A Money-Crazed American Youth

In a world where MTV boasts real-life dramas about extravagant teenage parties, and People Magazine's pages are splattered with the next adolescent celebrity splurges, it is of no surprise that today's youth have become a money-crazed generation including the most extravagant spenders in the market. A realization of the transformation of teenage spending came to me in, of all places, my high school parking lot. When I got my driver's license I became increasingly aware of the vehicles my peers were driving. The black asphalt of our parking lot was speckled with BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus emblems. But it was more than just shiny new cars with price tags that exceeded the average American's income: it was the complete brand affiliation, and the idea had not only taken over my high school, but America.

It is hard for teenagers of this day to ignore the glamour and luxury that they see surrounding them. In addition, it is hard to ignore the glaring logos on the neatly pressed shirts and pants of students walking throughout some of our schools. And if teenagers don't see high-end brand spending in their schools, turning on television daily exposes them to similar glamour and wealth, giving you either a tour of a teen-celebrity mansion, or colorfully displays a young girl spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of her parent's money on jewelry and couture for a party. It has, in recent years, become blatantly obvious that there has been a shift in teenage interests, and adolescence has become a period dominated by the idolization of brands and big buyers.

One of the key ingredients to the recent cultural phenomenon that is extravagant spending is the high disposable income that most teenagers have. Jeff Brazil describes extravagant teen spending in his article: "Play Dough." He states that most adolescents have few financial obligations from week to week, however their average income, mostly by allowance, is over $200 per month (Brazil). The combination of these factors creates the perfect catalyst for the modern teenagers' most exceptional and unique skill: spending his or her money quickly and totally. Because kids have a general lack of financial responsibilities, they have the ability to take their allowances and spend it on whatever they wish. This translates to over $1 billion of spending per week, funds that are largely divided among fashion and entertainment industries, which means teenagers are pumping over $100 billion into our economy every year (Brazil).

In order to address the issue of teenage spending, however, it is necessary to target the roots of the issue. Modern corporate marketers have perfected their edge by "prepping" young teenagers to out-spend their older teenage counterparts. According to Alissa Quart, author of "Branded", stations like Radio Disney catch over 2.2 million children and young teens together in the car with their parents, acting as a bridge between the "nagger" and the money holder. Advertisers also angle towards children, particularly car manufacturers, who try and sell the need for SUVs specifically to teenagers (Quart). This details the very heart of the issue. Teenage spending and brand affiliation is something that is deep-rooted in American culture. Corporate researchers meticulously plant extravagant spending desires in teenagers, sealing their fate as "spendaholics" well before adolescence is reached.

In further attempts to lay the foundation for future lavish spending habits, magazines such as Elle and Vogue, meant for adults with spending tendencies to rival their teens, have become the proud parents of their own money-lusting heirs. "Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers" states that Teen Vogue and Elle Girl promote high-end brands, flaunting celebrity styles to yearning teenage girls (Quart). The magazines prime the girls full of desire so that when they finally get their greedy hands on a debit card tied to a fully stocked bank account, they can fulfill their preset and expensive roles in adolescent society.

America's youth spend an astounding amount of money each year, making them one of the most powerful spenders in the market. According to M.J. Alhabeeb from the University of Massachusetts, American teenagers spend half of what the United States spends on its military every year, a number that exceeds many country's GDPs (Alhabeeb). In addition, Alhabeeb's studies found that 43% of high school students had part-time jobs, not for financial need, but for the purchase of luxuries. Further, these students with part time jobs spend over 80% of their income on transportation, cosmetics, entertainment, and clothing (Alhabeeb). Today's teenagers enjoy an unprecedented ability to spend. More kids today are working than ever before, but a lack of foresight leads to quick spending of the money. It seems that a permanent hole has been burned in the pockets of America's youth, siphoning their money into giant piggy banks showcasing big business logos. Brand affiliation, and a high exposure to fashion among teens leads to a common interest and revere for brand-boasting peers. Despite the income brackets they fall into, teenagers seek out brand-name clothing and gadgets in order to keep up with and impress their peers.

