How to Understand and Enjoy Your Teenager's Individual Style

Did your parents grow up in the '60s? Did you grow up in the grunge '80s? Part of the fun of being out of the mainstream is to frustrate and aggravate those in the mainstream, especially parents. Most teenagers and young adults want to show the world that they are different. This was true in the '60s, true in the '80s and is just as true today. Today's youth will do just fine and eventually join the mainstream, only to be replaced by something probably far stranger than past teenage lifestyles. Let's look at some modern teens, the punks, emos, and skaters. Keep an open mind and even see a little humor in these teenage lifestyles.

The Punk

A punk rejects the profit-driven world of commerce, except of course when it comes to buying junk food snacks, punk CDs and punk clothing to fashion to individual taste. Of course, teens won't reject asking parents for money to support their punk lifestyle. Leather, denim, plaids and cammies are punk wardrobe must haves. Punk decorations added to the clothing, such as safety pins, studs, spikes, and zippers add individual style. Name-brand footwear is out and for the final touch; dyed blond hair with black tipping completes the ensemble. If you are living with a teenage punk, take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the novelty of it all.

The Emo

Emo is actually a music style, namely emotive hardcore. It is a subset of hardcore punk. The term defines a counter-culture of sensitive, emotional individuals, especially among teens. Skinny jeans are a must, accompanied by worn out black, fabric sneakers with a vinyl white toecap. The emo hair style calls for black or brown, not too long, straight, with unnatural, random color streaks and a wide sweep of hair covering one side of the face. This hairstyle actually requires a lot of preparation in the morning and teenagers that keep it up should be admired. Lastly, the emo attitude is the most important of all. Having examined the world and found it totally lacking, the emo is a bitter, depressed, insecure and resentful persona. Parents of a teenage emo should keep a watchful eye to make sure their teens emotions do not get out of control.

The Skater

Parents of a talented teenage skater should never overlook one basic truth: your teen is a gifted athlete. The required ankle strength, leg strength, hip and torso agility, the balance, the coordination and certainly the derring-do and risk-taking courage is the equal of all other sports. If you are fortunate enough to live with a teen skater, you need to learn skateboard as a second language. Some skating terms are colorful and fun to say. A starting point to relating with your skater is to gain a understanding of the ollie, the fakie ollie, the half pipe, the half cab, the drop in, the kickflip, the partial flip (sounds like could have a bad outcome), credit carding (painful, you might not really want to know), chicken foot, and more.

Skater attire is basic with a tee shirt, comfortable baggy or tight pants, skater shoes that are actually flat bottom sneakers, and a backward baseball cap is optional. The next time you see a talented teen skater, don't annoyed at the antics, but observe the athleticism, the balance and coordination, the strength, and the joy of life the skater displays.

References:
Skater's Community
Andy Greenwald, "Nothing Feels Good"