from the reality of it all.