Brand obsession has become fully ingrained in American society. Brand-power is most prevalent in electronic and clothing departments. Studies by Mark Street from the University of Southhampton show that Mac's iPod contains holds more than 82% of portable audio market (Street). This is a clear example of the power a brand name can yield in today's market. Word of mouth is a powerful weapon for advertisers, and teenagers are the prime arsenals of gossip and review, flaunting and spreading the excellence and necessity of buying in to brand names. Another clear example of brand power in the market is the absolute dominance of Abercrombie and Fitch in teenage clothing choice. Walking through the halls of most middle to upper class American high schools is like stepping into the dimly lit, moose-splattered, cologne-reeking Abercrombie and Fitch stores at the mall. The pompous gate of trim athletes and the airy glam of bombastic girls mimic their in-store counterparts, or Abercrombie and Fitch "models", who dub their clothing as "superior" and display the lifestyle of an A&F consumer. Celia Harquail of Virginia University says naming their sales associates "models" allows the domineering, imperialistic clothing superpower to hire based on looks, build, and race and clearly demonstrates their target demographics to their customers. Furthermore, their vain hiring practice establishes a pretentious pool of consumers and relinquishes them from "undesirable" representatives of their company (Harquail).

While we see a dominant presence of Abercrombie and Fitch in the teenage market, it is the presence of more luxury brand clothing and accessories that prevail in the closets of more affluent teenagers and grab the attention and desire of their lustful peers. We can see a recent surge in teenage purchases of high-end brand accessories. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, families with incomes over $100,000 annually spend more than $3,500 per child on apparel and accessories, including the lavish likes of Coach, Tiffany, Prada, Dolce and Gabanna, Lacoste, and more (U. S. Department of Labor). A clear desire for high-end goods has become a norm in teenagers, and those who can afford these favored fashion essentials are the envy of their generation. But there is relief for less fortunate accessory seeking teens; of late, a whole subset of logo mimicking knock-offs have sprung up in department stores and flea markets, becoming instant staples in the average teenage closet. The fact that fashion-hungry teens are willing to purchase these knock off brands, and pass them off as the real thing, speaks to the absolute vanity of the brand-affiliated culture in America; brand affiliation is simply not about superior quality, but the heir of sophistication and wealth that come with owning seemingly exorbitant items.

Brand affiliation, however, is not always assimilated with clothing and accessories. The existence of television shows that promote extravagant parties and boast parents who buy their children brand new cars has created a sense of expectation for a vehicle from most teens. Times are changing rapidly; I remember being awoken on my sister's sixteenth birthday to animated shrieks and heavy pounding feet on the stairs. It was my sister, tearing through the house en route to the driveway. Her hopeful screams soon turned to mournful sobs as she gazed the frost-covered windows onto the endless black driveway, uninterrupted by the sleek metal and soft leather she had hoped she would find. She pressed the side of her palm into the chilly window to form a hole in which she shoved her face, as if the frost may have been obscuring her view, but there was simply nothing there. Despite owning a car dealership, my father found it unnecessary and superfluous to provide his sixteen-year-old with a brand new car.

Three short years later, on my sixteenth birthday I trudged up the stairs with my twin brother and sat defiantly in a chair while my mother fawned over me. When I finally got up to get myself ready for school, I noticed something that obscured by typical view of the house across the street. My heart jumped, and I rose to my feet and dashed towards the door, with my brother close in tow. Sure enough, on the driveway was a brand new, lustrous, black pickup truck. My sister's squalls went unheard for a month, until she received a glistening silver Sebring for her graduation. Surely something had to have taken place over the short time period that made my parents decide to buy each of their children a car when they had previously been so absolutely defiant twelve months earlier. Certainly America's youth has undergone a transformation in recent years, not only revering high expenses, but expecting them.

American teenagers have recently developed a complete and total fascination with brand affiliation. Today's children and adolescents receive a lucrative allowance that allows for an expendable income that distends our economy by billions of dollars annually. Marketers have perfected their advertising techniques, breeding a society of money-grubbing teens long before puberty is even reached, targeting their temporarily hidden financial longings with magazines like Teen Vogue and Elle Girl. This only perpetuates their heirs of desire, grooming them to spend as excessively as their older brothers and sisters, and adding them to a glistening pool of glamour and glitz. Surely teenagers have transformed into money-spending machines, and their unprecedented spending is firmly associated with brand affiliation and marketing techniques.

Works Cited

Brazil, Jeff. "Play Dough." American Demographics 6. 14

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Quart, Alissa. "Branded." 216. 16 October 2007 books?hl=en&lr=&id=0R9fCJWXYAC&oi=fnd&pg=PP13&dq=teenage+s

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Alhabeeb, M.J.. "Teenagers' Money, Discretionary Spending And Saving."
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Street, Mark. "COMP3013 Conference Computing - The Future of
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