Framing Youth: Writing ‘Youth’ in Social Context. Bogad, L (2002).

We are constantly changing. Psychology, physiology, biology, spiritually, astrology (and any other ology ) all have their generalized stages and phases that humans go through (or should go through) in life. The chapters presented from Dr. Bogad book gives us a great deal about questioning youth framing or, I would say, youth labeling; or Dr. Bogad quoted from Hine (1999): "The artificial concept of teenager".

Although I would love to talk about so many different topics after reading her chapter, I keep thinking about this expression: "The Artificial Concept of Teenager".  Just like Delpit argued in her chapters about rules and code from the "Culture of Power", I can't stop thinking if adolescents and the whole adolescents being vulnerable, angry, insecure, hormone boobs, and/or arrogant may be just another part of the social power norms. Well said in the book, the society is ignoring social, cultural, and material contexts; additionally, restating dominant ideas about how adolescent should be or should act according to white middle-class boys experiences. Dr. Bogad finishes saying "thus, the familiar characterizations of adolescence are, in fact, about race and class." (pg. 7).

Relying on what we already know is merely reproducing what we already know. 

I was talking to my best friend this week, and she was watching some video of charity work in Mozambique. The video was about orphan kids, who their parents happens to die when they are really young and there is no support for them. Consequently, kids are living by themselves when they are teenagers 12-14 years old ( Watch the video of Childs Life in Africa  ). Another example is the movie Lion, where the kid tried to survive at age 5 in the streets of India. The movie showed a shocking reality of many streets kids in extremely scarcity situation ( Please, watch this video about the reality of kids in Mumbai).

"Different voices carry different weights" (pg. 2)

I am not denying the existence of hormone changes or the difficulties that adolescents go through. I am just wondering if the society did not imply acceptable behaviors or expectations to certain ages shaping concepts and/or common mystique. Perhaps, if you leave the american culture environment you couldn't apply the same concept or ideas.