Girls Negotiating Adolescence by Raby

"The problem of adolescence for teenagers is that they must demonstrate maturity and responsibility if they are to move out of this stigmatized status, and yet because adolescence is conceived as a time of irresponsibility and lack of maturity, they are given few opportunities

to demonstrate these qualities which are essential for their admission as adults."

A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence was an informational reading based on an experiment that Raby did to show the difference of teenagers/adolescence by interviewing grandmothers and granddaughters that are related. She found her research by using the following topics: the storm, becoming, at-risk, social problem and pleasurable consumption.

"The Storm" was described as when teens are going towards experimentation and risk taking. The metaphor used for the storm was "wild wind or turbulent water as ways to understand

adolescence can be found in early and current academic works on adolescence". Raby used this section to describe when teenagers go through puberty, hormonal changes and growth.

"Becoming" is described as self discovery or identity formation. In this section, Raby uses quotes from the teen girls to state their opinion on the identity of teens. From the four quotes given, I liked how Vienna stated her opinion,"they assume that all teenagers rebel just because this is the age when we start to become our own person. Like 12, 13 you really start thinking about things for yourself and not necessarily doing everything that your parents do, you know? Becoming more independent."

"At-Risk" was the section that went through the concern of drugs and alcohol, depression, eating disorders and so on. Raby shows in this section that teens are at risk because they try so hard to be like what is "in". And with that, they inquire stress and pressure from others for trying to be someone they're not.

"Social Problem" is discussed as teens being a problem for their parents and the society. "The ‘social problem’ approach is linked to other discourses of adolescence that frame teens as independent risk takers going through the same changes that teenagers always did, but in a more dangerous environment than in the past."

And finally, "Pleasurable Consumption" defines how teens are exposed to media, high fashion, entertainment, etc. Raby goes into how teens are courted as the "high-consumer group" because of everything they happen to see that is targeting their age group.

From reading the whole passage, the quotes by the teenage girls and grandmothers, in this society teenagers are seen as "aliens". I say this because after reading Raby and reading the quotes from the girls, it shows that all teens are judged based on certain characteristics that adults or the world see but sadly enough not all teens are rebellious or rude or sex-craved. But because that is what is seen majority of the time from some teenagers, that's how teens are identified. Out of the whole reading, the quote first posted stood out to me because in my eyes I feel that is so true. Teenagers have to act older than they are, more mature and more responsible in order to not be categorized as the "normal teen".

Towards the end of the reading I enjoyed the quote by Vienna because I feel as though in some way society may be contradicting themselves because they expect teenagers to act mature and responsible and "act their own age" but when they do, their considered rebellious because they want to be their own person. "I mean I think a lot of kids sort of rebel because society expects us to. And I mean I think that a lot of the time … just sort of being our own people is interpreted as rebelling against our parents and I think it’s just, I mean they assume that all teenagers rebel just because this is the age when we start to become our own person."